Raspberry Pi pico setup with Mac and Windows

 

Step 1. Hardware Requirements

For this article I used the following hardware:

2020 Apple MacBook  (https://amzn.to/3vvr7Gy)

Amazon Basics USB (https://amzn.to/2PyR20D)

Waveshare Raspberry Pi Pico A Low-Cost High-Performance Microcontroller Board with Flexible Digital Interfaces Incorporates RP2040 Microcontroller Chip Designed by Raspberry Pi (Original)

Because this is a simple Hello World program, there is no need to solder any headers on to the board.

Step 2. Connect the Raspberry Pi Pico to your Mac

During this step, make sure not to put the Pico down on a metal or wet surface to avoid shorting it!

Plug the Micro-B side of the cable into the Raspberry Pi Pico

Plug the other end into your Mac

A drive called RPI-RP2 should appear on your desktop

If this doesn’t happen, try unplugging and plugging it in again while holding down the BOOTSEL button on the Pico

Step 3. Download MicroPython for the Raspberry Pi Pico

Double click on RPI-RP2 and it should open a Finder window

You should see two files:

INDEX.HTM

INFO_UF2.TXT

Double-click INDEX.HTM

This should redirect you to this page:

Getting Started with RP2040

Look for a tab on the page labeled Getting started MicroPython

Click on the tab and it should change a section of the browser page to the Getting Started with MicroPython section

Read the instructions which should tell you to click on the Download UF2 file button

After you click on the button and the file is downloaded, you should see the file listed at the bottom of your browser

Step 4. Install MicroPython on the Raspberry Pi Pico

Click on the arrow next to the file on the bottom of your browser and select Show in Finder

Drag the *.uf2 file from the Downloads Finder window to the RPI-RP2 Finder window

After the file is copied the Pico will reboot, losing it’s connection

This will cause the Mac to popup a Disk Not Ejected Properly message - don’t worry about that

You will notice that the Pico no longer shows on the desktop

 

Step 5. Reconnect the Raspberry Pi Pico to your Mac

Note that for this step the Pico will NOT appear on the Desktop.

Unplug the cable from your Mac

Plug it back in again

Once plugged in wait a few seconds

For this step do NOT hold the button down or the Pico will connect in the wrong mode

The Pico should NOT appear on your Desktop

Step 6. Confirm that the Pico is properly connected to your Mac

Open up a Terminal window

Run this command:

ls -ls /dev/cu.*

You should see an entry similar to this:

/dev/cu.usbmodem0000000000001

Assuming that you have nothing else connected, that should be the Raspberry Pi Pico

Step 7. Download and Install Thonny

Browse to https://thonny.org

Click on the download link for Mac to download the file

At the bottom of the browser, click on the arrow for the thonny*.pkg file

Select Open

Go through the wizard to install Thonny

Step 8. Add Thonny to your Desktop

Open up a new Finder window

Under Favorites in the left sidebar, click on Applications

Scroll down and find Thonny

Right-click on Thonny and select Make Alias

A new Thonny alias should appear next to Thonny

Drag Thonny alias on to your Desktop

You can now close the Finder window

Step 9. Launch Thonny

Double-click Thonny on your Desktop

If prompted with a Let’s Go! button select your preferred language and click the button

Step 10. Connect Thonny to the Raspberry Pi Pico

On the bottom right corner of the Thonny IDE, click on the Python label

The Python label should also contain a version number

If prompted for permission, allow it and you may need to click the label again

Select MicroPython (Raspberry Pi Pico)

If prompted to install a new version of MicroPython on the Pico just click Cancel

We should have already installed the latest version when the uf2 file was dragged on to the Pico

The Shell window at the bottom of Thonny should now look someting like this (your version and date may vary):

MicroPython v1.14 on 2021-02-05; Raspberry Pi Pico with RP2040

Type "help()" for more information.

>>> 

Step 11. Write a quick Hello World test

After the >>> prompt in the Shell window, enter the following and hit the return / Enter key on your Mac:

print("Hello Pico!")

You should see a response like this:

Hello Pico!

Congratulations! You just wrote and ran your first program on the Raspberry Pi Pico!

Run it again

Use the up arrow on your keyboard to call up the last line and hit return to run it again

Step 12. Run a script

Click on the script window at the top of Thonny

It should be labeled <untitled>

Enter the following into the window:

print("Hello AGAIN Pico!")

To run the program click the Run current script button (it looks like a Play button)

As an alternative you could have used the Run / Run current script menu option

When prompted for Where to save to? select Raspberry Pi Pico

You should now see the Save to Raspberry Pi Pico dialog box

Enter a filename: hello.py and click OK

You should now see in the Shell window:

>>> %Run -c $EDITOR_CONTENT

Hello AGAIN Pico!

Congratulations! You managed to upload and run a Python file on the Raspberry Pi Pico!