If you’re new to the world of microcontrollers or looking to dive into the latest advancements, this step-by-step guide will help you get started with Raspberry Pi Pico and embark on your coding journey. From setting up your development environment to diving into hands-on projects, this guide will equip you with the knowledge and skills to unlock the full potential of Raspberry Pi Pico.

Supplies

Raspberry Pi Pico: Choose the Pico H or W variant for pre-soldered headers.
Micro-USB Cable: For connecting the Pico to your computer.
Thonny Python IDE: A user-friendly IDE for writing MicroPython code

Step 1: Connecting the Raspberry Pi Pico

Connect the Raspberry Pi Pico to your computer using the Micro-USB cable by pressing the Boot shell button.
Your computer should recognize the Pico as an external device.
You need to go to download the latest firmware https://micropython.org/download/
Look for Pico Raspberry Pi and click to find the latest available firmware
Download the latest xxx.uf2 firmware from the Releases

Step 2: Download and Setup the Thonny IDE

To download the Thonny you need to go to it’s official website https://thonny.org/
Click on download as per your operation system
Install the Thonny IDE from your downloaded folder
Open the Thonny and click on Run -> Configure Interpreter
You need to choose MicroPython (Raspberry Pi Pico) from the list and also choose the PORT for Raspberry Pi Pico

Step 3: Writing Your First LED Blinking Program in Pi Pico

import machine
import time

led =  machine.Pin('LED', machine.Pin.OUT)

while True:
    led.on()
    time.sleep(0.5)
    led.off()
    time.sleep(0.5)

Step 4: Running Your Program

Click on Save button form Menu bar
Popup will come up and will ask where you want to save the code
Save your MicroPython script on the Pico by giving name as “blink.py“.
Run the script and observe the onboard LED blink, it should started blinking in every half second.

Check out this detailed guide: How To Get Started with Raspberry Pi Pico in 2024

Step 5: Support

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