[Project Suggestion] Create custom firmware image that enables drag and drop setup

[redoxcode]

Project Suggestion

I suggest to add a custom firmware image (.uf2) file to the repo that allows users to setup a fresh pi pico just by connecting it to usb while the bootsel is pressed and drag-drop the custom firmware image on the device. I think this would improve the experience for non tech-savvy people and increase the audience for the EuroPi project. Also it would speed up the programming step for build-workshops or small scale production.

I created such a firmware as proof of concept and I will document the steps needed here soon. The question is, if that could be automated or if it needs to be done manually for every new major release.

[redoxcode]

So what would be the best way to continue here? Should I open a PR that adds documentation on how to create custom firmware.uf2 files? This way everyone interested could create customized firmwares and from there we could continue the discussion if there should be a prebuild file for download and if that process could be automated.

[redoxcode]

I published the guide here: https://github.com/redoxcode/EuroPi/blob/instructions-on-firmware-creation/software/create_custom_firmware_uf2.md

[awonak]

This is awesome! Thanks for adding the details here and the link to your repo documentation. I was able to successfully follow the steps and compile my own uf2 firmware file. I've added some notes from my experiments to help automate this in a github workflow.

Workflow tips:

copy europi files

cp -r ~/Projects/EuroPi/software/firmware/*.py ./
mkdir experimental
cp -r ~/Projects/EuroPi/software/firmware/experimental ./
mkdir contrib
cp  ~/Projects/EuroPi/software/contrib/*.py ./contrib

fix memory size

sed -i 's/progsize=256)/progsize=1024)/g' _boot.py

create main.py

cat <<EOF >> main.py
import gc
gc.collect()
from contrib.menu import *
BootloaderMenu(EUROPI_SCRIPT_CLASSES).main()
EOF

get the ssd1306 lib

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stlehmann/micropython-ssd1306/master/ssd1306.py

After all the module files have been copied and altered, call make from the rp2 directory

copy firmware.uf2 to versioned filename

grep -oP '(?<=")[\d\.]+(?=")' modules/version.py | xargs -I {} cp build-PICO/firmware.uf2 ./europi-v{}.uf2

Now you're all set! Copy the europi uf2 firmware to a freshly nuked pico and it should boot up.

[redoxcode]

Perfect! Feel free to contribute to my guide. I guess I will make a PR if everyone is happy?

[awonak]

And now I've got a working GitHub action generating releases with europi-vX.Y.X.uf2 attached when a new tag gets pushed :sunglasses:

198

[redoxcode]

Good job! I made the PR for the documentation: https://github.com/Allen-Synthesis/EuroPi/pull/199