Inverter Control

C++ code to generate a three-phase sinusoidal pulse density modulation (SPDM) signal on a Raspberry Pi Pico using the Pico SDK.

Setup

To be able to build the Pico executables on your own machines, please follow the below instructions.

Necessary Software

For all operating systems, please have VSCode installed. While it is very much possible to use a different editor (e.g. Neovim), VSCode provides a much easier configuration that expedites the setup process.

Windows

For Windows machines, a convenient installation tool is provided that installs all the necessary software for you. See this article to download the installer.

macOS

For macOS, CMake and the ARM compiler for the Raspberry Pi Pico can be installed from Homebrew formulae.

$ brew install cmake
$ brew install gcc-arm-embedded

Linux

The process of installation varies depending on the Linux distribution being used. For example, there exists a Pico SDK package on the Arch Linux User Repository.

For Ubuntu/Debian-based Linux, however, no such installer exists. Please run the following commands to install the necessary libraries.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install cmake gcc-arm-none-eabi libnewlib-arm-none-eabi build-essential libstdc++-arm-none-eabi-newlib

If you do not have a C/C++ compiler installed already, also run:

$ sudo apt install build-essential

and to verify that the compilers have been installed, execute:

$ gcc --version
$ g++ --version

Version numbers should appear as output from both commands.

VSCode Configuration

After setting up the Pico SDK, please open VSCode and install the following extensions. Note that while these are not explicitly required, they greatly enhance developer experience:

• C/C++ Extension Pack (C++ Intellisense)
• CMake (CMake Intellisense)
• CMake Tools (for easier interactions involving building with CMake)
• Makefile Tools (Makefile Intellisense)

To configure CMake, press Ctrl/cmd + Shift + p and enter CMake: Select a Kit. This should prompt you to choose which compilers you want to use for this project. Select the one that contains arm-none-eabi, since these are needed to be able to compile the Pico executables properly.

Now load VSCode in this folder and open src/main.cpp. If you see errors related to an #include header not being found, hover over it, click "Quick Fix" and then "Edit include path settings". You can also access these settings by pressing Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + p and then entering C/C++: Edit Configurations (UI). Scroll down to the "Include Path" setting and append ${env:PICO_SDK_PATH}/** to it. C/C++ Intellisense should automatically update with these new settings and the errors should disappear.

Building

Now that everything has been installed, it's time to build the program! Specifically, we will generate the UF2 executable that the Pico needs and manually copy this file over to the Pico.

If you have the CMake extension installed, you can use the Build button in the status bar. The executable files for the Pico, including the UF2, will be compiled to the build directory.

If you'd like to run the commands themselves, you can run the following:

$ cmake -B build .
$ cd build
$ make

If errors occur, try restarting your terminal and then running the commands again.

Running the Code

Now that the UF2 file has been generated, connect the Pico to your computer while holding down the white BOOTSEL button. If the Pico is already connected, disconnect it and reconnect it while holding down the BOOTSEL button.

Copy over the UF2 and the Pico should start running your code!