Re: zbitx update, shipping, pico, et al
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THEN:
The Raspberry Zero 2, that powers the zbitx (zero bitx because of? the RPI zero in it), can't handle this display as the GPIO pins on it are all used up. Hence, the zbitx sports a new microcontroller, the Raspberry Pico W (with Wifi and Bluetooth on it!) that handles the front panel. This offloads the user interface to this microcontroller that handles the 3.5 inch TFT display. The two talk to each other over the I2C bus (Pi is the master, Pico is the slave).
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I understand you had to modify the main board, which has now two microcontroller: the original Zero 2 to which is added a Pico W?
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NOW:
Future updates to the front panel (like moving the comms between the zbitx and the front-panel to bluetooth or even wifi to make it a remote head) will need a way to update the firmware to the Pico. It is usually done with an Arduino IDE running on a computer with micro USB cable from the PC to the Pico. That is the easy part. The hard part was that getting the Arduino going on a PC, installing the Pico package and then the TFT display libraries is like pulling teeth. There has to be a better way. We realized this last week when I shipped out the Pico firmware to our folks at HF Signals. If they(HF Signals) couldn't get the Arduino IDE setup on their PC within minutes, I?was very skeptical and most users of zbitx would.
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Did you manage to find an easy and better way for plain OMs to setup the Arduino IDE?
73 - Pierre - FK8IH
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