Can you run makecode arcade on a raspberry pi pico (rp2040)

[nova1]

the device will probably run makecode arcade very well, but is it officially supported?

[Vegz78]

Not officially, as far as I know, unfortunately.

Support Makecode Arcade on Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040)

Stumbled upon this video not long ago, which shows MakeCode Arcade running on a Pico: [MakeCode Arcade and Pi PICO] If this is real and doable, what a fun challenge for the @makecode team and this community! What an enormous opportunity and NO chip shortage to go with the RP2040, either, I’ve heard!

When will the official support arrive, @MakeCode and @raspberrypifoundation?
(BFFs )

[nova1]

yea i hope so too

[Vegz78]

Then, again, @nova1, I stumbled upon a new hardware, RP2040 when downloading files from MakeCode Arcade today:

Since this was the regular production version and not beta, it is definitely official. But how it is supported and works is unknown to me and I can not find any documentation.

Maybe it is connected to this post somehow, where they discuss with the @MakeCode team some new hardware based on the RP2040 for MakeCode Arcade?:

New Board with RP2040 - Adding pins, multi-processor, and other questions

HI All, I’m hoping to get through to some folks who know a lot more than me. I am working on a project for a big client (not to mention the name). We have a new board with an RP2040 chip (Cortex-M0+) and so far, with some help from the core team, I’ve gotten it kind of working. But to do some operations using GPIO I had to jump through hoops: Use the Edge Connector extension for Micro:bit to expose “pins” blocks in Arcade (even though this board is clearly NOT a micro:bit) Add some manual t…

[jwunderl]

As you saw there is support for raspberry pi zero, but it is limited to the specific version that is now hard to find https://arcade.makecode.com/hardware/raspberry-pi/setup (if I recall correctly it is just on the original Raspberry Pi Zero model, so not the Zero 2 or Zero W). I don’t have experience running on the newer versions though, unfortunately . Anything that can run a version of linux might try https://arcade.makecode.com/kiosk to see if that’s runnable, though it might be… tough on these smaller devices.

[nova1]

thanks, sadly while the raspberry pi pico can run unix it cannot run linux, also i think a web browser would be too demanding for it

[xjordanx]

I did get this working. I had a lot of help from Michal (MakeCode team). I will make a video showing how I did it and publish later this week.

Meanwhile yes it’s in the online build. I had to use the pin configuration tool and UF2 generator to get my PICO pinout (and later, RP2040 custom board pinout) working. There are still a few things that I have not gotten to work and it might be that those items aren’t sully supported yet in the underlying CODAL operating system for RP2040.

I really hope that CODAL and MakeCode can be updated to support the multiple cores in the RP2040. That would be a “game changer” (pun intended).

For now, here’s proof:

MakeCode Arcade and Pi PICO

Proof in 6 seconds an updated configuration is working on the new AU2022 badge board

The second was a custom board designed for Autodesk’s “University” user conference in 2022. I did the application for the badge using MakeCode Arcade. That’s the inspiration that lead me down this rabbit hole! But it was as frustrating as heck working with a chip that wasn’t officially supported when I began, and yet with their help I got it working and found the project inspiring in the end (after 50+ hours of trying many things and reading through all the docs and source code to finally piece together how it’s supposed to work).

[Vegz78]

A really great project and work, @xjordanx!!! (-and support, @mmoskal!!!)

Thanks for sharing! -And helping bridging the gap between two awesome maker communities around MakeCode and the Raspberry!

I have been waiting some time now for your follow-up video announced on YouTube, and now I am really looking forward to it! -Christmas is really early this year, maybe already next week, it seems…

Multiple cores or not, this is indeed really a MakeCode Arcade “game changer”!

PS @nova1: So far you have to enable Experimental hardware in the MakeCode Settings - About - Experiments menu to see the RP2040/Pico on the hardware download pages. I forgot to mention that earlier.