PicoCalc Support in zeptoforth - tabemann/zeptoforth GitHub Wiki

PicoCalc support in zeptoforth is currently beta. It is captured in the picocalc-devel branch.

It supports the display, keyboard, and sound (albeit with identical left and right channels) of the PicoCalc by default. Support for FAT32 filesystems in the on-board Quad SPI flash (in block storage, that is), on the inserted SDHC card, and, for Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 and Pico Plus 2 W boards, in a RAM disk in PSRAM can be added as well. Additionally, on a Pico 1 W, Pico 2 W, and Pico Plus 2 W, zeptoIP (whether in its zeptoIPv4 or zeptoIPv6 flavors) can be loaded (or just the CYW43439 driver if all the user wants is to control the LED on these boards).

It comes in two primary flavors, graphical and text-only. The graphical PicoCalc terminal emulator uses a framebuffer that takes up a considerable portion of one's board's RAM, especially on the original RP2040-based Pico 1. Conversely, the text-only PicoCalc terminal emulator uses significantly less RAM, since it only maintains space for characters and their attributes. It one wants to save RAM, particularly if one using the Pico 1 or Pico 1 W, one should use the text-only terminal emulator. It is not feasible to use zeptoIP or even just the CYW43439 driver (as it still allots space for buffers) on the Pico 1 W at the same time as the graphical terminal emulator. Also, one has to reduce the amount of RAM used by zeptoed on the Pico 1 or Pico 1 W if one is using the graphical terminal.

For directions on installation and use, consult USING_THE_PICOCALC.md in that branch.

Note that PicoCalc support is still subject to breaking changes at the present. Also, aspects of the PicoCalc support are yet to be implemented, specifically battery and backlight-related features.