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  • By danhalbert

    Create All-in-One UF2's with CIRCUITPY Files on RP2040

    UF2 files are an easy way to load firmware on boards with UF2 bootloaders. Normally the UF2 just contains the firmware. However, on RP2040 boards, the picotool command can be used to produce a UF2 that includes both firmware and the CIRCUITPY filesystem.

    The picotool GitHub repo is here. More complete documentation is in Appendix B in the Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Pico document.

    Note that picotool is supplied in source format. Pre-built versions are not currently supplied by Raspberry Pi. There are some unofficial builds, but be careful. At least one easily found Windows build does not seem to work properly.

    Saving Flash in a .uf2 or .bin file

    To extract everything in flash storage on your RP2040 board into a UF2, reset the RP2040 into bootloader mode (RPI-RP2 visible) and then do this:

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  • By danhalbert

    macOS: Built-In Support for USB-Serial Chips

    macOS provides built-in support for some USB-to-serial converter IC's. Built-in support was added at various times for different chips. In the versions of macOS before support for a particular chip appeared, a manufacturer-supplied driver needs to be installed.

    I rolled some old Macs back to their original versions, and then rolled them forward, one version at a time, to test support support for three different families of USB-to-serial chips. I tested by attempting to upload firmware to ESP32 chips using esptool.py.

    Summary

    FTDI FT232x chips have working built-in support starting in Mojave, macOS 10.14. Specifically, a cable using a FT232RL was tested.

    Silicon Labs (Silabs) CP210x chips have working built-in support starting in Catalina, macOS 10.15. Specifically, support for CP2104 was tested on an Adafruit Feather HUZZAH32.

    WCH CH9102F chips have working built-in support starting in Ventura, macOS 13. Specifically, an Adafruit Feather ESP32 V2 with the CH9102F was tested.

    Tested macOS Versions

    Not every combination was tested, since I knew which versions did not have support and did not re-test old versions.

    High Sierra - macOS 10.13

    Only Python 2 is available in the original installation, so Python 3.11 was manually installed from python.org.

    NO - FTDI did not work properly, though it appeared as /dev/cu.usbserial-AL0157X9.

    NO - CP2104 does not appear at all.

    NO - CH9102F appears as /dev/cu.usbmodemNNN, but does not work properly with esptool.py.

    Mojave - macOS 10.14

    Only Python 2 is available in the original installation, so Python 3.11 was manually installed from python.org.

    YES - FTDI with esptool.py works. It appeared as /dev/cu.usbserial-AL0157X9.

    NO - CP2104 did not work, I believe (my notes are incomplete).

    NO - CH9102F

    Catalina - macOS 10.15

    Has Python 3.8.

    YES - FTDI works.

    YES - CP2104 starts working in this version, appearing as  /devcu.usbserial-NNNNNNNN.

    NO - CH9102F does not work properly. Only esptool.py chip_id works.

    Big Sur - macOS 11

    Same as Catalina.

    Monterey - macOS 12

    Python 3.9.6

    Same as Catalina.

    Ventura - macOS 13

    YES - FTDI works.

    YES- CP2104 works.

    YES - CH9102F starts working in this version. It appears as /dev/cu.usbserial-NNNNNNNN. Note the change from usbmodem to usbserial from Montery to Ventura.

    Sonoma - macOS 14

    Same as Ventura. All work.

    References

     

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Getting Started

Adafruit Playground is a wonderful and safe place to share your interests with Adafruit's vibrant community of makers and doers. Have a cool project you are working on? Have a bit of code that you think others will find useful? Want to show off your electronics workbench? You have come to the right place.

The goal of Adafruit Playground is to make it as simple as possible to share your work. On the Adafruit Playground users can create Notes. A note is a single-page space where you can document your topic using Adafruit's easy-to-use editor. Notes are like Guides on the Adafruit Learning System but guides are high-fidelity content curated and maintained by Adafuit. Notes are whatever you want them to be. Have fun and be kind.

Click here to learn more about Adafruit Playground and how to get started.