Pico Computer 3 v0.5 (test)

Pico Computer 3 v0.5 (test)

A MicroPython (RP2350B) firmware for the Pico Computer 3 standalone board.

Install

Hold BOOTSEL while powering up, then copy firmware.uf2 to the RPI-RP2
drive that appears. The board reboots into MicroPython; the REPL banner reads
MicroPython v1.29.0-preview on PICO COMPUTER 3 v0.5 with RP2350B.

What's new since v0.4

On-screen colour editing

• The HDMI console now understands ANSI colour (SGR escapes) — 16-colour
  foreground/background, bold and reverse work on the screen as on a serial
  terminal.
• The pye editor syntax-colours .py files using MMBasic's scheme —
  keywords cyan, strings magenta, comments yellow, numbers green — plus a
  coloured status bar and selection. pye.Editor.syntax = False turns it off.

Wi-Fi + NTP time

• wifi("SSID", "password") connects and remembers the credentials;
  ntpsync() sets the clock from an internet time server and updates the
  battery-backed DS3231 (so the time stays right offline). tz(hours) sets
  the timezone offset; auto(True) syncs at every boot.
• Credentials are stored in plaintext in /settings.json (this board has no
  secure storage) — see the manual's note and the per-session alternative.

Richer 2D drawing primitives

On the Display from hdmi.fb(), beyond framebuf's line/rect/ellipse/poly:

• d.line(x1,y1,x2,y2,colour,w) — thick lines.
• d.rbox(x,y,w,h,r,colour,fill=None) — rounded rectangles.
• d.arc(x,y,r1,r2,a1,a2,colour) — filled arcs / ring segments.
• d.bezier(points,colour) — Bézier curves.
• d.flood(x,y,colour,border=None) — flood fill (paint-bucket or
  fill-to-boundary), in C, in every video mode.

Sprite sheets — load_image() / Image

• load_image(path) decodes a .png/.jpg/.bmp into memory in the
  current pixel format, returning an Image you can blit whole or in pieces —
  the standard way to hold a sprite sheet and blit individual sprites out
  of it. Image.blit() / Image.cell() blit straight from RAM; transparent=
  makes a PNG's alpha a skip colour.
• Image.sprites(cw, ch) cuts a sheet into sprite-engine Sprites that
  share the one buffer (no per-sprite copy); sprite.frame(n) animates
  a sheet-backed sprite through its frames.
• tests/demo_asteroids.py shows a 64-frame asteroid sheet animated and
  double-buffered in Python (hdmi.create() + hdmi.vsync()/hdmi.copy()) for
  tear-free motion.

See USER_MANUAL.md (in the board directory) for full documentation.