A PicoMite Library

This git repository is a collection of programs written in PicoMite BASIC for the PicoCalc.

The structure is like this:

• docs\ the scripts used to generate the documentation
• math\ BASIC code for doing math
• art\ BASIC code for generating cool visualizations and art
• utils\ useful utilities
• toys\ little toy programs

Transferring Files with the PicoCalc

The fastest way to transfer files, in bulk, is via the SD card -- if you have an SD card reader. Alternatively you can connect to the PicoCalc via the serial connection. First turn on the PicoCalc and connect to your computer via the USB-C port on the PicoCalc.

I use linux at home, and use minicom to connect via the terminal. The first steps are to determine which device the PicoCalc has connected as, and add the appropriate permissions for the user to connect.

Identifying the PicoCalc serial device

To find the device the PicoCalc has been mapped to

dmesg | grep -i uart

Scrolling through the output I find the following

[ 1053.104717] ch341 1-1:1.0: ch341-uart converter detected
[ 1053.105166] usb 1-1: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Tip

I use popOS at home and I found initially that the PicoCalc would connect, attach to ttyUSB0, and immediately disconnect. The solution was to uninstall brltty.

Which is the PicoCalc being detected and attached to /dev/ttyUSB0. The user requires read-write permission to connect to the device, which can be accomplished by adding the user to the same group as the device.

ls -lah /dev/ttyUSB0

crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 Dec  3 19:06 /dev/ttyUSB0

sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER

On my machine it is in the group dialout. After the user has been added to the group (and possibly after logging out and back in), the PicoCalc can be connected to without having to use sudo.

Configuring minicom

Minicom will look for a config file in $HOME when given an appropriate name and, if one isn't found, will create one, e.g. this creates a config file named 'picocalc'

minicom picocalc

From within minicom hit Ctrl-A followed by o to open the configuration menu and adjust the default settings to the PicoCalc. This will save a .minirc.picocalc file in $HOME, mine looks like this:

# Machine-generated file - use setup menu in minicom to change parameters.
pu port             /dev/ttyUSB0
pu rtscts           No 

Connecting to the PicoCalc

Once minicom is configured, a serial connection can be opened by simply calling the config file

minicom picocalc

This opens a terminal and any keystrokes are mirrored on the PicoCalc. To send a file from the computer to the PicoCalc, first enter the following into the PicoCalc

xmodem receive "your/directory/and/file"

Where the directory and filename is what it will be saved as on the PicoCalc. Then hit Ctrl-A followed by s in minicom and select the file you wish to send. Since minicom is connected as a terminal this can all be done in the same terminal window.

To send files from the PicoCalc to the computer, first enter the following into the PicoCalc

xmodem send "your/directory/and/file"

Then hit Ctrl-A followed by r in minicom and give the filename to be saved locally. Again, with minicom connected as a terminal this can all be done in the same window.

Transferring programs and text files with xmodem is relatively fast, but anything large like an image file or music, is fairly slow and is probably worth transferring back and forth via the SD card.