Galactic Unicorn C(++) Examples

This is a collection of (hopefully informative!) examples for programming the sublime Galactic Unicorn. This project is based on Pimoroni's helpful boilerplate, so I've left the basic build instructions below.

Each example is a standalone single source file; CMake will produce a collection of uf2 files on building, so you can install whichever one you like to your Unicorn.

rain

A port of my MicroPython version of the ancient rain text terminal demo; raindrops on falling on your Unicorn.

Building

Please note that I don't use Visual Studio myself, so I can't promise I haven't broken something in those builds. Stick to the command line for an easy life :-)

Other than that, it's a normal CMake-style build:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DWIFI_SSID="mynetwork" -DWIFI_PASSWORD="mypasswd" ..
make

This should generate a collection of uf2 files, one for each example.

Troubleshooting

Before you start

It's easier if you make a pico directory or similar in which you keep the SDK, Pimoroni Libraries and your projects alongside each other. This makes it easier to include libraries.

Preparing your build environment

Install build requirements:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install cmake gcc-arm-none-eabi build-essential

And the Pico SDK:

git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-sdk
cd pico-sdk
git submodule update --init
export PICO_SDK_PATH=`pwd`
cd ../

The PICO_SDK_PATH set above will only last the duration of your session.

You should should ensure your PICO_SDK_PATH environment variable is set by ~/.profile:

export PICO_SDK_PATH="/path/to/pico-sdk"

Grab the Pimoroni libraries

git clone https://github.com/pimoroni/pimoroni-pico

Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/ahnlak/unicorn-cpp-examples
cd unicorn-cpp-examples

If you have not or don't want to set PICO_SDK_PATH and you are using Visual Studio Code, you can edit .vscode/settings.json to pass the path directly to CMake.

Prepare Visual Studio Code

Open VS Code and hit Ctrl+Shift+P.

Type Install and select Extensions: Install Extensions.

Make sure you install:

1. C/C++
2. CMake
3. CMake Tools
4. Cortex-Debug (optional: for debugging via a Picoprobe or Pi GPIO)
5. Markdown All in One (recommended: for preparing your own README.md)