Arduino IDE 2.1.1 will not send the compiled file to the pico

@danc Nothing has changed that I know of that would affect the PICO. I am impressed you ever got it to work, I have had such mixed results with it my 10 PICO's sit there waiting to be used but I am stymied. IIRC, there is a procedure that has to be done one time to enable uploading but I don't recall what it is if it's in fact true.

Sorry, wish I could be more helpful, maybe try asking in the Arduino forum? Or check the Issues for the PICO.

Hi @danc,

   I don't know if 2.1.1 is different, but I had the problem with 2.0.x ... Pico has two 'modes' .. most of the time it picks the right one, sometimes the wrong one.

Sorry, I don't have a good answer as how to reliably pick the right one But with a little patience I managed to make it work with a reasonable hit rate. So the following are just things to try, not proper answers.

Others may be able to offer more light. The manual discusses holding the reset button during power up for a download... I found that it had the reverse effect to that desired ... but please read it and see what you find ... I might have misunderstood the instructions.

I think I also found that it would load correctly under Windows, having failed under Linux.

However, once I got it to load once, it would then continue to load fine many times again, including under Linux.

So having got it to load with 2.10, will it then load with 2.1.1?

I also had the feeling it was most likely to fail if it was executing a program when asked to accept a new code download ... so if you are going through the edit-compile-download-execute cycle, you may find it easier if your program can be exited in some way before going round the loop again. In particular, try to avoid it trying to send text to the serial monitor whilst waiting to download code.

Overall, it seemed like quite a cute board, just a little quirky.

Good luck. If you get a result, please share it!

Best wishes, Dave

@zander Hi and thanks for replying to my post.

I reloaded 2.1.0 and tried my file again, no joy.

In my humble opinion there seems to be something with wrong with the compiler, it isn't placing the file in the pico file that it just compiled.

When I first tried using the Arduino IDE a bunch of weeks ago the compiler would load the pico and you could see the file in the pico file folder on the pico. Now I only see a html file (which is supposed to be there) and a text file.

I am just throwing all of this out there hoping it might help someone to solve this problem, I would hate to think I might have to learn how to program in micro-python!

Thanks again, Dan

@danc @davee If you are only wanting to use the arduino IDE, here are the instructions.

@danc Nope, nothing wrong. You need to follow the instructions I just posted at 

https://forum.dronebotworkshop.com/raspberry-pi/arduino-ide-2-1-1-will-not-send-the-compiled-file-to-the-pico/#post-41234

@davee 

Hi Dave,

Thanks for replying to my post.

I am surprised that I had so much luck, after reading some of the other replies to this post, because I am the least luckiest programmer that I know. Any way when I did have success programming the pico I removed the power, held the boot button the pico down and pushed the usb plug back into my computer, windows indicate that the connection was made, I opened the file folder and I could see the pico, I selected the port in the ide and compiled, it worked every time. I programmed 3 different Pico's atleast 10 times without a problem. Now know joy at all using the same procedure.  I thought it might have had some thing to do with the update of the IDE, but no, I am now having the same problem with 2.1.0.

Thanks again for your reply, Dan   

@zander 

PS

You have to go the power down press and hold the button on the pico then power up every time you want to download a file to the pico. I had read that it was a one time thing but it is not.

@danc Oh, have you written to the engineers that created the board and the documentation to tell them they are wrong?

@zander 

They are likely to be right when using micro-python.

I am only using the Arduino IDE, I don't think they would have any comment on how the Arduino IDE should work.

@danc Those instructions are for the arduino IDE. I will look and see if your issue has been reported to the arduinoIDE team. Also have a look at the following

Note to users of the v2 Arduino IDE: You may have to click on the board combo box at the top and choose “Select other Board and Port” > “Show all ports” to select the board manually and upload the first time.

@danc Are you aware of the following?

@danc You seem keen and able to help yourself, so here are the two links to all the info you likely need.

First is the github link GITHUB for PICO  and the PICO docs at PICO Docs

For those of you who are following this on going saga, I have done some more investigating, the IDE is not at fault (sorry Arduino), the compiler does create the file new.uf2 and drops it in the pico file folder, but the file disappears after a few seconds, I was able to copy it once before it vanished and the file contained compiled code. I tried putting the file back in the pico using ctr+V to paste it. Still no joy. I guess it is time to contact Raspberry and get their input.

Thanks for all of your help, Dan 

@danc It is a known issue if the USB 'hangs' or even is busy writing to Serial. See the pic for details and the fix. Also, if you always manually close the serial tab I think this issue is eliminated but I have not tested it recently and can't right now as all my stuff is currently in transit. This may be what you are encountering. I have been adding a Serial.end();  if the code allows that.