picoprobe-pcb

If like me you love the Raspberry Pi Pico/RP2040, but your are not satisfied with the available hardware debugging solution, this kit is for you ^^

This PCB is designed to turn a Pico into a nice debug probe using the PicoProbe software.

Available at: image

Usage

Mounting options

There are two ways to mount a Raspberry Pi Pico on the Picoprobe-PCB. You can either solder it directly for a slim/compact result (right), or use header to be able to re-use the Pico on other projects (left).

Install the Picoprobe software

  1. Either get the picoprobe .uf2 binary from our release here or compile it yourself from sources here.

  2. Hold the BOOTSEL button on the Pico, then connect to your computer using a micro USB cable.

  3. Drag and drop the UF2 file on to the RPI-RP2 drive.

  4. You should be good to go.

Plug the picoprobe SWD pin to the Pico that you want to debug

Build Raspberry Pi's openocd

$ sudo apt install automake autoconf build-essential texinfo libtool libftdi-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev
$ git clone https://github.com/raspberrypi/openocd.git --branch picoprobe --depth=1 --no-single-branch
$ cd openocd
$ ./bootstrap
$ ./configure --enable-picoprobe
$ make -j4

Run openocd

$ ./src/openocd  -s tcl -f interface/picoprobe.cfg -f target/rp2040.cfg
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0+dev-g18b4c35-dirty (2021-10-16-16:51)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
        http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
Info : only one transport option; autoselect 'swd'
Warn : Transport "swd" was already selected
adapter speed: 5000 kHz

Info : Hardware thread awareness created
Info : Hardware thread awareness created
Info : RP2040 Flash Bank Command
Info : Listening on port 6666 for tcl connections
Info : Listening on port 4444 for telnet connections
Info : clock speed 5000 kHz
Info : SWD DPIDR 0x0bc12477
Info : SWD DLPIDR 0x00000001
Info : SWD DPIDR 0x0bc12477
Info : SWD DLPIDR 0x10000001
Info : rp2040.core0: hardware has 4 breakpoints, 2 watchpoints
Info : rp2040.core1: hardware has 4 breakpoints, 2 watchpoints
Info : starting gdb server for rp2040.core0 on 3333
Info : Listening on port 3333 for gdb connections
Info : accepting 'gdb' connection on tcp/3333
Warn : target was in unknown state when halt was requested
target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread 
xPSR: 0x21000000 pc: 0x10008f64 msp: 0x20041fc0
Info : RP2040 B0 Flash Probe: 2097152 bytes @10000000, in 512 sectors
[...]

Debug!

Now that openocd is connected, you can start debugging with GDB for instance.

$ arm-eabi-none-gdb
(gdb) target extended-remote :3333