A project to display useful information on Pico display boards.

The project is based on using a Raspberry Pi Pico-W microncontroller with a supported RGB LED matrix display. The two variants of this that we have used are:

1. Galactic Unicorn

   Comes with Pico-W microncontroller already onboard.

or

2. Pico Unicorn.

   This doesn't have a Pico-W onboard, so you need to buy it seperately:

   • Pico-W microcontroller.
     • Can be purcased with or without headers. Get the pre-headed version if you don't want to solder them on yourself!
   • The The Pico Unicorn Pack Display Module.

• This guide covers the basics of using a Pico microcontroller.
• This repo contains some demo programs for the Unicorn Pack.

• Install the non-screen specific version of the pico-w micropython firmware (eg. pimoroni-picow-v1.20.2-micropython.uf2).

• Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/DaveTrainor/galactic-unicorn-project.git
cd galactic-unicorn-project

• Create a virtual Python environment in the project's root directory.
  This guide explains how & why.

• Install project dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

• Make changes to or create the settings.py (depending on your usage) in the root directory:

screen = {
    'driver': 'pico_unicorn',
    # 'driver': 'galactic_unicorn'
}

network = {
    'driver': 'pico_w',
    'ssid': '<wifi network name>',
    'password': '<wifi network password>',
}

locale = {
    'coordinates': (0.00, 0.00), #replace with lattitude / longitude values (Google maps)
    'timezone': 'Europe/London', #replace with correct zone from https://worldtimeapi.org/api/timezone/
}

• Connect to the Pico:

  Get your device address (eg. /dev/cu.usbmodem2101):

  mpremote devs

  Enter the device address in .pico-up.ini:

  [device]
  address = '/dev/cu.usbmodem2101'

• Deploy to the Pico 👇

• Deploy to the Pico:

  pico-up push

• After deployment the display should show the following patterns:

  Pattern	Meaning
  Green Column	The screen is connected.
  Green Column + Flashing Blue Column	Connecting to WiFi.
  4 Green Flashes	WiFi connected. This pattern shows very briefly, then the display shows one of the installed programs.

• These patterns indicate an error:

  Pattern	Meaning
  Red Column	Device failed to set up properly.
  Red LEDs in each corner	There's an error in the code.

• After successful deployment & WiFi connection the Pico will run one of the installed programs.
• Cycle through the installed programs by holding the Y button (bottom-right) for 2 seconds.

• run mpremote devs to get your device address. E.g. /dev/cu.usbmodem2101
• mpremote connect [put address here] then ctrl D to see outputs in the terminal
• ctrl ] to exit

• pico-up
• Setting up a project-specific virtual Python environment.