Thank you for your support.
Kind regards,
Kees

Both correct. The second way should use a lower amount of the Raspberry PI Pico’s memory

Hi,
MicroPython (as well as Python) is built with a modular structure. With the basic MicroPython you can od just a few, basic operations allowing you to calculate some math operations, code loops, and basic functions like printing a text message in your console. The reason of this choice is to keep the microcontroller’s memory usage as low as possible. If you need more complex operations you must load in memory the related library: that’s the “import” operation.
Some libraries are already available with the firmware: they are saved in your microcontroller storage but they are not loaded in memory. The best reference for this is the official MicroPython documentation available at https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/library/index.html.
Some libraries are not available with the firmware, otherwise the firmware file would be too big for microcontroller storages. So, sometimes you have to save specific files including the classes and functions that you need to run. You can save them in your microcontroller storage as “.py” files and then you can import them in your code. It is important to note that library files must be stored in specific folders in your microcontroller sotrage, as described in my adding external modules to micropython with Raspberry PI Pico tutorial.

I hope this can help you to better understand how MicroPython libraries work with Raspberry PI Pico and, generally, with microcontrollers.

Thank you for publishing this tutorial.
After reading your tutorial I see often when a program begins there must be some import action. Sometimes it sounds like “import os” or
“from machine import Pin, Timer”.
Where is that imported from?
When is it from… import and when is it import alone? How do you discover that?

You write “import os” This will import the “os” module.

And what can I import with import?
Where will the “os” module be dropped? Where is the module coming from and where is it going to?
How do you know that you need os? Where are these modules documented?
Then you write os.uname (). Is this instruction anywhere documented?
In general when I find and where a list of instructions or commands (I suppose there are a lot) with their explanation and a short example then I can make a program succesfully (I hope).
But as long as I do not have any information then it is difficult to start with it.
As an example: in a random tutorial on internet I saw the instruction “display.update()” to make the result visible on the graphical display of my Pimoroni Explorer Base board
and in another tutorial I had to use “lcd.show()”. Why in one case this and in the other case different? For the same result?

Beside your interesting examples, where can I find good documented (online) papers or manuals which enables me to verify how and for what purpose an instruction is used for.
And how to learn this programming stuff for Pi.Pico (or Micropython) on the right way?

Thank you for your help.

Hi Shane,
the Raspberry PI Pico differs from the Raspberry PI Pico W in the management of the built-in LED, as you stated. With the W model you can test it with my Getting Started with WiFi on Raspberry PI Pico W and MicroPython tutorial.
Anyway, you are right and I should update this post in the next days in order to advice people.

many thanks,
peppe8o

Just trying out your tutorials and could not get the LED to blink. Problem is I’m using a PICO W and I assumed the PICO’s are all the same. Anyways I learned that there is no Pin for the LED connected to the RP2040 (according to the RPi website). Instead it is connected to a GPIO Pin on the wireless chip. Once I modified the code as they suggested it started flickering for me perfectly. Hopefully this helps anyone else who might find your tutorials. Still learning, and thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge.

from machine import Pin, Timer
led = machine.Pin(“LED”, machine.Pin.OUT)
timer = Timer()

def blink(timer):
led.toggle()

timer.init(freq=25, mode=Timer.PERIODIC, callback=blink)

Hi Vlad, please can you send me some pictures from your Thonny IDE by email? -> giuseppe@peppe8o.com.
Thanks

You are welcome!