Python on an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect

First, there appears to be a known problem with the documented method for copying .uf2 files to a connected board from a Mac running MacOS 13 Ventura. This involves placing the board into boot mode, and simply dropping the .uf2 file into the mounted volume in the Finder. The problem (and the solution that I'll mention below) is documented in the smittytone blog. Actually, the author offers a few possible solutions, but the one I used was to run the command

stty -f /dev/cu.usbmodem1101 1200

Where /dev/cu.usbmodem1101 was the file matching the expected pattern that appeared when the board was connected. After I ran this command, a volume appeared in the Finder, and I was simply able to copy the .u2f file from the command line:

cp ~/Downloads/adafruit-circuitpython-arduino_nano_rp2040_connect-en_US-8.1.0.uf2 /Volumes/RPI-RP2

You may notice from the command above that I'm not installing MicroPython at all. Well, after many attempts to connect to the python interpreter after installing MicroPython, I found various reports of difficulties getting it to run on the RP2040. Luckily, AdaFruit maintains a project derived from MicroPython called CircuitPython, and provides a build for many boards, including mine. So after downloading and installing this build as described above, I was able to connect!

So far so good… hopefully in the next post will I'll be able to describe doing something interesting.