Building and Flashing the Project on a Raspberry Pi Pico

This guide will walk you through the steps to build and flash the project onto a Raspberry Pi Pico using Rust and Cargo.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed on your system:

1. Rust and Cargo: Rust is a systems programming language, and Cargo is its package manager and build system. You can install Rust and Cargo by following the instructions at rust-lang.org.

2. Additional Tools: You will need some additional tools to build and flash the project:

   • elf2uf2-rs: A tool to convert ELF files to UF2 format for flashing onto the Raspberry Pi Pico.
   • Optionally probe-rs: A tool for on-chip debugging, flashing, and more, specifically designed for embedded systems.

Setting Up the Environment

1. Install Rust and Cargo:

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
   source $HOME/.cargo/env

2. Install Additional Tools:

   cargo install elf2uf2-rs
   cargo install probe-rs

Building the Project

To build the project for the Raspberry Pi Pico, use the following command:

cargo run --release

After building the project, the resulting binary will be output in the target/thumbv6m-none-eabi/release directory. The binary will be in the UF2 format, which is suitable for flashing onto the Raspberry Pi Pico.

Flashing the UF2 Binary

To flash the UF2 binary onto the Raspberry Pi Pico, follow these steps:

1. Prepare the Raspberry Pi Pico:

   • Hold down the BOOTSEL button on the Raspberry Pi Pico.
   • While holding the button, connect the Pico to your computer using a USB cable. This will bring the Pico into mass storage mode, and it should appear as a removable drive on your computer.

2. Copy the UF2 File:

   • Navigate to the target/thumbv6m-none-eabi/release directory.
   • Drag and drop the generated .uf2 file onto the Raspberry Pi Pico's removable drive.

3. Complete the Flashing Process:

   • Once the file is copied, the Raspberry Pi Pico will automatically reboot and start running the new firmware.