0.5.0 Released - with Pi Pico W support

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

We're pleased to announce the 0.5.0 release of "pigg"!!

0.5.0 brings many additions and improvements, the biggest one being initial support for Pi Pico W microcontrollers!
There is a UF2 firmware file as an asset in the release, which you can download and use to program your Pi Pico W!
Instructions on how to do that are included in the docs.

Consult the 0.5.0 release notes for more details and let us know questions or problems via GH Discussions and Issues

We are very interested in hearing from:

• Windows users who can help us test and verify "piggui" in particular
• Pi Pico W users
• Users in general, to guide future work

[DeeJay]

Initial feedback on v0.5.0 using an RPi5/RasPiOS as the workstation.

Summary - piggui on the workstation looks OK. Unable to use porky on an RPi Pico W.

piggui v0.5.0 installed on an RPi5 running 64-bit RasPiOS Bookworm. Installation of pigg via the 'one-line-installer.'

pre-built porky uf2 from releases/assets installed on an RPi Pico W.

'Hardware' menu in piggui reports "Discovered devices (none)"

So unable to access the PicoW to configure wlan interface.

david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ ls -al porky_pico_w.uf2 
-rw-r--r-- 1 david david 834048 Nov 19 23:30 porky_pico_w.uf2
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ file porky_pico_w.uf2 
porky_pico_w.uf2: UF2 firmware image, family Raspberry Pi RP2040, address 0x10000000, 1629 total blocks
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ picotool info porky_pico_w.uf2 
File porky_pico_w.uf2:

Program Information
 none
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ dmesg | tail -7
[343356.107344] usb 3-2: new full-speed USB device number 7 using xhci-hcd
[343356.265876] usb 3-2: not running at top speed; connect to a high speed hub
[343356.283878] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=babe, idProduct=face, bcdDevice= 0.10
[343356.283882] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[343356.283885] usb 3-2: Product: porky
[343356.283888] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: pigg
[343356.283890] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: e6616407e346bc28
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ lsusb
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 007: ID babe:face pigg porky
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ ls -al ~/.cargo/bin/piggui
-rwxr-xr-x 1 david david 13657232 Nov 19 23:21 /home/david/.cargo/bin/piggui
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ file ~/.cargo/bin/piggui
/home/david/.cargo/bin/piggui: ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1, BuildID[sha1]=d83bb3ff8da6935d7a17a867dcd78a2ad8c9e866, for GNU/Linux 3.7.0, not stripped
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ ~/.cargo/bin/piggui --version
piggui 0.5.0
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 
david@rp58book101064fnvme:~/Projects/pigg $ 

[DeeJay]

Initial feedback on v0.5.0 using a Windows 10 Desktop as the workstation.

Summary - piggui on the workstation looks OK. Able to use porky on an RPi Pico W.

piggui v0.5.0 installed on an MS Windows10 desktop via pigg-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc

pre-built porky uf2 from releases/assets installed on an RPi Pico W. Win10 Device Manager reports a usb device 'porky.'

Wlan configuration and subsequent connection works as documented, after some initial confusion and failure. (Didn't notice 'pop-UP' menu items amongst the gpio pin display.)

'Reset WLAN defaults' works, but piggui subsequently crashes/exits.

In use, Pico W pins GP0 and GP1 can ONLY be configured as OUTPUTS. All other pins can be INPUT or OUTPUT.

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

Thanks so much for testing it out and providing the feedback @DeeJay.

Special thanks for trying on Windows, you are the first one to do so, and to hear it works "OK", is great news!

Comments on points raised:

• after setting or resetting WLAN info, the device restarts so that it can try to connect to the default (there can be a default in ROM), not a crash - but it might appear as one. There is debug output explaining it will restart but not visible.
  => Maybe we could add something to the UI to let users know it will restart?
  => Maybe there is some USB status/command that can be used to make the restart not appear as a crash?

See: #659 I just created

• Confusion and failure: If you can elaborate more, maybe we can improve the docs or UI to reduce for others?

• GP0 and GP1 - This maybe a bug, left over from confusion on Pico W between GP0 and WL_GP0 etc .... I will file an issue and remedy.

See: #660 I just created.

If you have hardware that needs GP0 and GP1 now, let me know and I could push out a patch release to that.

[DeeJay]

"If you have hardware that needs GP0 and GP1 now, let me know and I could push out a patch release to that."

No urgency. Just observational feedback.

[DeeJay]

"Confusion and failure: If you can elaborate more, maybe we can improve the docs or UI to reduce for others?"

The Discovered Devices submenu is at the bottom of the main screen. Following that menu to the right shows the device details and serial number. Reading further to the right the inline option is 'Reset'. I thought other options might appear further to the right. It simply didn't occur to me that there was a 'Drop-Up' menu that gave more options higher up the screen. Not sure how this might be clarified. It is trivial to use once it has been noticed. As discussed elsewhere, clicking on the Reset option is fatal in my experience.

[DeeJay]

Further feedback on v0.5.0 using an RPi5/RasPiOS as the workstation.

Having done the wireless configuration of a Pico W using an MS Windows version of piggui, I can subsequently connect to that networked porky instance from piggui running under RasPiOS and basic trivial testing of toggling inputs and outputs (other than GP0 and GP1) works as expected.

So it is just the initial usb device discovery prior to wlan configuration that is the outstanding issue for me atm in respect of the RPi5/RasPiOS platform.

[DeeJay]

Tested a customised build of 'porky' uf2 to pre-configure default SSID.

Ref: Customizing the default SSID information https://github.com/andrewdavidmackenzie/pigg/blob/0.5.0/porky/BUILDING.md#customizing-the-default-ssid-information

Can confirm that it works as documented. There is a trivial typo concerning the proky project directory.

Actual documentation for "This uses the elf2usb2 command which you can install using cargo." would save some time and frustration.
Is cargo install elf2uf2-rs the correct solution?

Build environment was 64-bit RasPiOS Bookworm on an RPi[5] board. Initial build attempts using a rust/cargo installation that was several months old failed. Had to refresh the build toolchain with rustup upgrade because rustc v.1.79.0 was not compatible.

RPI Pico W flashed with this .uf2 to create a 'porky' instance can be connected-to by piggui running on RasPiOS/RPi[5] and also from MS Windows Desktop. No further config needed beyond the IP:port combination.

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

#662

[DeeJay]

"Send me some screen shots on Windows when you can please!"

As requested.

1. piggui on Windows 10, showing default 'fake' hardware interface.
   

2. piggui on Windows 10, showing a piglet instance on an RPi[5] running RasPiOS Bookworm.
   

3. Piggui on Windows 10, showing a porky instance on an RPi Pico W.
   

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

Thanks for that. Kinda funny to see your app on a new platform for the first time! :-)

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

Is it OK if I add them (clipped) as images to our repo, for use in docs files, posts etc?

[DeeJay]

"Is it OK if I add them [Windows screenshots] (clipped) as images to our repo, for use in docs files, posts etc?"

OK to reuse them in support of the pigg project. Thanks for asking.

[DeeJay]

Posted initially for Discussion, but I think it might qualify as a Bug if you want to promote it to Issues...

piggui for Windows, with porky on Pico W: top part of display not visible in either Physical or Logical layouts.

The timeline/histogram display for GPI0 does not display the On/High/True value of the Pin.

[DeeJay]

"Can you build piggui from source if required?"

I have only experimented with the rust toolchain under RasPiOS. If you don't have a Windows box for testing I assume some sort of cross-compile to an x86 .exe is possible? I was able to build the porky .uf2 under RasPiOS

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

Could you add some additional screenshots and descriptions to the issue?
I suspect it maybe caused by lack of vertical height in general, but will check.

You can try "make run-release" in root folder to see if piggui builds and runs OK.
Will take a while the first time.

[DeeJay]

I am working on getting screenshots to add to #663.

Further investigation shows it is more widespread than just the top of the screen.

To test a fix will need the ability to build an MS Windows .exe of piggui. I can build from source on RasPiOS linux for execution on RasPiOS. I can't see anything in the Docs (or in the Makefile) that would allow me to build ON RaspiOS for execution under x86_64 Windows?

[andrewdavidmackenzie]

Do you have a working rust tool chain on your windows machine?

If so, it would fall under the "build for your linux/mac/windows host" area....

you would just need to clone the repo, and then "cargo build", or using the Makefile "make run-release"... that will build and run a release profile version of "piggui", which will be a .exe if running on Windows.

[DeeJay]

For the time being the conclusion is that I will not be able to test a fix for Windows if it requires building from source.