Author Archives: smittytone

About smittytone

Tech Author and Writer

Xcode 15.3 zaps Swift packages: here’s how you fix it

I have cd "${PROJECT_DIR}" ; agvtool bump set as a script in a number of my macOS projects’ Xcode schemas’ Build phases. The second of the two commands auto-increments the project build number on completion of the build. It continues to do so, but with Xcode 15.3* there’s a side-effect: it deletes the project’s Swift packages.

Xcode and Swift icons
Icons owned by Apple
Continue reading

Thank you! 🙏

I’d like to acknowledge the following readers of this blog — or users of my software — who’ve expressed their appreciation of my work by tipping me via PayPal (see the column to the right).

  • Richard H
  • Matthew S
  • James H T

Thanks very much, folks — your recognition is much appreciated.

Go program the Raspberry Pi Pico… with Go

I have been working with Go professionally, building a cross-platform CLI tool. I’m rather enjoying the language, so I wondered if I could use it to program the Raspberry Pi RP2040 too. A little Googling revealed TinyGo, an implementation of the language for microcontrollers.

Continue reading

MNU gains user-defined keyboard shortcuts

MNU is a tool I use every time I work on my computer. It’s a menu bar utility that allows me to trigger command line scripts and tools with a couple of mouse clicks. Despite its utility to me, I haven’t given it any love for some time, so I recently remedied that with a spring clean of the code. I also added a new feature: custom keyboard shortcuts.

Continue reading

Depot gets Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect support

A quick update on my Depot project: an RP2040-based host that provides Mac and Linux machines mediated access to external sensors, displays, actuators and other peripherals: version 1.2.2 extends board support to the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, and there’s better board selection too.

Depot running on the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
Depot running on the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
Continue reading

Review: DFRobot Pico Gravity Board 👍🏻

I keep an eye out for Raspberry Pi Pico add-ons that make prototyping easier and do so inexpensively. DFRobot’s Pico Gravity Board is one such. It breaks out a stack of RP2040 GPIOs and buses to make it more straightforward to hook up displays, sensors and such.

The DFRobot Gravity Board in action
The DFRobot Gravity board with Pico H in action
Continue reading

Meet Depot, an RP2040-based multi-bus adaptor for Macs and Linux PCs

I’d like to introduce you to Depot, the new name for an expanded version of the Raspberry Pi RP2040-based adaptor I launched last year as cli2c. Why the name change? In addition to I²C, the firmware and the client-side code that interacts with it, now supports 1-Wire, and more buses will be supported soon.

Depot client and adaptor firmware in action
Depot client and adaptor firmware in action
Continue reading

Tailscale: a VPN for the rest of us? You bet!

A one-time colleague of mine recently put me onto Tailscale, a rather nifty product that allows you to wrangle all of your computers, phones and more into a single, secure and Internet-spanning virtual private network (VPN). I decided to give it a try and I’m very impressed with its performance and ease-of-use — the latter very important for someone like me who’s not a network guru.

Tailscale: VPN for the rest of us?
Continue reading

One year on: is the iPad any better for Raspberry Pi Pico development?

Imagine my surprise when I connected a Raspberry Pi Pico in UF2 mode to my iPad and it mounted as an accessible drive. Yes, iPadOS now supports UF2 drives, something it did not do just over a year ago when I last reported on my efforts to use an iPad as a mobile Pico development system.

iPadOS' Files app views a mounted Raspberry Pi Pico
iPadOS 16.3.1’s Files app presents a boot-mode Raspberry Pi Pico
Continue reading

Pico SDK 1.5.0 revamps IO over USB — and makes it work

The Raspberry Pi company released version 1.5.0 of the Pico SDK a week ago — right after I issued the latest version of my desktop computer-oriented I²C adaptor, which is based on the Pico’s RP2040 chip. If I’d have known about the SDK update, I would have held back — SDK 1.5.0 solves an irritating problem I’d faced with unexplained adaptor firmware hangs.

The RP2040 based I2C adaptor here running on a Pimoroni Tiny 2040 and with a matrix LED connected
Continue reading