16 Apr
2026
16 Apr
'26
10:04 a.m.
Angela -
On Thu, Apr 16, 2026 at 12:16:48AM -0700, Angela wrote:
Advance question is that it's interesting that
[the pico2-ice] doesn't
have a JTAG so it's all serial/FTDI to configure the FPGA?
Everything goes through the rp2350, and yes it uses the SPI programming
port of the iCE40 chip. No additional hardware is needed.
The usual way is to run micropython on the rp2350 (flash once,
the usual Pi-Pico way), and then all the actions (like programming
a bitfile) use short (10-line) python programs.
I will check out the tools to see if there is a
neat workflow with a VM or homebrew which would give a few more options.
Encapsulation of some form is often a good thing. I personally use chroot.
Once you're within that environment, the toolchain setup (at least in
Debian/Ubuntu) is
apt-get install -y make python3 yosys nextpnr-ice40 fpga-icestorm micropython-mpremote
The bitfile-build step should then be hassle-free.
Getting mpremote to talk over USB could have some complications.
In my chroot case, I resort to doing that step natively.
- Larry