Need to Wipe a Raspberry Pi RP2040 or RP2350's Flash Memory? Philip Howard Has the Nuke Tool for You

Developer Philip Howard has put together a tool for anyone working with Raspberry Pi RP2040 or RP2350 microcontrollers, regardless of the device in which they're installed: the Pico Universal Flash Nuke, for when you absolutely positively want the chip's external flash memory to be very, very empty.

"Ever had to dig for the right flash_nuke.uf2 for your Raspberry Pi Pico board," Howard asks, rhetorically, in demonstration of the need for his latest tool. "Ended up having to compile your own for some esoteric board? Can never tell the difference between the RP2040 and RP2350 build? Those days are over. Presenting Pico Universal Flash Nuke!"

The Pico Universal Flash Nuke is designed to do one job and one job only: replace the existing firmware on a Raspberry Pi RP2040 or RP2350 microcontroller and instruct it to find, measure the size of, and wipe any external flash memory. It works with the Raspberry Pi Pico, Pico W, and new Pico 2 — but should also work with any other RP2040- or RP2350-based board too, providing a single quick-flash file.

The secret behind the multi-chip functionality: "This incredibly delicately combined uf2 was created using the awesome power of cat," Howard explains — whereby the C code was compiled for the RP2040 and RP2350 separately then combined into a single image capable of running on both devices. The memory-wiping code, meanwhile, is straight from Raspberry Pi itself.

Howard has released the source code for the project on GitHub under an unspecified license, along with a precompiled and dual-platform download.