Picosoft Turns the Raspberry Pi Pico Into an Interactive MicroPython Computer, the ORANGE-Python

Picosoft has unveiled a project to convert the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller development board into a standalone, fully-functional interactive computer driven by MicroPython — and including the unusual ability to save your files to a USB flash drive.

Launched earlier this year, the Raspberry Pi Pico has proven popular for projects ranging from macro keyboards and number recognition systems to flash carts, game controllers, balloon trackers, and even BBC Micro emulators. Picosoft's work, though, concentrates on its ability to run MicroPython — and to use that ability to create a Python-powered microcomputer.

Dubbed ORANGE-Python, the machine combines the Raspberry Pi Pico with Picosoft's in-house pico-pico-DEBUG carrier board and USB-and-VGA add-on. Connect a monitor and a USB keyboard to the latter and USB power to the Raspberry Pi Pico in the former, and the system immediately boots into an interactive Python session — just as early microcomputers would present the user with BASIC or the like.

ORANGE-Python has a few modern features, too: Users can switch away from the default interactive REPL (read-evaluate-print loop) into a screen editor for writing more complex programs, which can be saved for later execution. While the initial version of the operating system only allows use of the Raspberry Pi Pico's internal flash memory, a later upgrade brought a shiny new feature: The ability to save files to and load files from a USB flash drive, connected to the same USB hub as the keyboard.

"Since ORANGE-Python is based on Raspberry Pi Pico, you can directly operate I/O as well as screen display and file operations," Picosoft notes. "Operations such as UART, ADC, I2C, SPI, PWM, PIO can be performed by Python programming."

More information on the project is available, in Japanese, on the Picosoft website.