Quick Start

Overview

The quick start instructions assume the use of a RoundyPi, though most steps will be the same or very similar if using a Pico or another custom setup. Refer to the Wiring Diagrams to connect any external hardware prior to following these steps.

Install Firmware

To install:

1. Download the .uf2 for your setup from the releases.
2. Hold the BOOT (or BOOTSEL on a Pico) button while plugging in your device. A new drive will appear on your computer with the name RPI-RP2.
3. Copy the .uf2 file to the RPI-RP2 drive. This will upload the new firmware to the device.

That's it! tty2pico should display a startup screen with some system information. If running from flash, tty2pico will try to mount an existing flash partition first. This will preserve your data between firmware updates. If no FAT partition is present on the flash parition it will be automatically created and labeled TTY2PICO when mounted as a drive on a PC. If running from SD card make sure it's using exFAT format and you're set.

If you'd like to build a custom setup take a look at the Supported Hardware and Development pages for details.

Transfer Images

The primary feature of tty2pico is displaying transparent PNG, GIF and animated GIF files when a new core or arcade game is loaded. The /logos/ folder of your storage device (flash or microSD) will be searched for an image with the name of the core or arcade set name. Loading images is simple since your tty2pico device will show up as a flash drive on your computer. Just copy the images into the /logos/ folder and you're set!

If using a custom image set, refer to the MiSTer documentation for Core Names and MRA Setnames for guidance on file naming. Note these lists are not complete since MiSTer is being updated constantly. If tty2pico doesn't find the requested image, or the missingCoreImage from configuration, then the core or arcade set name will be displayed on the tty2pico screen.

See the Image Files page for image specifications and optimization tips.

(Optional) Edit Configuration

On initial boot tty2pico will generate a tty2pico.toml config file at the root of your storage device if not already present. Here you can tune the default system and performance options of your setup. Refer to the Configuration page for a complete list of options.

MiSTer Setup

tty2pico utilizes the tty2oled backend on the MiSTer side. Follow the installation instructions at https://github.com/venice1200/MiSTer_tty2oled/wiki/Installation to get the script running on your MiSTer (you can skip the Arduino setup stuff).

tty2pico isn't 100% compatible with tty2oled, so some features like USBMODE and script updates need to be disabled. Find these parameters in the .ini file and update to these values:

TTYDEV="/dev/ttyACM0"
USBMODE="no"
SCRIPT_UPDATE="no"
TTY2OLED_UPDATE="no"

Finally plug in your tty2pico device and reboot the MiSTer to complete the setup.