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amiga
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Joined: 08/05/2025
Location: Belgium
Posts: 23

Posted: 03:56pm 18 Jun 2025

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Hi curious people,

in my quest searchings the graal .. a life is not sufficent .. i found this UFO :

LuckFox Lyra (18,48€ .. at AliExpreSSO) , with same pinout as piPico !

a german guy , implemented linus on it and ...
removed the piPico from PicoCalc and replace it with this UFO .. and it works !

With MMBASIC for linux on this Frankestein .. get lot of power when using LCD DSI interface embedded .

the Linux is an beta version .. very interesting project .

Have a nice day (for my country , or glorious happy night for others)

@+
Alfa (from beer's country .. Belgium)

see video :: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfEwjMz_41w

docu. :: https://wiki.luckfox.com/Luckfox-Lyra/Luckfox-Lyra-Plus/Quick-Start/

aliexpress :: https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005007607424563.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller.4.63c7yxAnyxAnWh&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40196.439370.0&scm_id=1007.40196.439370.0&scm-url=1007.40196.439370.0&pvid=94d9db4e-01ea-4f50-8152-bd8fcd969c5b&_t=gps-id:pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.40196.439370.0,pvid:94d9db4e-01ea-4f50-8152-bd8fcd969c5b,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238107%231934&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22order%22%3A%2250%22%2C%22eval%22%3A%221%22%2C%22sceneId%22%3A%2230050%22%7D&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21EUR%2117.16%2115.59%21%21%2119.27%2117.51%21%40211b815c17502600241348938e6bd5%2112000041485228066%21rec%21BE%212260364661%21X&utparam-url=scene%3ApcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller%7Cquery_from%3A

Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7820

Posted: 06:03pm 18 Jun 2025

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Strange concept.
It looks like a duck, quacks a bit like a duck but it isn't a duck. :)
It actually has more in common with the Raspberry Pi than the Pico.

Yet another strange board that I won't be buying. :)

Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs

adcockm
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Joined: 03/05/2025
Location: United States
Posts: 4

Posted: 05:19am 19 Jun 2025

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Several folks have been using this in the PicoCalc for months, instead of a Pico/Pico2. MMBasic for Linux runs on it. And apparently retroarch is even capable of running some of the older/simpler arcade games and console systems at, or near, full speed. It helps that SDL is supported though I'm pretty sure there's no graphics acceleration on it. While it doesn't support WiFi or bluetooth directly, lots of USB dongles have been made to work by including the correct drivers and using the USB breakout adapter for it. And with a dongle, it can support both WiFi and Bluetooth. Flash drives and some other USB peripherals have been working too. It's got some issues supporting sound directy on the PicoCalc hardware, but otherwise it's a much more powerful option to the Pico.

lizby
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Joined: 17/05/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 3348

Posted: 11:48am 19 Jun 2025

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Interesting experiment, but aside from the Pico-matching footprint, why would it be superior to a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W?

Maybe because it fits in the PicoCalc unit itself, and there's no comparable ensemble for the Pi Zero?

~
Edited 2025-06-19 21:51 by lizby

PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed

amiga
Newbie

Joined: 08/05/2025
Location: Belgium
Posts: 23

Posted: 01:09pm 19 Jun 2025

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lizby said Interesting experiment, but aside from the Pico-matching footprint, why would it be superior to a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W?

Maybe because it fits in the PicoCalc unit itself, and there's no comparable ensemble for the Pi Zero?

~

i think it's no superior but different :

according aliexpress ...
raspi zero2 +/- 27€
luckfox +-/ 19€

the great difference for me is a dsi display .. i have raspi 3/4 with dsi display and regret this option is not found on raspi zer0 2/w ..

i made a pico board vga/usb to teach programming for very young guys an girls (+- 12 years old) very very simple concept and BASIC was created for this purpose).

The families of this guys have very little budget .. and the concept picoboard with picoMite it's ok , and luckfox still in the budget , i give it a try ..

after MMBASICLunix , we can jump to python without changing hardware... for more advanced concept ..

i hope someone as done some work on using vga/hdmi , i'm not electronic engineer or software engineer only curious .

@+
Alfa

adcockm
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Joined: 03/05/2025
Location: United States
Posts: 4

Posted: 01:35pm 19 Jun 2025

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There's an entire thread on the Clockwork forums about people getting the Pi Zero 2W to work inside the PicoCalc case as well. Most of these attempts have required (arguably awkward) custom 3D printed case backs, but some of the more recent work has apparently managed to fit it all within the case. Probably still needs a custom printed back so all the extra ports can be exposed though. The hardware is already proven working, seems like they're just improving the board and look of it at this point.

https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/raspberry-pi-zero-2-on-picocalc/17946/31

The Lyra is more of a "plug and play" solution though, and doesn't even require soldering unless the audio patch/fix is needed. That may not even be a problen for other device that were meant to take the Pico modules. Apparently Clockwork did something dumb with the audio support and pinout and that's why the Lyra needs a hardware patch to get it working properly.

Unfortunately there's no HDMI/VGA support built into the PicoCalc, if that's a need here. It was meant to be more of a handheld "calculator" device anyway, so I doubt anyone who gets one will even bother trying to attach a monitor. But the Lyra seems to be pretty capable as a module, and it's definitely cheap. I've got one and have used it standalone, connected via USB (and no display, just a serial connection, and WiFi connection with a USB dongle), and plan to eventually put it in my PicoCalc case. But for now I'm using it for WebMite, so I need the Pico in there. ;)
Edited 2025-06-19 23:35 by adcockm

dddns
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Joined: 20/09/2024
Location: Germany
Posts: 469

Posted: 04:51pm 23 Jun 2025

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The RPI Zero 2W has much better specs and costs 18,90 here. Best documented and its end of life is 5 years ahead, wouldn't it be the most beautiful new home for MMBasic?

stanleyella

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Joined: 25/06/2022
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2523

Posted: 05:52pm 23 Jun 2025

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I hate linux it's

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