How to Debug the Raspberry Pi Pico Using Another Pico! - Picoprobe and VSCode Tutorial

This video shows you how to debug the Raspberry Pi Pico using another Pico acting as a Picoprobe. We walk-through how to install the required dependencies to enable debugging inside Visual Studio Code (VSCode) and demonstrate simply how to add breakpoints and inspect register values. We debug a simple C blink LED program which was written in a previous video.

This video also covers how to create a Picoprobe from a Raspberry Pi Pico, how to wire it to a target Pico and use it as a UART serial monitor as well as a debugger! By following this short tutorial you will be able to debug your C programs on your Pico in no time!

Links to programs mentioned in this video:

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:33 What will we need?
01:23 OpenOCD
02:18 USB Drivers
02:50 Picoprobe UF2
03:14 Pico Wiring
04:28 Testing Toolchain
06:09 Picoprobe UART to USB
06:35 Set up VSCode
08:25 Debugging
10:28 Conclusion

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[simonquin]

I am reasonably experienced in embedded systems and can say that fighting tool chains is a massive waste of time. These videos are first class, well done!

[markgregory]

Yes please ... part two would be really useful.

[matthiassuess]

An absolutely great and clear tutorial on OpenOCD and Pi Pico. Thank you for your effort and your additional information on your website. It saved me a lot of time and trying. Thank you very much. Please make a 2nd part of the tutorial - it is very interesting. Many greetings from Germany!

[hshpegel]

Thank you for a terrific video and yes, a part 2 would be very much appreciated.

[skf]

Yes please! Plus-n for the part-2. You deserve more subs than you've got. I'm new to C and wouldn't have chosen to go with it were it not for your tutorials. Thank you.

[wran]

Having problems. I've used Zadig enough to know the UF2 has to be flashed first, but under "Show All Devices" there is no Interface 2, only Interface 0 and 1. Windows assigns CDC-ACM UART to Interface 1 and it shows up as a COM port. Windows assigns CMSIS-DAP v2 to Interface 0 and when I run OpenOCD (your prebuilt version) it cannot find a Picoprobe. I've tried using Zadig to replace the driver with libusb but the same result occurs. The UF2 file was downloaded today from the R-Pi Pico site. Any suggestions appreciated!

[haroldemmers]

A part two on this video would be great.
This is super helpful.

[Lammyk]

I wish every tutorial was as good as this one

[mytechnotalent]

What I would love to see is a very through set of tutorials in C for the Pico. The examples are great in the sdk but would love additional ones including how to use a TFT display, etc.

[leeharrold]

You are amazing. Thank you so much! Your video has made debugging rust much easier for me.

[wran]

Thank you for this clear tutorial! A Part 2 would be helpful, especially for those of us who are trying to wean ourselves from the Arduino IDE, but are accustomed to being able to plug the Pico into USB and download the code to it. I think that is only possible using PicoProbe and SWD, but taking it slow and showing each step of the process and some examples for how the debugging capability of PicoProbe and openocd can be used by beginner level programmers hoping to move into a more professional environment would be great.

[j.p.denoyer]

some of the steps are presented out of sequence. The picoprobe UF2 file has to be installed on a Pico before zadig installer shows the driver

[HopWorksET]

I got to the part where I am building the examples and then hit a brick wall. NMAKE.EXE was not found but I solved that, and the build completed but yielded mostly skipping due to unsupported platform. This is an older tutorial and many versions have changed and been upgraded which is probably why. This tutorial exposed several processes I am not familiar with so I know I have a lot of research to do. I'm using VS 2022 community, not 2019 for one. I will attempt to scale back my versions where possible to see if I can get the examples to build. This is a great video! I would like to see it refreshed for 2024 though. Thanks for the contribution!!

[PATRIKKALLBACK]

Great video! I look forward to part 2.

[markgregory]

This is brilliant, thank you very much!

[rodolfoblasser]

Man, this is amazing. Thank you for sharing the knowledge and resources.

[spotterinc.engineering]

Great explanation video. I assume your web docs are as clear as this! Thanks.

[brendanfarthing]

Great video, thanks a lot. Thumbs up for part 2!

[hanspeterbestandig]

Very interesting! Thank you! I've got a Question for the Wiring @3:36: Why is the explicit connection - GND of the SWD with GND of the Board - necessary? Doesn't this connection not already exists by the PCB Design? IMHO you'll not need this wire.

[rickzinni]

Yes, please add the more in-depth debugging video. Cheers.