General • Unable to flash to Pico 2 W with picoprobe

I have two Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W (with the RP235x chipset). To save costs I configured one Pico as a debug probe by flashing `picoprobe` on it.

When connect the `picoprobe` over USB, I can see it in `probe-rs list`:

Through this probe I am trying to flash the other Pico 2 W. This does not work. I have tested it with the offical hardware Raspberry Pi Debug Probe and it works. However, I am giving a workshop and do not have the money to buy 30+ hardware probes from Raspberry. So I am trying to use one Pico 2 W to debug another one.

I have tried the wiring of jumper cables suggested by the official documentation in [Debug with a second Pico or Pico 2](https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/pico ... h-pico.pdf).

I connected the corresponding VSYS and GND pins and made sure with a multimeter that there was power supply available on the target.

The Pico 2 W I have, has a white SWD socket on the middle. See image below. I assumed that the pins of that socket are still in the same order.

Since there are no pinholes on the bottom of the Pico 2 W for SWD, I have to use the socket in the middle for the SWD debug connection.

Things I have tried:

- I plugged a two-sided male 3-pin SWD in the SWD sockets of both the picoprobe and the target.
- I used the SWD splitter cable that splits into three wires: SWDIO, SWCLK and GND. I have connected the three wires to the probe.
- Have tried switching from VBUS to VSYS
- I have tried with UART and without.
To make sure there was no problem with the breadboard or the jumper cables, I have used a multimeter to check whether there was a power supply to the target. There is. I used different breadboards and encountered the same problem.

I have also measured activity on the SWDIO and SWCLK pins on the probe and target. While calling `probe-rs info`, I can see that the pins are active. The voltage becomes constant and goes up.

I have also tried to configure a Pico 1 H as a `picoprobe` and try to flash through the SWD connection of this hardware debug probe. Again, I have tried all possible wiring combinations, but the picoprobe still cannot reach the target for flashing.

I have read some issues on the GitHub repository of `probe-rs` about new support for the RP235x chipset, but that work should have been merged several months ago. I also tried compiling older versions of `probe-rs` from 0.27 until 0.29 and main. None of them are able to detect the target Pico 2 W.

I feel like I have tried everything, can someone help me out?

Statistics: Posted by wvhulle — Fri May 30, 2025 5:24 pm — Replies 1 — Views 44

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