https://github.com/virgesmith/pico-conway
Conway's game of life on a pico
https://github.com/virgesmith/pico-conway
raspberry-pi-pico
Last synced: 4 months ago
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Conway's game of life on a pico
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/virgesmith/pico-conway
- Owner: virgesmith
- License: mit
- Created: 2022-04-16T15:00:37.000Z (about 4 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2024-09-14T11:06:01.000Z (over 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-08-28T17:53:59.093Z (9 months ago)
- Topics: raspberry-pi-pico
- Language: C++
- Homepage:
- Size: 519 KB
- Stars: 2
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE.md
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README
# pico-conway
Cellular automata on a pico...
Cells are colour-coded according to their age. Button A resets, B clears the screen, X adds a randomly-placed glider (this happens randomly without pressing anything). Y toggles screen brightness.
Pico2 allows for a 160x120 cell domain, memory restrictions mean the original Pico can only support 106x80.
## build
### hardware
Uses the Rasbperry Pi [Pico](https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico/) or [Pico2](https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico-2/) with the [Pimoroni pico-display-2](https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pico-display-pack-2-0?variant=39374122582099)
### software
Requires pico-sdk and the pimoroni-pico](https://github.com/pimoroni/pimoroni-pico) libraries.
1. fork or clone this repo.
1. download and extract a release of the [pico C/C++ SDK](https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-sdk)
1. download and extract a release of [pimoroni-pico](https://github.com/pimoroni/pimoroni-pico). This is needed for the graphics library and display driver.
1. download a cross-compiler e.g. g++-arm-none-eabi if necessary. Prebuilt riscv toolchains is available [here](https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-sdk-tools/releases/tag/v2.0.0-1)
1. edit CMakeLists.txt so that PICO_SDK_PATH and PIMORONI_PATH point to the correct locations
1. build the image for the intended platform, optionally supplying the toolchain path (if not in `$PATH`), e.g.
```sh
mkdir -p build
cd build
cmake -DPICO_PLATFORM=rp2350-riscv -DPICO_TOOLCHAIN_PATH=/opt/riscv-gcc-14 ..
make -j
```
Valid values for `PICO_PLATORM` are:
- `rp2040` (Cortex M0+)
- `rp2350` or `rp2350-arm-s` (Cortex M33+)
- `rp2350-riscv` (Hazard 3)
1. copy image to device (connected with `BOOTSEL` pressed), e.g.
```sh
cp pico-conway.uf2 /media//RPI-RP2
```
## test
The algorithm itself can be tested/debugged on the host machine using the test harness, e.g.:
```sh
g++ -g -O0 -Wall -Werror --std=c++20 src/test_conway.cpp src/conway.cpp -o test
```