PicoDVI relies on the Earle Philhower III Arduino core for programming — an optional package that makes most RP2040 boards work in the Arduino environment. If you’ve previously followed any guides for our RP2040-based boards, you likely already have this installed…just check that you’re up to date with the latest (3.1.0 or newer).

If that sounds unfamiliar, this guide walks through the process.

Once installed, the Arduino IDE Tools→Board menu will include a rollover for “Raspberry Pi RP2040 Boards,” and you can find and select whatever board type you’re using (e.g. Feather RP2040 DVI or Raspberry Pi Pico).

Next, the PicoDVI library can be installed from the Arduino Library Manager. From the Sketch menu…

Sketch→Include Library→Manage Libraries…

Enter “picodvi” in the search field and look for PicoDVI - Adafruit Fork in the results. Click “Install,” then “Close.”

Our version of PicoDVI depends on the Adafruit_GFX library. The Library Manager should install this automatically if not already present, but if using an older version of the Arduino IDE you might need to search for and install it manually.

This is our “fork” of the original PicoDVI project, meaning as much of the original code is preserved with minimal changes. What we’ve done is add an Arduino-compliant C++ wrapper to make this command-line library work with the friendlier Arduino IDE, and implemented simple raster framebuffers for drawing. All the original stuff is there if you want to dig in and learn, though the original examples as written won’t build in the Arduino IDE.

Here’s our fork on GitHub, and Luke Wren’s original project.