The Raspberry Pi Foundation has a new gadget: a cheap, easy USB probe for debugging bare-metal code on a Pi Pico… but it should work with several other devices too.

The Debug Probe is a device to help debug bare-metal software on the Raspberry Pi Pico. The Pico is the Foundation's $4 single-board computer for microcontroller type roles. In embedded computers like this, there's often no display output, and in typical use, no operating system – both of which make it tricky to monitor what it's doing, or more to the point, work out why it's not doing it.

You plug one end into your Pi Pico, and the other end into a free USB port, and you're ready to go. It's a very low-end offering, but it should do the job – and it's $12. For comparison, a professional tool such as a Segger J-Link comes in at $60 a pop in the States and €576 for a 12-pack (€48 per unit) in the EU. Even an open-source hardware device such as an ORBtrace Mini – for instance from this store – is around 10 times the price.

See https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/22/raspberry_pi_foundations_launches_12/

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