Review: PicoCalc

 The latest handheld gadget from Cockworkpi is the PicoCalc, named for its resemblance to advanced calculators popular amongst people who know more about math than is healthy.

The device comes as a kit that needs assembling, but it is an easy process that took me less than 10 minutes to do. The only thing to watch out for is the screen, during assembly it is easy for it to get misaligned and then when tightening the screws, the screen will get cracked, so when you mount it, tape it into place with some electrical tape to keep it in place.

The core of the PicoCalc is a Raspberry Pi Pico. The kit comes with a Pico version one, do yourself a favor and go buy a Pico 2WH. These are pin compatible, have faster processors, more memory and have wireless networking support. You will need to get different firmware for it, those can be downloaded from the following locations;

PicoMite Basic

MicroPython 

There are other firmware's available, such as uLisp and Lua but I suspect those two will be the most popular and easiest to use.

So here is the thing, the PicoCalc was not designed as a Linux system or a game console, although it can be used for both. I have not tried it as a game console, I am not a gamer so this holds no interest for me. I however did briefly try to run Linux on it. This requires replacing the Pico with a Luckfox Lyra, but honestly, this is not a particularly good idea. The memory and CPU limitations makes it far too weak to do anything particularly useful, even using just the command line. The uConsole or Hackberry Pi are much better for this sort of thing. I am not going to call it useless, but functionally it is not useful for much beyond editing text.

What the PicoCalc was designed for is as a development platform. It is meant to boot straight into MicroPython or PicoMite Basic and running programs through those languages. It is meant to hearken back to the 70's and 80's when computers booted straight to basic. Both of the above firmware's have built in editors for writing your programs, and both can read SD Cards, so programs can be saved there, then loaded and run later. The ability to build a personal library of useful programs without the overhead of a Linux operating system is the strength of the PicoCalc I think.

For me, the big advantage is PicoMite Basic is based on MMBasic, the same Basic used on the Color Maximite systems, which I have discussed before. So I already have a fair library of usable programs, written by myself and others. For instance, Z-mim is a z-code interpreter that can be used to play Zork and other Infocom text adventure games. The author of Z-mim was kind enough to update the code base for me, to work perfectly with the PicoCalc. I have played a lot of Zork 1/2/3 in the last couple of weeks testing his tweaks. As of this writing he has not pushed the updates to his Github site, but I expect him to do so in the near future. Thank you Tom, I greatly appreciate your work.

Overall, I think this is a cool little toy. At the $75 + $25 S&H, I think this is well worth the money if you are into tinkering. Unfortunately Clockworkpi is a Chinese company, so tariffs may affect the price in the near future, so you will have to decide if the increased price is worth it to you or not. I am not sure I would have bought one had I not gotten in under the wire.