This window shows the status of a Pinscape Pico device, including its basic identification settings, statistics on performance and memory usage, and a diagram of the Pico's GPIO pin assignments.
The window shows a diagram of the Pico, with all of the pins labeled with their currently configured usages. The diagram looks like the typical "pinout" diagram that you can find in the Pico documentation and many Pico tutorial Web sites, but it has one important difference: this diagram shows you the actual configured usage of each pin, according to the JSON configuration file currently installed on the Pico. The typical pinout diagram only shows you the capabilities of each pin. The current-configuration diagram shown here is especially useful when you're setting up the physical wiring, since it shows you exactly what to connect to each pin.
You can copy the diagram to the clipboard, as an image that you can paste into other programs, via the Edit >: Copy Pinout Diagram command. You can also make a hard-copy printout of the diagram, which might come in handy if the pin cab where you're setting things up isn't in the same room as your PC. See Printing below for some additional information.
You can update the device's firmware from this window by dragging a .UF2 file from a Windows Explorer desktop window and dropping it onto the Update Firmware button, or onto the Pico diagram. You can also click the Update Firmware button to select a UF2 file to install via a file dialog. After the UF2 file is copied to the Pico, the Pico will automatically reboot, and should then be running the newly installed version of the software.
The Backup menu has commands that let you export the Pico's entire flash memory contents to a local Windows disk file. You can also export just the "data" section of the Pico's flash, where Pinscape stores its configuration and settings files.
When backing up flash data, the program gives you a choice of file formats:
This is the best format for creating backups, because no Pinscape software is required to restore the file later, either on the Pico itself or on Windows. Every Pico has the Boot Loader mode built in, so every Pico is able to restore a UF2 file, even when it's brand new out of the box.
The Device menu offers commands for rebooting the Pico into various modes, without the need to physically unplug the Pico or manipulate any buttons.
The Device menu has two commands for removing Pinscape configuration data, to restore default settings. You can use these if you have a problem with the configuration and want to make sure that old settings are wiped clean.
Device > Delete Configuration Files deletes the two JSON configuration files - the Main configuration file that's used under normal conditions, and the Safe Mode file that's used after crashes or unexpected resets.
Device > Full Factory Reset wipes the entire Pinscape data area on the device, erasing all Pinscape-related data files. This includes the configuration files plus all other data that Pinscape stores in flash, such as plunger configuration readings. This guarantees a full reset, as though you were installing Pinscape on the device for the first time.
Note that it's generally not necessary to wipe the Pinscape files from the device if you want to repurpose the Pico to run some completely different software. The Pico doesn't have "files" in the sense that Windows does; the flash storage area is more like what Windows would consider an unformatted disk drive. If you install some non-Pinscape firmware onto the Pico, there's very little chance that it would even notice that Pinscape had ever stored any data in the flash space, so it shouldn't matter one way or the other if you delete the Pinscape files before installing the new firmware. The main purpose of these "delete" commands is to get rid of them for Pinscape's sake, so that it doesn't try to load old settings. This is especially meant for cases where old settings are causing a crash or some other unwanted behavior, and you want to be sure that nothing from an old configuration is still present.
If you make a backup file in the UF2 format, you can restore it to the Pico at any time in the future, either using the Config Tool or using the Pico's Boot Loader mode directly.
To restore a UF2 file using the Config Tool, go to the Device Overview window, and drag the UF2 file onto the Update Firmware button. In other words, use exactly the same procedure you'd use to install firmware. Even though the button is labeled Update Firmware, it will accept any valid UF2 file, whether it contains firmware or a data backup.
To restore a UF2 file using the Pico's native boot loader, follow the Pico's standard procedure for installing software:
JOY.CPL is the Windows "Game Controllers" control panel. It shows a list of gamepads and joysticks attached to the system, and lets you see their button and axis controls. To run it, press Windows+R, type JOY.CPL, and press Return. This control panel is a convenient way to check on the devices you have attached and confirm that everything's as expected. But it's a very old part of Windows that's a little buggy.
There's one bug in particular that comes up pretty often with a device like Pinscape that you might reboot many times while setting it up. Each time the device reboots, it runs a risk of triggering a bug in JOY.CPL that will screw up the control panel's list of devices and/or the controls it displays in the device properties window. This bug seems to be entirely within JOY.CPL itself - it doesn't seem to affect any other programs that access game devices. But it's still alarming to see the screwed-up device information in the control panel - it makes it look like the devices are badly malfunctioning or that your system is somehow corrupted. Chances are that everything's actually just fine as far as every other program is concerned, but it's hard to tell when the device list in the official control panel is screwed up.
Fortunately, there's an easy workaround for the bug, but it requires a little manual work whenever the bug occurs. The Config Tool provides a command that carries out the necessary steps, to make it a little more convenient. To activate the repair command, select Device > Repair JOY.CPL Display from the menu. This will:
Be sure to close any other applications that might be accessing the device before running the command. One of the conditions that's been observed to trigger the bug is when an application is accessing the device during a reset. (The Pinscape Config Tool makes an effort to always disconnect when it sees a reset coming, to avoid triggering the bug itself, but other programs that access the device might not be so cautious.)
If you prefer to edit the registry keys manually, or if the automated procedure doesn't work for some reason, here are the steps:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\DirectInput\VID_vvvv&PID_pppp\Calibration
The File > Print Pinout Diagram lets you make a hard-copy printout of the pinout diagram, which might be helpful while setting up the physical wiring. The print options should be fairly self-explanatory, except that the Header and Footer settings in the Page Setup options have some extra hidden features.
First, the header and footer each let you set up three sections, for text that's aligned at the left, center, and right side of the page. Separate the sections with the vertical bar symbol, "|".
This part is at the left|This is centered|This is at the right
If there are only two parts, they're aligned left and right:
This part is at the left|This part is at the right
If you want to include a vertical bar character literally in the header/footer text printed on the page, type it twice: ||.
Second, there are several substitution variables that you can use, written as $(name). The substitution variables are: