Tinygo cheatsheet

Tinygo compiles go for various microcontrollers.

Useful links:

• Supported Microcontrollers
• Machine Package

Command Line

When using the command line, we provide --target to determine which board/microprocessor we are using

tinygo build --target=pico ./cmd/hello
tinygo flash --target=pico ./cmd/hello

If your board has a serial monitor present:

tinygo monitor

VsCode IDE setup

For better intellisense and compiler warnings, install the TinyGo extension. Then select your target from the bottom ribbon.

This will generate a .vscode/settings.json file for you with the correct setup for your board.

Conditional Compilation

For a primer see Golang Conditional Compilation

When your have a source .go file which should only be compiled for tinygo, use:

//go:build tinygo

A tinygo project which targets multiple processors will want to compile different source files depending on which processor is being targetted.

For example, when targetting a pico board use:

//go:build tinygo && pico

The specific flag to use can be found in the tinygo/src/machine package. Find the board_ or machine_ go file which matches your target and see which flag is being used.

Hello World

Note that each microcontroller defines GPIOs differently, the same can be true for other hardware peripherals too.

When supporting multiple boards, it can be useful to define a hardware abstraction layer to abstract these details behind a common interface which is conditionally compiled in.

package main

import (
  "machine"
  "time"
)

func main() {
  pin := machine.D13   // Teensy
  pin := machine.GP13  // Pico
  led := machine.P0_13 // NRF52840
  led.Configure(machine.PinConfig{Mode: machine.PinOutput})
  for {
    led.Low()
    time.Sleep(time.Millisecond * 500)
    led.High()
    time.Sleep(time.Millisecond * 500)
  }
}