Curious about what broke.

[dbell669]

So I was attempting to fix my video solution with a splitter to swap between my gaming pc and my avr. and I noticed that my Pico and attached LED strip was not showing properly. I tried turning it off and on and it appears my pc no longer recogonizes the Pico. I'm wondering if I just broke the Pico or did I fry the strips as well. for context I was using the waveshare RP2040-Zero Mini Board attached to an intel NUC

[awawa-dev]

First things first: Pico must be recognized by PC. Did you try to put Pico into DFU mode and reupload the firmware?

[dbell669]

Yes. I tried to put it into DFU mode and the NUC couldn't recognize it.

[awawa-dev]

Try to connect it (in DFU mode) to another PC. If it's still not recognized in DFU mode then its rp2040 is not working and you must replace the Pico board.

[dbell669]

After Attaching it to another computer,. I found that it was fried. I ended up remaking another control module with the larger version, it was said to support a higher current.

[dbell669]

I'm now curious as to what fried it in the first place. could it have been a cheap usb cable? or a surge from my PSU for the lights?

[awawa-dev]

it was said to support a higher current.

You should NOT power the LED strip from Pico board! Only the Pico data signal => 3.3V to 5V level shifter (if not built-in) => LED strip data signal. So "support a higher current" doesn't matter anyway.

[awawa-dev]

I'm now curious as to what fried it in the first place. could it have been a cheap usb cable? or a surge from my PSU for the lights?

Maybe it's a random failure that can also happen to Pico, as it happens with esp. Customized Waveshare are not the best, they suffer from similar issues as early Adafruit Pico custom designs, although Adafruit was able to admit to mistakes and announce a fix in subsequent revisions, I have not heard of Waveshare doing anything similar. In systems with LED Pico is usually damaged by 5V. Or from the computer through a faulty USB 5 V to 3.3 V regulator (I have not heard or experienced such a defect myself). Or you shorted the data line to 5V on the LED strip somewhere. I am not sure if the level shifter should prevent such damage, depends on the model, but there is a chance it would protect the system.