Having difficulty understanding the grblHAL documentation

[howardlowndes]

My background is in IT mostly at levels above C++ and with Linux and more recently with Arduino.
I am currently studying g code and its use in CNC machines and that has been around Arduino Nano and Grbl. Now I want to move forward from there and look at using grblHAL on the Raspberry RP2040 and the Pico BOB.
This is where I am getting confused.
I have pulled the grblHAL/core and the grblHAL/RP2040 and I want to use these in conjunction with the Arduino IDE - either 1.8.x or 2.0.x.
The documentation states that the grblHAL-xxx zip file can be installed in the Arduino libraries as either a ZIP file or as a folder. However, pulling from the git repository provides core-master.zip not anything resembling grblHAL-xxx. I can install that but it appears as core in the libraries. The documentation says that grblHAL-xxx can also be installed even if it not a ZIP file. THat just doesn't work.

Moving on to the grblHAL/RP2040 clone; how is that associated with grblHAL/core? Do I need both clones? How are they integrated, or does grblHAL/RP2040 include grblHAL/core?

I apologise if my ignorance is frustrating, but I really am having difficulty following the thread of the documentation.

[dresco]

Hi, I suspect the documentation page you are looking at just doesn't cover the RP2040 build (yet).

The RP2040 driver is not built with Arduino IDE. The README for the RP2040 repo links to a PDF with instructions for installing the SDK, and integrating with VS Code.

Your starting point would be to clone the RP2040 driver repo (making sure to include submodules, as these are how the grblHAL core files and all the plugins are delivered) git clone https://github.com/grblHAL/RP2040.git --recurse-submodules

[terjeio]

The new Web Builder now has experimental support for building the RP2040 driver. Availability may be a bit erratic for a while as the backend service is work in progress.

Flashing the Pico is easy, plug in the Pico while pressing the Boot button. This will mount a drive where the executable (firmware.uf2) can be dropped.