When programming for this project I will most likely need a debugger so I bought the cheapest RP2040 pico clone I could find. This is the AE-RP2040 it is a bit smaller than an normal Pico due to the fact that it has less GND connections. There is no LED either but that doesn't really matter.

I bought a pre-fabricated 3-pin JST SH cable to use for the debugger. The wires were connected differently so I used a small screwdriver to remove them from the housing and reorder them. The Pimeroni Pico LiPo has the SWDIO and SWCLK reversed compared to the official raspberry debugger. I made sure this is correct soldered the cable to the board. I labled the cable so I don't forget this. If I want to use the debugger with an official raspberry pi pico for example I would have to rearrange the pins in the connector housing.

I broke off 2 pins from a row of pins headers and soldered that to the UART pins.

I programmed the AE-RP2040 with the offical pico debugger software as I have no toolchain setup for programming yet. It worked perfectly and the computer could detect the new device.

Removing the USB-C cable from the device was difficult it was extremly stiff and nothing to really hold on to, so I somehow manged to bend the pin header a bit when removing it. I thought the USB-C connector would come off.