PyPortal – A new Python-powered board
We’re starting to collect some of the demo projects for PyPortal, our upcoming easy-to-use IoT device that allows you to create all the things for the “Internet of Things” in minutes. Make custom touch screen interface GUIs, all open-source, and Python-powered, that uses tinyJSON / APIs to get news, stock, weather, cat photos, and more – all over Wi-Fi with the latest technologies. Create little pocket universes of joy that connect to something good. Rotate it 90 degrees, it’s a web-connected conference badge #badgelife.
This playlist contains some of the recent videos from our beta/demo testing.
The PyPortal uses an ATMEL (Microchip) ATSAMD51J20 and an Espressif ESP32 Wi-Fi coprocessor with TLS/SSL support built-in. PyPortal has a 3.2″ 320 x 240 color TFT with resistive touch screen. PyPortal includes: speaker, light sensor, temperature sensor, NeoPixel, microSD card slot, 8MB flash, plug-in ports for I2C and 2 analog/digital pins. There are 3D files for custom enclosures and lanyard fastening. PyPortal is Open Source hardware, and Open Source software, programmable in CircuitPython and Arduino. The device shows up as a USB drive and the Python code can be edited in any text editor.
One of the first projects we shared with the world was a live subscriber count display on Reddit, folks liked it!
Python Discord, now with #microcontrollers channel
There are even more reasons and resources to learn Python, and/or join one of the largest coding communities in the world – check out Python Discord –
“Python Discord is the official Discord server of r/Python on Reddit (326k subscribers). We’re a large, friendly community focused around the Python programming language, open to those who wish to learn the language or improve their skills, as well as those looking to help others. We organise regular community events and have a dedicated staff of talented Python developers available to assist around the clock. Whether you’re looking to learn the language or working on a complex project, we’ve got someone who can help you if you get stuck.”
Python Discord now has a #microcontrollers channel! Join in https://discord.gg/djuFYQA for the largest Python community and now with hardware too!
Python snakes its way to a new robotics board for Raspberry Pi
The Robotics Masters MM1 HAT is an open source robotics controller board for Raspberry Pi. It removes the initial barriers to starting any robotics project by providing all the hardware you need in an easy to use form factor. The board has compatibility with many open source software libraries such as CircuitPython and SeeSaw – MM1 HAT, Crowd Supply.
News from around the web!
Biohack: Circadian Pi Desk Light using CircuitPython by Mikey Sklar – Adafruit.
“thank you, dear adafruit for inspiring– the next round of splendid” – Twitter.
At Hopper Local / Dublin, Vicky Twomey-Lee will be demonstrating MicroPython on Micro:Bit and CircuitPython on Circuit Playground Express – codinggrace.com
We have a new sticker pack! Hot off the digital presses, we have four new electronics symbol stickers for your iMessage that you simply can’t “resist”. This sticker pack includes Resistor, LED, Transistor, and Capacitor Electrolytic symbols. Check em’ out! – App store.
A new tutorial in French: Going from Arduino to CircuitPython – lecluseo.scenari-community.org
Melissa made an excellent WiFi Manager for making ESP32 SPI and WiFi much easier – GitHub.
GPIO Zero v1.5 is here! GPIO Zero is a zero-boilerplate Python library that makes physical computing with Python more accessible and helps people progress from zero to hero – raspberrypi.org & changelog.
Thanks to Ben Nuttall, one of the maintainers of GPIOZero, love is in the air. Serenade with Mu, a distance sensor, speaker, Raspberry Pi and some nifty Python code which uses GPIOZero to turn the hardware into a romantic Theremin… It’s only four lines of code, showing how easy it is to make cool hardware hacks with Mu, Python and GPIOZero – Made With Mu & video.
The new Giant Board prototypes have arrived! Initial testing is looking really good, beta is coming up next. Linux on FEATHER! – Twitter.
snekde — an IDE for snek development – keithhp.com
goodreads-quotes-raspberry-pi displays quotes scrapped from goodreads using a Raspberry Pi Zero and a display. This widget scrapes different quotes from goodreads and displays them on an Adafruit OLED Bonnet. The quotes can change after a user defined time interval – GitHub.
We have not tried this yet, however, it looks interesting. Dataplicity lets you control, manage and repair your devices even as they roam between cellular, satellite and fixed networks beyond your control – dataplicity.com
An unofficial guide to the Pyboard D – GitHub.
Python Pizza in Berlin will have a Python on bare metal talk – fast & efficient code with MicroPython by Jessica Greene.
BNO: a mini cardboard BNO using a NodeMCU development board running MicroPython. A script reads button inputs, displays BNO’s menu and runs the selected scripts from MicroPython’s file system – YouTube – plus there is also a rotating cube.
WoA Installer for Raspberry Pi 3 – The application to install Full Windows 10 ARM64 onto a Raspberry Pi! – GitHub.
Smart calendar with eInk display and Raspberry Pi – GitHub.
PEAR – a tool for sound installations. Take a directory with .wav files named in numeric order and play them over USB sound devices attached to the host computer, over and over forever, looping all files once the longest one finishes – GitHub.
Python IDEs and Code Editors – programiz.com
10 Python File System Methods You Should Know. Manipulate Files and Folders With os and shutil – by Jeff Hale.
The Python Software Foundation Board Committee for Python in Education wants to hear how the PSF can help members of our community increase the presence of Python in education, visit Request for Ideas.
Python 3 Tuple Starter Tutorial – TutorialDocs.
BitGlitter – Embed data payloads inside of ordinary images or video, through high performance 2-D matrix codes – GitHub.
No, you can’t take open-source code back – ZDNet.
Do you ever feel like there are like 50 different Linux networking tools that all do different things and it’s impossible to keep track? – wizardzines.com
Magic Wormhole, get things from one computer to another, safely – GitHub.
This repo is everything you need to run a server for The Spaghetti Detective, an AI-based solution for 3D printer remote management and monitoring – GitHub.
How GitHub Classroom and Travis CI improved students’ grades – GitHub blog.
The Internet Was Built on the Free Labor of Open Source Developers. Is That Sustainable?
A look at the complicated business of funding open source software development – Motherboard.
In December 1990, an application called WorldWideWeb was developed on a NeXT machine at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (known as CERN) just outside of Geneva. This program – WorldWideWeb — is the antecedent of most of what we consider or know of as “the web” today.
In February 2019, in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the development of WorldWideWeb, a group of developers and designers convened at CERN to rebuild the original browser within a contemporary browser, allowing users around the world to experience the rather humble origins of this transformative technology.
Recreating the experience of using the first ever web browser (called WorldWideWeb, later Nexus) – worldwideweb.cern.ch
PyDev of the Week: Maria McKinley on Mouse vs Python
#ICYDNCI What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? RedHat Women in Open Source.
Women in Open source award, please vote!
Our Ladyada (Limor Fried) was nominated for Red Hat’s Women in Open Source Award! CircuitPython is open-source hardware, and software, and always will be! Please vote for her! Visit – https://www.redhat.com/en/about/women-in-open-source
Made with Mu
Tip from Sophy “This has been a game changer for me and I need to share: I’ve been keeping all my CircuitPython projects in Evernote, just pasting each one into a new note, which means they’re all fully searchable, taggable, and easy to copy/paste back into Mu Editor” – Twitter.
@ntoll conducted a poll for keep or dropping Python 3.5, results are in, drop it – Twitter.
Slides from the PyData Edinburgh February talks are up, featuring Nicholas Tollervey’s talk Education, Education, Education which includes Mu.
And check out this wonderful post about Les “A Steady Hand and Heart” on the Made with Mu blog.
Coming soon
Lots of previews for the PyPortal this week, enjoy!
CircuitPython Boot Sequence chart, releasing this when we release the release candidate.
GamerPy.
Metro Wi-Fi.
How many people are in space? – YouTube.
Gets quotes from the Twitter account @DuneQuoteBot.
Current price of Bitcoin project.
IoT badge for #badgelife.
This project that shows how many humans are online on the Adafruit Discord server – https://adafru.it/discord
An IoT version of Evil Mad Scientists Valentines.
Countdown for weekly event.
New Learn Guides!
IoT Temperature Logger with Analog Devices ADT7410, Raspberry Pi, and Adafruit IO from Brent Rubell
Humidity and Temperature Monitor with E-Ink Display from Dave Astels
NeoTrellis M4 Noisy Grains of Sand from John Thurmond
CircuitScheme – Lisp on CircuitPython from Dave Astels
MLX90393 Wide-Range 3-Axis Magnetometer from Kevin Townsend
Updated Guides – Now With More Python!
You can use CircuitPython libraries on Raspberry Pi! We’re updating all of our CircuitPython guides to show how to wire up sensors to your Raspberry Pi, and load the necessary CircuitPython libraries to get going using them with Python. We’ll be including the updates here so you can easily keep track of which sensors are ready to go. Check it out!
Keep checking back for more updated guides!
CircuitPython Libraries!
CircuitPython support for hardware continues to grow. We are adding support for new sensors and breakouts all the time, as well as improving on the drivers we already have. As we add more libraries and update current ones, you can keep up with all the changes right here!
For the latest drivers, download the Adafruit CircuitPython Library Bundle.
If you’d like to contribute, CircuitPython libraries are a great place to start. Have an idea for a new driver? File an issue on CircuitPython! Interested in helping with current libraries? Check out this GitHub issue on CircuitPython for an overview of the State of the CircuitPython Libraries, updated each week. We’ve included open issues from the library issue lists, and details about repo-level issues that need to be addressed. We have a guide on contributing to CircuitPython with Git and Github if you need help getting started. You can also find us in the #circuitpython channel on the Adafruit Discord. Feel free to contact Kattni (@kattni) with any questions.
You can check out this list of all the CircuitPython libraries and drivers available.
The current number of CircuitPython libraries is 133!
New Libraries!
Here’s this week’s new CircuitPython libraries:
Updated Libraries!
Here’s this week’s updated CircuitPython libraries:
PyPI Download Stats!
We’ve written a special library called Adafruit Blinka that makes it possible to use CircuitPython Libraries on Raspberry Pi and other compatible single-board computers. Adafruit Blinka and all the CircuitPython libraries have been deployed to PyPI for super simple installation on Linux! Here are the top 10 CircuitPython libraries downloaded from PyPI in the last week, including the total downloads for those libraries:
| Library |
Last Week |
Total |
| Adafruit-Blinka |
549 |
17958 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_BusDevice |
400 |
8828 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_NeoPixel |
164 |
2511 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_CharLCD |
107 |
7736 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_BMP280 |
96 |
799 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_BNO055 |
86 |
507 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_ADS1x15 |
74 |
993 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_ServoKit |
74 |
547 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_MCP9808 |
65 |
411 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_LIS3DH |
61 |
873 |
Upcoming events!
February 19th, New York, NY. 5th FW meetup: CircuitPython. Brent Rubell of Adafruit will introduce us to CircuitPython with demo and workshop on some cool hardware – Meetup.
February 23rd, Pawtucket, RI. Intro to Python: Adafruit CircuitPython & Circuit Playground Express by Ocean State Maker Mill – eventbrite.
PyCascades 2019! February 23 — 24, 2019, Seattle. WA. PyCascades is a two-day Python conference that will be held in the scenic coastal city of Seattle, Washington (USA).
Nina Zakharenko will be doing a talk “Light Up Your Life – With Python and LEDs!” which includes CircuitPython!
Look for Scott there too!
Organized by members of the Python communities in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland, we aim to bring together Python users and developers from both the Pacific Northwest and around the world – 2019.pycascades.com Tickets are on sale now!
March 11th, London, UK. Meet, learn and share ideas about MicroPython. Nicholas Tollervey will be telling us about the latest features of Mu – a free code editor for Python, MicroPython and CircuitPython devices – Meetup.
Hopper Local / Dublin. February 27, 2019 · 7:30 am – 7:00 pm. Hopper Local / Dublin is a one-day locally organized conference modeled after our Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). This immersive event brings together women technologists at all levels – along with leading companies from industry, academia, and research – to build relationships, learn, and advance their careers. Hopper Local / Dublin is the inaugural event and will launch an AnitaB.org Local Community in Ireland – anitab.org
Vicky Twomey-Lee will be demoing MicroPython on Micro:Bit and CircuitPython on Circuit Playground Express – codinggrace.com
May 2019 Cleveland, Ohio! The PyCon 2019 conference, which will take place in Cleveland, is the largest annual gathering for the community using and developing the open-source Python programming language. It is produced and underwritten by the Python Software Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing and promoting Python. Through PyCon, the PSF advances its mission of growing the international community of Python programmers – PyCon.
Latest releases
CircuitPython’s stable release is 3.1.2 and its unstable release is 4.0.0-beta.2. New to CircuitPython? Start with our Welcome to CircuitPython Guide.
20190218 is the latest CircuitPython library bundle.
v1.10 is the latest MicroPython release. Documentation for it is here.
3.7.2 is the latest Python release. The latest pre-release version is 3.8.0a1.
1036 Stars Like CircuitPython? Star it on GitHub!
Call for help – CircuitPython messaging to other languages!
We posted on the Adafruit blog about bringing CircuitPython messaging to other languages, one of the exciting features of CircuitPython 4.x is translated control and error messages. Native language messages will help non-native English speakers understand what is happening in CircuitPython even though the Python keywords and APIs will still be in English. If you would like to help, please post to the main issue on GitHub and join us on Discord.
We made this graphic with translated text, we could use your help with that to make sure we got the text right, please check out the text in the image – if there is anything we did not get correct, please let us know. Dan sent me this handy site too.
10,668 thanks!
The Adafruit Discord community, where we do all our CircuitPython development in the open, reached over 10,668 humans, thank you! Join today! https://adafru.it/discord
ICYMI – In case you missed it
The wonderful world of Python on hardware! This is the video-newsletter-podcast that we’ve started! The news comes from the Python community, Discord, Adafruit communities and more. It’s part of the weekly newsletter, then we have a segment on ASK an ENGINEER and this is the video slice from that! The complete Python on Hardware weekly VideoCast playlist is here.
This video podcast is on iTunes, YouTube, IGTV (Instagram TV), and XML.
Weekly community chat on Adafruit Discord server CircuitPython channel – Audio / Podcast edition – Audio from the Discord chat space for CircuitPython, meetings are usually Mondays at 2pm ET, this is the audio version on iTunes, Pocket Casts, Spotify, and XML feed.
Contribute!
The CircuitPython Weekly Newsletter is a CircuitPython community-run newsletter emailed every Tuesday. The complete archives are here. It highlights the latest CircuitPython related news from around the web including Python and MicroPython developments. To contribute, edit next week’s draft on GitHub and submit a pull request with the changes. Join our Discord or post to the forum for any further questions.
