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SIPB 50: Physical Computing – Dan Halbert
This weekend was the MIT SIPB 50th anniversary with our very own Dan Halbert, sipb50.mit.edu. Dan gave a personal retrospective talk and then talked about Adafruit and demo’d CircuitPython – YouTube.
“For the last 50 years, the Student Information Processing Board has addressed the computing needs of the MIT Community. The services we have provided throughout the years have improved the lives of those around us. The policies we have advocated for helped shape the digital landscape of MIT. The classes and cluedumps we organize have opened doors for countless students. It is important for us as a community to reflect on the impact we made here at MIT and beyond.”
CircuitPython Libraries on any Computer with FT232H
Powerful computers can now use the power of CircuitPython libraries. This guide will show you how to use an FT232H to connect to I2C and SPI sensors and breakouts from your desktop PC running Windows, Mac OSX, or Linux. The FT232H also allows for general purpose digital input and output (GPIO) for things like buttons and LEDs.
The cool part about this is that you can then use any of the CircuitPython Libraries that have been written for the numerous sensors and breakouts – learn.adafruit.com.
GIMME SOME CANDY!
Why roam around with a boring pumpkin bucket when you can collect delicious candy with a robotic Xenomorph head? This robotic candy bucket shoots out a small receptacle to retrieve candy and bring it back into the bucket – learn.adafruit.com
2,000 Guides!
The Adafruit Learning System has 2,000 guides! Thank you to our entire team, Justin, Tyler, Sheehan, and everyone at Adafruit who builds and makes learn.adafruit.com one of the best resources online for learning. Thank you to all our authors, and contributors for putting your smarts out there for so many to build their dreams with. Thank you to our teams and friends that take photos, shoot video, write code, and helped make something so special for so many.
Most of all, thank you to the folks who read, learn, and share learn.adafruit.com and use it to help others.
Here are some stats about learn.adafruit.com and an early screenshot. The earliest instance archive.org got it is from July 20th, 2012. The first guide was one of the ladyada.net guides we moved over to learn.adafruit.com and it was the TTL Serial Camera, created at: “2012-06-12 16:12:29” The author with the most guides total for now is Ladyada at 333 guides. Noe & Pedro are at 252 guides, and John Park is at 144 guides. Over the last 60 days, it looks like we average over 1 newly published guide a day. There are 266 authors who can create guides at this time. There are over 14,000 published pages across the 2,000 guides. There are 140,680 individual elements across all guides. There are 77,870 images uploaded.
Top guides!
- Introducing Adafruit Feather: total_views 1357330, weekly_views 4940
- Adafruit NeoPixel Überguide: total_views 1136769, weekly_views 4554
- Adafruit Motor Shield: total_views 749630, weekly_views 3182
- Adafruit IO: total_views 676145, weekly_views 2784
- PIR Motion Sensor: total_views 654223, weekly_views 3491
- Adafruit’s Raspberry Pi Lesson 3. Network Setup: total_views 620811, weekly_views 836
- BeagleBone: total_views 596319, weekly_views 1750
- Multi-tasking the Arduino – Part 1: total_views 453961, weekly_views 1675
- RGB LED Strips: total_views 444626, weekly_views 1632
- DHT11, DHT22 and AM2302 Sensors: total_views 391135, weekly_views 1108
- Adafruit Ultimate GPS: total_views 364775, weekly_views 1174
- Arduino Lesson 13. DC Motors: total_views 363623, weekly_views 1004
- Monochrome OLED Breakouts: total_views 337109, weekly_views 1237
- Welcome to CircuitPython!: total_views 330549, weekly_views 2063
- Raspberry Pi Analog to Digital Converters: total_views 328492, weekly_views 1501
Adafruit is loan-free, VC-free, ad-free, and is supported by your purchases at Adafruit.com. Thank you to all the customers who have fueled learn.adafruit.com with us together! By the time this newsletter goes out there will be over 2,010 guides. https://learn.adafruit.com/guides/latest
MONSTER M4SK 10 out of 10 – HACKSPACE
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MONSTER M4SK — HackSpace magazine by Ben Everard … 10 out of 10!
“The quality of the screen and animation is stunningly good. The original name for this eye animation (when it was first coded by Phil Burgess to work on the Teensy) was Uncanny Eyes, and they really are uncanny. For us, it’s the animation rather than the realism of the image (though this is also impressive) that gives real personality.”
Read more pages 126 to 127, download PDF, buy now, subscribe.
There are over 28,000,000+ Raspberry Pi units
Farnell has now sold 15 MILLION Raspberry Pi units, total Pi units out there? 28+ million as of September, 2019. 28 million reasons Adafruit has made BLINKA for Linux.
A full recap – Adafruit.
CircuitPython slithers its way to Pimoroni
We are very excited to see all the CircuitPython and Feather related products, projects, and code over at Pimoroni! – GitHub.
CircuitPython and Bluefruit snakes its way to … TIES!
PythonSmartTie, CircuitPython code to use a Bluefruit app to control a NeoPixel strand. Used in a wearable “smart tie” project – GitHub & YouTube.
GLIDER updates and video
Glider – an app for editing Python on mobile devices wirelessly, some code updates and demo video! – YouTube.
Feather takes flight with the Particle Squared at GroupGets
Particle Squared @ GroupGets –
“Particle squared is an all-in-one air quality sensor for Particle and Feather based development boards (development board not included). It brings together a trio of sensors to give you as many data points as possible. That way, there won’t be anything missing when you go to measure the air inside your home or workplace.”
Coding CircuitPython on iOS
We’ve been posting about how it’s now possible to code on the go with iOS and CircuitPython, Andy has a great set up and great example – Twitter.
Interview with the co-creator of BOGLINS, Tim Clarke
Check out our interview with Tim Clarke Master Toy Designer “King of Gross” – YouTube.
““For over 30 years Tim has been Inventing, Designing and Sculpting some of the most unusual toys to ever be marketed in the US and abroad. Once known as the “King of Gross” after co-creating in the 80’s Sectaurs (Coleco) and Boglins (Mattel). Tim now launches his new line of horribleness the “TOTIMS”. I love creating my own mythology. The world is filled with modern day mythological creatures you can find them in every nook and cranny of your bedroom closet. Tim Started his career designing and building puppets for the Muppets. Most notable were the Mystics and the Slaves that he sculpted and designed for the movie the Dark Crystal guided by the incredible drawings of Brian Froud. He also worked on puppets for Sesame Street , Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock for which he created Traveling Matt. After Dark Crystal was launched, he garnered his first toy sculpting gig with Hasbro creating the Garthim, Mystics and Lanstrider toys. He has also created toys for Melissa and Doug toys, EK Success, Hasbro, Mattel, Coleco, Kenner, Ideal Lossirs, to mention just a few.”
Check out Tim’s site, totims.com, and Instagram @timclarketoys.
We met Tim after putting some cool eyes on the CircuitPython powered MONSTER M4SK and the community tagged each of us on Instagram. The internet can work out sometimes!
“Boglins were a series of toy puppets distributed by Mattel. They were created by Tim Clarke, Maureen Trotto, and Larry Mass, and licensed by Seven Towns. The original run of Boglins was released in 1987, coinciding with a “creatures” craze that included Ghoulies, Critters, and Gremlins. Boglins were goblin-themed hand puppets made of flexible rubber and could be manipulated to represent speech and facial expressions. Several series of large and small Boglins were released until 1994, with additional aquatic, Halloween, and baby themed Boglins released later into the line. Small solid ‘Mini-Boglins’ were also produced, akin to the M.U.S.C.L.E. figures also from the 1980s.”
Hacker & Restomodder – Gear Patrol
Our Layada was in Gear Patrol Magazine, check out the previews above and pick up an issue – gearpatrol.
Learning IoT with Python and Raspberry Pi by E.I. Horvath, E.A. Horvath
Learning IoT with Python and Raspberry Pi by E.I. Horvath, E.A. Horvath –
Developing applications that operate in the realm of the Internet of Things requires, in addition to the mastery of a programming language, an understanding of networking, an understanding of how to use different platforms, an understanding of basic electronic circuits, and a familiarity with databases. Owing to its built-in WiFi capability and its forty general-purpose input/output pins, the Raspberry Pi computer is the ideal device for teaching students how to write code that controls electronic circuits whether the code is executed from a keyboard attached directly to the Raspberry Pi or executed from a smart phone. One of the most popular programming languages in the world, Python, is installed with the Raspbian operating system. Several Python packages enable the programmer to write code that turns an LED or a buzzer, gets data from a sensor, controls motors, and so on.
- Code tested on the Raspberry Pi 3 and the new Raspberry Pi 4
- Color photographs and circuit diagrams
- 300+ code listings illustrate Python programming concepts
- 250+ homework problems ranging from short Python scripts to web site configuration projects
- Circuit examples
- Labs on measuring voltage, current, and resistance using a multimeter
- Send a text message if the light level detected by an LDR circuit falls below a threshold
- Send an email if motion is detected using a PIR sensor circuit
- Use an ultrasonic sensor in a proximity alert circuit and make a phone call if an intruder gets too close
- Use a GPS HAT to get waypoints and store them in a file
- Use an analog to digital converter to read in data from sensors
- Control a servo using classes
- Upload data to the cloud
- Learn how to access a database using SQL statements
- Deploy a home monitor system that uses the Raspberry Pi Camera and a PIR sensor circuit. Upload pictures to a web server in the cloud and access the pictures on a web page.
- Control a robot using a multi-threaded application
Learn more, video, and the site https://learningiot.net/
There are over 79+ CircuitPython boards
There are now over 79+ CircuitPython boards, here are some of the latest ones! We’re always updating CircuitPython and the libraries. We’ve had CircuitPython 4.0.1 stable out for a while, and recently released 5 alpha which means it’s time for a new CircuitPython Library Bundle! The 4.x and 5.x bundles are now available for download at circuitpython.org/libraries. We’ve stopped supporting the 2.x and 3.x bundles, but you can always get access to the final builds here – GitHub.
ALL A BOARD!
Pyboard by Damien George.
Serpente by arturo182.
Feather STM32F405 Express by Adafruit.
BLINKA Updates
There are now 23 boards that support Blinka. Blinka is the CircuitPython APIs for non-CircuitPython versions of Python such as CPython on Linux and MicroPython. Check all of them out – circuitpython.org/blinka
Open source stories, all month long
October is open-source hardware month! Every single day in October we’ll be posting up some open-source stories from the last decade (and more!) about open-source hardware, open-source software, and beyond! Have an open-source hardware (or software) success story? A person, company, or project to celebrate? An open-source challenge? Post up here in the comments or email opensource@adafruit.com, we’ll be looking for, and using the tag #OHM2019 online as well! Check out all the events going on!
MicroPython trademark
Looks like there is a company in China that is trying to “own” the MicroPython trademark – MicroPython forums. We contacted the Python foundation and Damien, creator of MicroPython, and have offered our assistance to figure out the next steps on this issue.
News from around the web!
Dan’s work in progress, a reflow oven controller using CircuitPython on a PyPortal. It is using the I2C port for thermocouple and a digital pin to control toaster oven power – Twitter.
CircuitPython is running on the StringCar M0 Express board! – Twitter.
Parent sticker, daughter sticker – Instagram.
More great art from the CircuitPython & Mu book in Japan – Twitter.
“Thanks to CircuitPython, it just took a couple of minutes to program” – shred.zone Premium Wall Bias Lighting project.
CircuitPython-BLEAcceleration is a simple UART acceleration monitor working with the CircuitPython Circuit Playground Bluefruit – ALPHA – Bluetooth Low Energy device which echos the data in the UART terminal – GitHub.
Fun with Monster M4sk LCD eyes. Added custom textures and twitchier eye movement to bring papier mâché coyote to life – Twitter.
Nice fursuits with LCD eyes from Adafruit – Twitter.
Tilting Arpeggios, a project with CircuitPython Circuit Playground Express – YouTube.
What do ya get when ya go CircuitPython? A lot for free – Twitter.
Operation game from Caitlin’s Dad – Twitter.
Sandy wanted a new badge for Buffalo Makers, so Sandy made a fun faceplate for the CircuitPython powered HalloWing and loaded it up with a slideshow of pictures of some Makercamp kids – Twitter.
Microcontroller Monday – Serpente – bigl.es
Nina has one of the best badges for events! – Twitter.
Anthony’s PyBadge! – Instagram.
The cleanest build! It’s totally OK to wash the Adafruit Grand Central – Adafruit.
Setable icons and decimal controls are now available for Gauge and Text elements! Now live – io.adafruit.com
TinyPICO – an ESP32 Development Board – is at the Adafruit store! The smallest, most feature-rich ESP32 dev board is here! TinyPICO has incredible processing power for a board that’s shorter than an alkaline battery. Thanks to creator-maker Seon Rozenblum, you can tinker with a tiny, mighty, uncompromising board with 4MB extra RAM, on-board RGB LED, and a 700 mAh 3.3V regulator. MicroPython firmware is pre-loaded, and with support for Arduino IDE and Espressif IDF, you get the flexibility to code your way – Adafruit.
NRF52SPI and NRF52840 might be coming to MakeCode – GitHub.
MicroPython and the Internet of Things, Part VI: Working with a Screen by Miguel Grinberg .
How to fly the Air:bit using another micro:bit as remote – YouTube.
A virtual BBC Micro hooked up to Twitter – @bbcbasicbot.
ESP NEWS, Sept. 2019 – Espressif.
This is the code, instruction, description, how to guides, wiki and project planning for the multimode sensor talk and workshop given at PyConDe 2019 – GitHub.
Michael Welling has a start on a MicroPython port for the SparkFun Artemis – GitHub.
The second SiFive quarterly engineering release has arrived, and includes some great new Trace & Debug features. Static source code analysis may not offer a complete view of real world operation. Real time analysis enabled via tracing permits a deeper insight into the interactions of software and hardware to accelerate development, debug, validation of modern, configurable SoC designs – SiFive.
DIY: The IRL Streaming Backpack using Raspberry Pi uses a Circuit Playground Express – hackaday.io
TEK-TILES via Sketching in Hardware Tweets.
evo is a Python package for the evaluation of odometry and SLAM – evo.
Bluebird a plug-and-play, Bluetooth programmable device – teknikio.
12 Pythons for every programming need. Whether its speed, memory safety, portability, a micro footprint, data tools, or something else, one of these Python distros probably has it – Inforworld.
A repository of templates for GitHub Actions CI configurations – GitHub.
A patent lawsuit against GNOME – LWN.net.
Do we need to rethink what free software is? – Matthew Garrett.
New Resource Repository for teaching computing launches, blog post and resources – techcomputing.org
ipwndfu is an open-source jailbreaking tool for many iOS devices – GitHub.
Here’s How Amazon Alexa Will Recognize When You’re Frustrated – OneZero, and discussion.
Alibaba unveils new AI chip aimed at speeding up e-commerce and cloud computing tasks – South China Morning Post.
Pytorch – Deep learning w/ Python – YouTube.
Web based REPL, had this here before but worth adding again – repl.it
Facemoji Camera – facemoji.co/formac
Mark Garrison Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer Saleae – YouTube.
Newton Connection for Mac OS X (NCX) allows you to backup information from a Newton device to your Mac desktop, import and export Dates, Names, Notes and NewtonWorks, install packages and use your Mac desktop keyboard to enter text on your Newton device. In fact, the functions provided by Apple’s Newton Connection Utilities (NCU), but on macOS – Newton Connection 3.0
Is the era of the $100+ graphing calculator coming to an end? Texas Instruments has enjoyed a near-monopoly on graphing calculators for nearly three decades. But new technology may be threatening the company’s empire – The Hustle.
2019 MacArthur Fellows – MacArthur Foundation.
Joe Decuir Atari Engineering Notebook 1978 – archive.org
MITERS Journal – PDF.
The Python Community Code of Conduct has been updated – python.org
A MicroPython Code of Conduct pull request – GitHub.
Hippocratic License – firstdonoharm.dev
Latest PyCon newsletter is here! PyCon 2020. If you would like to receive PyCon 2020 News via your email, create an account on us.pycon.org/2020 and opt in.
#ICYDNCI What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? Intro to Soldering by Max Holliday.
CircuitPython Weekly for September 30th, 2019 on YouTube and on diode.zone
Made with Mu – Improving Programming Education and the Alchemist’s Tower
Test & Code – Python Testing & Development 89: Improving Programming Education – Nicholas Tollervey. Nicholas Tollervey is working toward better ways of teaching programming. His projects include the Mu Editor, PyperCard, and CodeGrades. Many of us talk about problems with software education. Nicholas is doing something about it.
Listen in, and MP3.
The Alchemist’s Tower (video) –
“A “play through” of my PyWeek 28 entry. Apologies for the sound quality. My aim was simple: to create an experience reminiscent of the mysterious explorations found similar games of the past, such as Myst. It’s also an opportunity for me to try to exercise my PyperCard library (a simple shim around Kivy, that works like HyperCard).”
Watch more – YouTube.
Why Mu? Mu tries to make it as easy as possible to get started with programming but aims to help you graduate to “real” development tools soon after. Everything in Mu is the “real thing” but presented in as simple and obvious way possible. It’s like the toddling stage in learning to walk: you’re finding your feet and once you’re confident, you should move on and explore! Put simply, Mu aims to foster autonomy. Try out Mu today! – codewith.mu
TEAM CIRCUITPYTHON
What’s the team up to this week? Let’s see!
Bryan
“This week I wrote the Arduino driver for the MPU-6050 6-axis gyro and accelerometer and I’ll be writing the CircuitPython driver very soon. I also managed to get the APDS-9500 doing some basic gesture detection though the code is only a very rough initial prototype in CircuitPython. Interestingly, I did this testing on my laptop in CPython using the FT232H support that was recently added to Blinka. The guide for the PCT2075 temperature sensor is out and it’s in the shop!”
Dan
“I have started to work on the persistent-storage part of bonding, adding an unfinished MicroPython PR to CircuitPython which adds LittleFS as a supported filesystem. But the current filesystem code for both FAT and LittleFS does not does not use CircuitPython’s shared-bindings / shared-module style of splitting the Python interface from the implementation. This is technical debt and I will fix it. It will then be easier to call filesystem operations from core CircuitPython. I am still debugging issues with HID gamepad support. Something has changed recently which caused it to stop working.”
Kattni
The HalloWing M4 guide is now live! Check it out for everything you need to get started with your HalloWing M4. Nicholas Tollervey has written a lovely tool called CircUp that checks and updates the CircuitPython libraries on your board. It uses the version info in each library to verify whether they’re up to date. There were a number libraries that did not have this version info available as they were created before our current setup was in place. I updated those libraries to get them working with CircUp. The guide for the MONSTER M4SK is no longer missing a Downloads page – now available are links to the datasheet, PCB files, and Fritzing object, as well as images of the schematics and fab print. Next up is the Circuit Playground Bluefruit Bluetooth examples – the code for the color picker is ready to go, so look for that guide page soon!”
Lucian
“In the past week, we successfully added support for the STM32 F405, a popular MCU used on the Pyboard and on the new, upcoming Feather F405. This week, I’m working on completing SPI support for the STM32 port, which will allow for both expanded library use and superior flash memory on both the advanced Discovery boards and upcoming Feathers. I’ll also be working on some cleanup for the port structure, which should make it easier to configure the varied package types and feature differences of the STM32 lineup.”
Melissa
“This week I worked on updating some of the Monochrome Display guides such as the Adafruit FeatherWing OLED guide and the Monochrome OLED Breakouts guide. This gave me the opportunity to familiarize myself with Pillow on the Raspberry Pi, which is the modern fork of the Python Imaging Library. You can see both of those guides here and here. I updated some of the learn guide examples that were originally written for the HalloWing M0 so that they would work with the HalloWing M4 and had a lot of fun doing that. It was especially meaningful because those were some of the examples I looked at when I started learning CircuitPython. I updated my Stream Deck Message Panel guide as well and added vertical centering of the message, fixed the colors, added a single body 3D printable model for printing on larger 3D printers, and updated the corresponding guide. I’m continuing to update some of the older guides since that is needed as we develop better systems and some code starts falling a bit behind. After I’m done updating display guides, I’ll be working with the TFT Gizmo and creating some example code for an upcoming guide.”
Coming soon
EDGE BADGE!
The new STM32F405 Feather (video) that Adafruit designed runs CircuitPython at a blistering 168MHz – our fastest CircuitPython board ever! We put a STEMMA QT / Qwiic port on the end, so you can really easily plug and play I2C sensors. With CircuitPython basics running on this board, its fast to get all our drivers working, then use the built in plotter in Mu to instantly get sensor data displaying within 3 minutes of unboxing.
WHAT IS STEMMA? STEMMA is not an original idea, we’re working within an ecosystem of many other plug and play systems. We started STEMMA in 2014, and intended to be compatible with Grove only (cause that’s all that existed at the time) but then when Qwiic came around in 2017, added a smaller connector so we could work with those parts too! STEMMA attempts to be as cross-compatible as possible with both Grove and Gravity (compatible connectors & 3-5V power/logic). STEMMA QT is cross-compatible with Qwiic – STEMMA QT connector/cable is same as Qwiic. You can use STEMMA QT devices with Qwiic devices/controllers. Adafruit STEMMA & STEMMA QT: Plug & play connectivity – learn.adafruit.com If you’re lookin for the differences between each and what works (and what does not), skip to the comparison page.
More STEMMA & STEMMA QT – Adafruit.
New Learn Guides!
Glowing Scale Armor from Erin St. Blaine
LEGO Head Lamp with Audio from Noe and Pedro
Adafruit PCT2075 Temperature Sensor from Bryan Siepert
Program CircuitPython USB Devices with iPhone & iPad from Collin Cunningham
CircuitPython Libraries on any Computer with FT232H from Carter Nelson
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 187!
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 |
1454 |
44899 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_BusDevice |
880 |
22424 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_MCP230xx |
444 |
7353 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_SSD1306 |
154 |
2141 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_Register |
147 |
6743 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_ServoKit |
105 |
3548 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_PCA9685 |
100 |
4735 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_NeoPixel |
99 |
5962 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_Motor |
96 |
4983 |
| Adafruit_CircuitPython_ESP32SPI |
78 |
1905 |
Upcoming events!
IndieWebCamp NYC, October 5-6, 2019 – New York City, NY USA. IndieWebCamp NYC is an all-levels creatives collaboration hosted by Pace University in Manhattan for two days of keynotes, brainstorming, creating, teaching, and helping gain more control over our data and lives online! One of several 2019 IndieWebCamps and the seventh IndieWebCamp in NYC! – 2019.indieweb.org/nyc
Hacktoberfest is open to everyone in the global community. Whether you’re a developer, student learning to code, event host, or company of any size, you can help drive growth of open source and make positive contributions to an ever-growing community. All backgrounds and skill levels are encouraged to complete the challenge – https://hacktoberfest.digitalocean.com
October is Open Hardware Month @ Open Source Hardware Association.
October is Open Hardware Month! Check out the Open Hardware Month website. Host an event, find a local event, or certify your hardware to support Open Source Hardware. We are providing resources and asking you, the community, to host small, local events in the name of open source hardware. Tell us about your October event by filling out the form below. Your event will be featured on OSHWA’s Open Hardware Month page (provided you have followed OSHWA’s rules listed on the “Do’s and Don’ts” page).
Read more, Tweet for speakers in 2020, and Open Hardware Month at http://ohm.oshwa.org/
October 8th, 2019 is Ada Lovelace Day (ALD), an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). It aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM – findingada.com.
PyCon DE & PyData Berlin, Germany // October 9 – 13 2019. Main conference, 3 days of talks and workshops. More than 100 sessions dedicated to PyData (artificial intelligence, machine learning, ethics…) and Python topics (programming, DevOps, Web, Django…) – de.pycon.org.
micro:bit Live 2019 is coming to BBC MediaCityUK, Greater Manchester, England on October 4-5. This will be the very first annual gathering of the global micro:bit community of educators and partners – micro:bit.
Hackaday Superconference is November 15th, 16th, and 17th in Pasadena, California, USA. The Hackaday Superconference is returning for another 3 full days of technical talks, badge hacking, and hands-on workshops: Eventbrite & hackaday.io
Latest releases
CircuitPython’s stable release is 4.1.0 and its unstable release is 5.0.0-alpha.4. New to CircuitPython? Start with our Welcome to CircuitPython Guide.
20190930 is the latest CircuitPython library bundle.
v1.11 is the latest MicroPython release. Documentation for it is here.
3.7.4 is the latest Python release. The latest pre-release version is 3.8.0b4.
1408 Stars Like CircuitPython? Star it on GitHub!
Call for help – CircuitPython messaging to other languages!
We recently 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.
jobs.adafruit.com has returned and folks are posting their skills (including CircuitPython) and companies are looking for talented makers to join their companies – from Digi-Key, to Hackaday, Microcenter, Raspberry Pi and more.
14,295 thanks!
The Adafruit Discord community, where we do all our CircuitPython development in the open, reached over 14,295 humans, thank you! Join today! https://adafru.it/discord
ICYMI – In case you missed it
The wonderful world of Python on hardware! This is our first 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.
And lastly, we are working up a one-spot destination for all things podcast-able here – podcasts.adafruit.com
MONSTER MASK! The musical!
MONSTER MASK! The musical! – YouTube.
Check out the ADABOX 13 with JP – YouTube.
Codecademy “Learn Hardware Programming with CircuitPython”
Codecademy, an online interactive learning platform used by more than 45 million people, has teamed up with the leading manufacturer in STEAM electronics, Adafruit Industries, to create a coding course, “Learn Hardware Programming with CircuitPython”. The course is now available in the Codecademy catalog.
Python is a highly versatile, easy to learn programming language that a wide range of people, from visual effects artists in Hollywood to mission control at NASA, use to quickly solve problems. But you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to accomplish amazing things with it. This new course introduces programmers to Python by way of a microcontroller — CircuitPython — which is a Python-based programming language optimized for use on hardware.
CircuitPython’s hardware-ready design makes it easier than ever to program a variety of single-board computers, and this course gets you from no experience to working prototype faster than ever before. Codecademy’s interactive learning environment, combined with Adafruit’s highly rated Circuit Playground Express, present aspiring hardware hackers with a never-before-seen opportunity to learn hardware programming seamlessly online.
Whether for those who are new to programming, or for those who want to expand their skill set to include physical computing, this course will have students getting familiar with Python and creating incredible projects along the way. By the end, students will have built their own bike lights, drum machine, and even a moisture detector that can tell when it’s time to water a plant.
Visit Codecademy to access the Learn Hardware Programming with CircuitPython course and Adafruit to purchase a Circuit Playground Express.
Codecademy has helped more than 45 million people around the world upgrade their careers with technology skills. The company’s online interactive learning platform is widely recognized for providing an accessible, flexible, and engaging experience for beginners and experienced programmers alike. Codecademy has raised a total of $43 million from investors including Union Square Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, Thrive Capital, Naspers, Yuri Milner and Richard Branson, most recently raising its $30 million Series C in July 2016.
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