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Arm AIoT Dev Summit December 2 – 3, 2019!

Arm AIoT Dev Summit, Mountain View, California USA, December 2 – 3, 2019. The Arm AIoT Dev Summit is a developer-focused conference that provides a platform for you to exchange knowledge, discuss real-world use cases and solutions, and get hands-on with expert-led, deep-dive training and workshops.

Adafruit hardware will be there!

Along with like-minded developers, data scientists, and innovators, you will experience technologies enabling the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics. Get your hands on free hardware worth up to $500 arm.com/AIoT-Dev-Summit

Fun things to do with the EDGE BADGE!

• TensorFlow Lite for EdgeBadge Quickstart – Adafruit Learning System.
• Sine Wave Demo for EDGE BADGE – Adafruit Learning System.
• Play animated GIFs on the EDGE BADGE – Adafruit Learning System.
• NES Emulator for EDGE BADGE – Adafruit Learning System.
• AND it of course works with MakeCode Arcade!

It’s beginning to look a lot like ADABOX-mas!

The next ADABOX from Adafruit ships in about 12 days! adafruit.com/adabox Curated Adafruit products, unique collectibles, and exclusive discounts. Delivered quarterly. Subscribe now or give as a gift! ADABOX.COM GET ONE NOW, IT IS CIRCUITPYTHON POWERED!! – YouTube.

It’s beginning to look like Ada-BOX-mas
Everywhere you go
Let all your ideas flow, for projects you want to show
With buttons and LEDs all aglow

It’s beginning to look like Ada-BOX-mas
Everything is grand
But the nicest thing on the shelf, is something you made yourself
With your own hands

A Circuit Playground with a speaker for sound
Is the wish of Barney and Ben
A Raspberry Pi with some LCD eyes
Is the hope of Janice and Jen
And friends at the hackerspace can’t wait to 3D print again

It’s beginning to look like Ada-BOX-mas
Everywhere you go
So grab a featherwing, let the piezo buzzer ring
And prototype a board for sensing snow

It’s beginning to look like Ada-BOX-mas
Time for oscilloscopes
Get your projects all debugged, then cozy up nice and snug
With some nice cocoa

Hackaday SuperCon recap!

There’s a lot to unpack, literally! Some of the team was at SuperCon, there were CircuitPython powered badges for all, and more!

“CircuitPython made it extremely accessible to customize” – Twitter.

Carlyn’s badge, first time using Python too!

Geek Mom Projects reviewed the badge!

Neato 🙂

No documentation needed!

Edge Badge hackers!

Erin Kennedy/ Erin RobotGrrl. Erin runs Robot Missions, a social enterprise in Ontario, Canada.

Erin hacked her badge into an autonomous tree planting robot! When started, it searches the area for a region with extra light, and then prompts the robot tender to confirm that it should drop the seedling and listens for “Yes” or “No” voice commands! – YouTube.

From Erin: The badge was a “collab between me, Sara Petkus, and Evan.”

“ The idea behind the robot was to make a simple example of how tech can be used to help our environment. There’s a movement happening right now called Team Trees, and so to plant 20 million trees or more, we will need some help from automation! Aerial and ground based robot swarms can help!”

• It uses the Adafruit Tensorflow Library
• Autonomous mode searches for light using the on board light sensor
• Once light was above a certain threshold, it would wait to hear the yes / no speech recognition example
• If yes, then it would plant a (figurative) tree sapling
• Buttons were used to test movement
• Uses a simple two channel motor driver and two servos – luckily there were just enough pins for these!
• Power input was the same battery and voltage regulator setup with Bowie: 2 cell lipo in, with two regulators for DC motors and servos
• DC motors were metal gear motors. Each side had independent control
• Lots of duct tape was used
• The robot body was a cereal box
• The tree sapling container was the top of the poster tube
• Reinforcements were plastic forks and knives for the suspension
• Further testing will be needed to get the speech recognition to work properly and further testing will be needed for retraining the model for custom words. But, this was a really fun and awesome start!! Pretty cool what possibilities are possible with ai at the edge
• It’s also cool because Bowie the shoreline cleanup robot uses Tensorflow on a Pi. So the more effort that goes into making these run with less power and more speed will help!!
• Thanks Adafruit for the badge at Supercon! And the help IRL and Discord! “

The latest Robot Missions video – YouTube and about their work.

“By empowering communities to embark on missions aimed at helping our planet using robots, we harness the power of citizen science to respond locally to these global challenges. At the heart of Robot Missions are Field Tests, bringing together a group of volunteers spanning technology, environmental, and educational communities. At the park, we operate the robot and pick up trash, with the public joining in too. For several, this is their introductory experience to robotics.”

Alex Whittemore – Twitter and site. Alex is a contractor working for the Jet Propulsion Lab just outside of Pasadena. He hacked his badge to record environmental CO2 levels and graph the data on the Edge Badge’s screen by connecting a CO2 sensor to the badge’s grove-compatible STEMMA port.

Additionally, he attached a laser to the Edge Badge speaker pin and used it to inject voice commands to a Google Home microphone from a distance, allowing him to hijack an unsuspecting Google Home base station.

Alex’s blog post with some nice pics and videos is here.

Tom A. Tom rewired the Edge Badge’s PDM mic to the I2S port on the SAMD51, allowing it to process streaming data. He used this and some clever software to turn the Edge Badge into an “audio oscilloscope” of sorts:

A blurb from Tom:

“I have been using Python for a few years and tried CircuitPython for the first time on Friday. With a little help from @no1089, I was up to speed by the end of the day, with new microphone connections made to the I2S port, to match the documentation of the existing Adafruit digital MEMS microphone. After probing the signals, clock and data looked good, and the example microphone code got me started. Combining this with the display code for the EDGE badge allowed me to show the microphone output versus time. This is the same display that you can see by attaching a microphone to an oscilloscope.” … “An early version of the code is on Github This was coded on Saturday night to the beat of loud techno during a Superconference 2019 party, so forgive my cut-and-paste programming! I already have better code and will release it Real Soon Now.”

Chris who helped Tom.

Chris Gervang and Thomas Sarlandie. Chris and Thomas made a Trinket M0 derived badge add on with IR transmit/receive LEDs called shIRtty. They used it along with their Supercon badges to remotely control a helium shark!

Github repo, Shark Pic, Shark Video.

Thomas Schucker Github Repo – Tom made his Edge Badge into an “Audio spectrum display for the Adafruit Edge Badge, using a custom FFT in CircuitPython!

The Adafruit Edge Badge needs to have pin D12 jumpered to D6, and pin TX jumpered to D5 in order for the PDM library to access the microphone on the board.”

Video with a laser hitting it! And another!

And some other photos, thanks Bryan / siddacious for this excellent recap!

Sophi Kravitz keynote speaker – 2020 Open Hardware Summit

Sophi Kravitz keynote speaker – 2020 Open Hardware Summit –

“Sophi Kravitz is equal parts electronics engineer, playground ride designer, and artist. She works as the Director of Product at Supplyframe where she builds partnerships that bring the hardware community closer together. Recently, she put together short videos about the Badgelife phenomenon and Hardware Security. Her next project is a video on chip counterfeiting. As a main instigator of the Hackaday Superconference, she also champions many initiatives around gender equality and works behind the scenes on Hackaday.io. Her first conference talk was at OHS 2013, and she has attended all but one of the summits since.”

Read more.

Explore Hardware (old and new) with CircuitPython

Scott presented about CircuitPython on GameBoys at the University of Washington in Bothell – YouTube. This is recorded from his laptop during the presentation. Slides are available here – GitHub.

Take Flight with Feather – Hackaday and Digi-Key

The Adafruit Feather is the latest platform for microcontroller development, and companies like Particle, Sparkfun, and Seeed Studios are producing Feather-compatible devices for development and prototyping. Now it’s your turn. Design a board to fit in the Feather ecosystem and we’ll manufacture it. The best project in the Take Flight With Feather contest will be sent off to pick and place machines and head straight to the Digi-Key warehouse!

To get started, take a look at the current Feather ecosystem and get acquainted with the GitHub repo filled with examples and tutorials.

For the Take Flight With Feather contest, we’re looking for the cool, the useful, the insane, and the practical. Most of all, we’re looking for manufacturability. Electron savant Lady Ada will be judging each board on the basis of manufacturability, with the best board moving on to the assembly line where it will be stocked at Digi-Key.

What’s a good design? We’re looking for submissions in the following categories:

• The Weirdest Feather — What’s the most ridiculous expansion board you can come up with?
• You’ll Cut Yourself On That Edge — We’re surrounded with bleeding-edge tech, what’s the coolest use of new technology?
• Retro Feather — Old tech lives on, but can you design a Feather to interact with it? Is it even possible to build a vampire Ethernet tap or an old acoustically-coupled modem?
• Assistive Tech — Build a Feather to help others. Use technology to improve lives.
• Wireless Feather — Add a new wireless technology to the Feather ecosystem.

The winning entry overall will be chosen for manufacturability, and will win a small manufacturing run of 100 boards or less and be stocked at Digi-Key. The number of boards in the manufacturing run will be determined by the winning design. Note: Because of the small run initially, there will be no profit or margin for the first few boards. If the board is well accepted and a larger run is planned, then a longer term business model will be addressed. The 5 winners in the 5 categories above will receive $100 Tindie gift certificates. To get started, start a project on hackaday.io and upload your project. Contest runs noon November 1 to noon December 31st. All times are in Pacific Standard Time.

Entries so far!

There are over 25+ entries so far, from what we were told this contest has had the most entries, the fastest, for hackaday.io contests! Here they are in order of how they are listed on the hackaday.io contest site.

• PoE-FeatherWing. Like the Adafruit Ethernet FeatherWing, but with Power over Ethernet built-in! by Patrick Van OosterwijckPatrick Van Oosterwijck.
• SpiderWing – Spider robot powered by Adafruit Feather boards and MicroPython by deshipu.
• u-blox ZED-F9P GPS Featherwing. A GPS Featherwing for the Adafruit Feather, using a high-precision GPS module from u-blox by sirmylesavery.
• MAX3421E FeatherWing by davedarko.
• Cedar Grove RoverWing. A stackable, LiPo-powered interface for connecting the Adafruit Trinket M0 to the Feather ecosystem by Cedar Grove Studios.
• Keyboard FeatherWing. A FeatherWing with a LCD, BB Q10 keyboard and a 5-way button by arturo182.
• AD9833 Waveform Generator FeatherWing. A frequency-precise sine/square/triangle waveform generator on a FeatherWing-compatible board by Cedar Grove Studios.
• u-blox SAM-M8Q GPS Featherwing. A GPS Featherwing for the Adafruit Feather, using a GPS module from u-blox. No external antenna required! by sirmylesavery.
• PewPew FeatherWing. A shield for Adafruit Feather boards with buttons and a LED matrix display, for simple games by deshipu.
• Feather Wing Isolated MOSFET driver. Drive MOSFET with proper signal and power isolation with any Feather boards by Dr.Stone.
• CNC FeatherWing. A Feather-compatible CNC control board, requires Pololu stepper motor drivers by arturo182.
• Kick Tic Tac Toe. Practice penalties on wall, accurate your shot, shout out in the hall! by manaschhabra.
• Quadcopter FeatherWing for Huzzah32. Let Huzzah32 fly by Iman.
• NeoPixel HD Feather Wing. Add-On Wing for Adafruit’s Feather boards – With a maximized number of NeoPixels: A 22×9 RGB LED Matrix by Alex.
• KeyWing. A FeatherWing with three keyboard keys by deshipu.
• Sensing and display FeatherWing. E-ink display with humidity, temperature, and airflow measurement with analog input terminal block & Grove header by CaptMcAllister.
• Pressure sensor shield for Feather. Pressure and temperature sensor with LED for pressure range indication. This fixture logs the pressure and temperature at a given time, by Vikram Seshadri.
• OctoSonar FeatherWing. Drive 8 HC-SR04 Ultrasonic sensors from your Feather project by Alastair Young.
• RECORD Feather Wing. A simple Feather Wing for recording audio from an internal or external mic to an SD card by Asher Gomez.
• Battery FeatherWing. A shield for powering Adafruit Feather board by deshipu.
• GameWing. This hack is a ‘Wing board for the Adafruit Huzzah32 providing game controller connectors, analog audio and video by bitluni.
• Gesture FeatherWing. A daughterboard with a capacitive gesture sensor for the Adafruit Feather boards by deshipu.
• The GearsNGenes ADS1115 FeatherWing. A device to enable more fun and experiments in circuit analysis by gearsNgenes.
• Cedar Grove Robot Friend FeatherWing. A passive FeatherWing adapter for stacking an Adafruit PyBadge or PyGamer onto a Crickit FeatherWing by Cedar Grove Studios.

Stop by hackaday.io for more details!

European Astro Pi Challenge – Python in Space

There were 545 entries from 23 countries for the European Astro Pi Challenge: Mission Space Lab! The 423 selected teams now get to write code for science experiments to be run on Astro Pis Ed and Izzy on the International Space Station! esa.int

Logitech Bundles Assistive Technology Switches

Logitech Gaming, working with AbleGamers and other groups, just released the Logitech G Kit for the XBox Adaptive controller. The kit includes 10 standard AT switches plus two variable input Triggers, two mounting boards and accessories for about $100 – YouTube.

Bill Binko of ATMakers.org “That’s Frikkin Huge! To buy that kit from traditional AT vendors would cost over $600 just for the switches. This is what happens when consumer electronics companies turn their eye on the AT space. There is an entire market waiting for devices they can use, and we should all be celebrating this amazing progress.”

Although these switches were designed to be used with the Xbox Adaptive Controller, they have standard AT 1/8″ jacks that can be used on a variety of assistive technology devices.

“Congrats first to Logitech G and AbleGamers for making this great kit, but also to Microsoft for making the XAC use standard AT interfaces. That makes all of these switches useful in things OTHER than the XAC such as speech generating devices, power chairs, adapted toys and more. Great Job!”, Bill said.

Visit this link for more information, and post by Chris Young @ Adafruit.

Adafruit Launches STM32F405 Feather Express
It’s the Fastest CircuitPython Dev Board Yet

Adafruit has begun sales of its fastest CircuitPython-compatible development board yet, the Adafruit STM32F405 Feather Express which runs the popular programming environment at 168MHz – Hackster.io

News from around the web!

Articulated ears, Mog, Spaceballs style, made with Adafruit – Twitter.

Watering plants with CircuitPython – Twitter.

Cedar Grove Robot Friend FeatherWing. A passive FeatherWing adapter for stacking an Adafruit PyBadge or PyGamer onto a Crickit FeatherWing – hackaday.io

Claire is learning Python by making games and playing with CircuitPython “So friendly, much hardware, very data” – Twitter.

Web Bluetooth API to communicates with Circuit Playground Bluefruit via the browser – Twitter.

Fabric coated with latex, Adafruit electronics – Twitter.

Feather takes flight with the MAX30101WING board is a rapid development board designed to quickly develop application firmware for the MAX30101 pulse oximetry sensor – Maxim.

pymanoid – Humanoid robotics prototyping environment based on OpenRAVE – GitHub.

OpenMV now has TensorFlow Lite and Person Detection – OpenMV news, and YouTube.

Jacob Kaplan-Moss’s “My Python Development Environment, 2020 Edition.”

All about code just created a “Python in Education” Discord Server with a focus on using Python in and out of the classroom – Join here.

Jupyter Notebooks Best Practices: Use Virtual Environments by Zain.

Video game console logos – reaganray.

Open Source TinyUSB Stack Gets Tri-FIFO Support Courtesy of Sean Cross – Hackster.io

Picolibc Version 1.1 from Keith.

Understanding Convolutional Neural Networks: Making a Handwritten Digit Calculator – YouTube.

Bill from AT Makers spent the day with GRiP, WECE, SHPE, Roaring Riptide and other groups adapting toys for Christmas on the University of Florida campus – YouTube.

Prototype of Nightstalker goggles made with NeoPixels – Instagram.

Nice pumpkin eyes from Jean – Facebook.

Here’s a new “radio” module, it has a very simple, beginner-friendly API for sending arbitrary bytes and strings over BLE – YouTube, and GitHub.

A nice PR from Jepler, call background tasks only once per ms – GitHub.

OBS is ace, but it has SOOOO many things that it can do and when you are recording a video you need quick access to key features and so a custom controller is needed! – bigl.es

Reddit’s shower thoughts, now on the PyPortal – Twitter.

Brian wants us all to watch out for rule 9 – Twitter.

For girls in science, the time is now. Programs in science, technology, engineering, and math are boosting a new generation of female students—and countering some familiar barriers to success – National Geographic.

New SAMD51 errata and PDF. The change from previous errata doc is that they added that VREF temperature sensors are not supported (we did sorta get them to work, but not with the specified reference voltages).

Also there is now a Rev D of the silicon which does fix some of the other errata. They talk about EFP vs non-EFP versions: I haven’t been able to figure out what “EFP” is.

Giant analog CO2 meter sweeps away doubt, Instructables via Hackaday.

MicroPython asyncio support coming soon – GitHub. Looks like pycopy was refactored?

We now have updated the guide to include a Colab script that can train in a web browser and upload the final training results to a Google Drive when complete – learn more in the Adafruit Learning System!

Ada tote, by Caitlinsdad of course! – Twitter.

Take the Survey – a project of Nation of Makers, this is the 2019 Survey of Makerspaces, they’re looking for members and leaders of makerspaces (whether they be makerspaces, biospaces, hackerspaces, art spaces, you name it, wherever they are at) to fill out the annual survey so they can continue their work of creating a longitudinal dataset that tells them about the impacts that these spaces are having across the country and around the world – Survey is here.

Mentorship Minute: Getting Un Stuck. An episode of Profitable Python by Ben McNeill.

Dependencies Handling in Python by Julien Danjou.

pip cheat sheet: Get to know the most useful pip commands to help you install, manage, and use Python software packages- PDF.

matplotlib.pyplot.xkcd – matplotlib.org

Trying out the Edge Badge with the TensorFlow micro speech demo – YouTube.

Overwatch Frankenzarya cannon – Twitter.

Open Source FTDI FT2232 JTAG and UART Adapter Board – MCU on Eclipse.

Reverse Engineering the iColor Flex Protocol – Back in the early 2000’s–at least a decade before there were NeoPixels or WS2812b LEDs, Color Kinetics introduced flexible color changing LED string lights – BikerGlen.

Masterclass: Coding and Physical Computing, includes CircuitPython powered hardware, San Francisco, Dec 12th – Invent to Learn.

LoRa GPS Tracker – Instructables.

Pwn the ESP32 Forever: Flash Encryption and Sec. Boot Keys Extraction – LimitedResults. And… Security Advisory concerning fault injection and eFuse protections – Espressif.

Sneak Peek of PineTime Smart Watch… And why it’s perfect for teaching IoT.

.NET Jupyter Notebooks – Scott Hanselman.

Bantam Tools is celebrating their New Peekskill, New York, headquarters … this is pretty cool, a NY based manufacturing company opening up. We use the Bantam Tools Desktop PCB Milling Machine everyday at Adafruit.

Programming the Adafruit Feather STM32F405 Express with STM32CubeIDE – YouTube.

imcat: Show any image in a terminal window – GitHub.

Pocket PC is back, well, sorta. This is the Pocket Popcorn Computer called the Pocket PC. It’s renderings for now and we signed up. It would be cool to have Blinka on it and a hackport / STEMMA connection – pocket.popcorncomputer.com

Handy tip: How to Always Copy & Paste Text Without Formatting in Mac – Makeuseof.com

GitHub Archive Program – Preserving open source software for future generations. Get your code into the GitHub Arctic Code Vault by 02/02/2020 – GitHub.

From GitHub Universe – The new search experience gives you high relevance exact match results in your repository, with case sensitivity and whole word match, sign up here – GitHub.

From GitHub Universe – Take the burden off any single contributor and distribute workload evenly across your team with code review assignment. Select round robin or load balance and they’ll do the rest. Now available in public beta for users in organizations – Twitter.

From GitHub Universe – GitHub for mobile. Review lines of code, chime in on a design discussion, merge changes, and more – github.com/mobile

GitHub workflow easter egg: On a PR, after making changes requested by a core dev, instead of writing “I have made the requested changes; please review again”, one may instead write “I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition” – Twitter.

Testing Color Contrast & Simulating Color Blindness with the Firefox Accessibility Inspector – YouTube.

#ICYDNCI What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? micro:mag Issue #6 – Build a Robot.

PyDev of the Week: Martin Uribe on Mouse vs Python

CircuitPython Weekly November 11th, 2019 on YouTube.

Coming soon

First up, the MCP2221 is a really low cost USB->GPIO adapter that has ADC/DAC/GPIO/I2C/UART support. The FT232H is more powerful in some ways, but we like the simplicity and cheap BoM of this chip. We thought it could make a great USB C -> I2C adapter with GPIO breakouts.

Next: some breakouts! The BNO080 is a bosch 9-DoF with an ATSAMD20. Hillcrest added IMU code so you can use it for absolute-orientation uses without needing AHRS or Madgwick code wrangling. Now in STEMMA QT format! It’s a little larger than most STEMMA’s cause we have full level shifting circuitry for all the pins.

The LSM9DS1 is a 9-DoF without a coprocessor, but it’s pretty cheap! We’ve already got a breakout for this chip, but we’d like to STEMMAfy it so it can be used in tethered applications a lot easier.

The BH1750 and friends are common low-cost light/lux sensors.

LIS3xx breakout – we’ll be able to use this layout to STEMMify the LIS3DH breakout we have, and also support the higher-g LIS331 and super-high-g H3LIS331.

Bluetooth enabled, shake controlled interactive snow globe! CircuitPython running on the Circuit Playground Bluefruit. Learn Guide coming soon – Twitter.

Support for XinaBox CC03 and CS11 – GitHub.

Who makes the makers?

New Learn Guides!

Bluetooth Turtle Bot with CircuitPython and Crickit from John Park

No-Solder LED Disco Tie with Bluetooth from Collin Cunningham

Musical Walking Stick with Circuit Playground from Dano Wall

Quickstart using Adafruit eInk/ePaper displays with CircuitPython from Anne Barela

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 the CircuitPython.org Contributing page. We’ve included open pull requests and issues from the libraries, 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 196!

New Libraries!

Here’s this week’s new CircuitPython libraries:

• Adafruit_CircuitPython_DisplayIO_SSD1305

Updated Libraries!

Here’s this week’s updated CircuitPython libraries:

• Adafruit_CircuitPython_framebuf
• Adafruit_CircuitPython_WS2801
• Adafruit_CircuitPython_RGB_Display
• Adafruit_CircuitPython_SSD1305

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:

What is the team up to this week?

Let’s find out!

Bryan

This week I’ve been working on the CircuitPython and Arduino drivers for the LSM6DSOX, a new IMU from ST with lots of cool built in features, like a pedometer mode! We haven’t added that one just yet, but by all means submit a PR ;).

I also brought up the ST ISM330DHCX which is a very similar sensor. Similar enough to use the same PCB. With any luck this one will be out in record time.

I’ve also just returned from the Hackaday Superconference, where I had an incredible time meeting with, hacking next to, and being inspired by some of the most creative and kind people I’ve ever met. Sophi, Mike, Elliot, and the rest of the folks behind the SuperCon deserve all the kudos and more for organizing and running a con that fosters an amazing community of people. I’ve never met so many nice, inspiring, engaging, and creative people, and I’ve never made so many new friends in such a short amount of time. SuperCon has set the high water mark for conferences of any sort, both in content and community.

As if that wasn’t enough, SuperCon 2019 raised the bar by lightyears for how much Open Source goodness can be packaged in a single badge. It deserves its own blog post or more, but in short, Jeroen/Sprite_TM and co built an FPGA based badge running a custom gateware that included, among other things, two RISC-V processors, a PIC mcu, and several peripherals including a synth engine. Attendees could hack on it from the hardware to the firmare/C level, all the way down to changing the Verilog that defined the hardware structure within the FPGA.

Truly amazing.

Dan

We have merged the updated BLE API changes in CircuitPython and the adafruit_ble library. Expect to see a 5.0.0-beta.0 release of CircuitPython shortly!

Lucian

This week I worked on wrapping up the final edits of UART, displayio, and cleanup PRs for the stm32 port, including us_delay, board defaults, and DAC auto shutoff. This week I’ll be adding the NeoPixel module and creating the definitions number of new boards, such as the Meowbit, the PybNano, and a 411 “Blackpill” style board. I’ll also be continuing cleanup tasks like improving the microcontroller module, revising the stm32 clock system, and fixing old missing features like os.random.

Kattni

Ever wish you had your own echolocation? Now you can with an ultrasonic distance sensor! This week, I created a new Ultrasonic Sonar Distance Sensors guide for the HC-SR04 and US100. Learn how to wire them up, install the necessary libraries, and run code to read the distance values from the sensors using CircuitPython. The US-100 also works with Linux and Python using the Adafruit Blinka library. Next up is a new guide for the new Mini GPS module which works with I2C and UART, and includes STEMMA QT connectors to make it super simple to get started. In the meantime, I’m working on wrapping up the Python updates to any CircuitPython guides still needing them. Keep an eye on the Adafruit Blog and the Python on Microcontrollers newsletter for any new and updated guides!

Melissa

I finished updating the 1.5” and 2.4”Monochrome OLED guide, the 2.3” Monochrome OLED Guide, and the 2.7” Monochrome OLED Guide by adding CircuitPython and Python sections. I also wrote the SSD1305 displayio Driver, fixed the SSD1305 Framebuf driver. You can check out the guides at here:

• 1.5” & 2.4” Monochrome 128×64 OLED Display Module.
• 2.3” Monochrome 128×32 OLED Display Module.
• 2.7” Monochrome 128×64 OLED Display Module.

I also wrote a displayio driver for the SSD1305 monochrome OLED displays. I made some improvements to the Gizmo Helper library examples and added both of these libraries to the bundle.

I’m going through the Drivers and Learn Guide code and updating it so that everything works with the new CircuitPython 5.0 as well as the current CircuitPython 4.1.

Upcoming events!

Arm AIoT Dev Summit, Mountain View, California USA, December 2 – 3, 2019. The Arm AIoT Dev Summit is a developer-focused conference that provides a platform for you to exchange knowledge, discuss real-world use cases and solutions, and get hands-on with expert-led, deep-dive training and workshops – arm.com/AIoT-Dev-Summit

TechAhoy Inc. is a nonprofit makerspace located in Queens, NY building tech literacy by educating, encouraging and empowering community members. Some classes are coming up!

“We are planning two family workshops that will be hosted over the weekend: 1. Code Together – learn to code with your kids using a Circuit Playground Express, an amazing board from Adafruit and 2. Light up the Night – learn how to add LEDs and EL wire to jackets, hats, and more. We are also offering the Code in Python class on Saturday December 7th at 3PM!”

Scott is speaking at PyCascades about Python’s Next Decade and Us. It’s February 8th and 9th, 2020.

“PyCascades is a two-day, single-track Python conference. We previously hosted PyCascades in Vancouver and Seattle. For our third iteration in 2020 we’ll be in Portland, Oregon USA. PyCascades is 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.”

April 15-23, 2020, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA – The PyCon 2020 conference, which will take place in Pittsburgh, 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 2020.

Latest releases

CircuitPython’s stable release is 4.1.0 and its unstable release is 5.0.0-alpha.5. New to CircuitPython? Start with our Welcome to CircuitPython Guide.

20191118 is the latest CircuitPython library bundle.

v1.11 is the latest MicroPython release. Documentation for it is here.

3.8.0 is the latest Python release.

1462 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 – Find a dream job, find great candidates!

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.

14,989 thanks!

The Adafruit Discord community, where we do all our CircuitPython development in the open, reached over 14,989 humans, thank you! Join today! https://adafru.it/discord

Discord now offers “server boosts”. We have 31 on our server (level 3!), unlocking some good features for the community: +100 emojis for a total of 250, 384 Kbps audio, a vanity URL, 100 mb uploads for all members (and all the things we have now, like the server banner). Stop by and boost 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

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.

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.