ICYMI (In case you missed it) – Tuesday’s Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter from AdafruitDaily.com went out – if you missed it, subscribe now!

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The NEW EduBlocks released!

It’s here! Introducing the brand new EduBlocks modal editor! Code Python 3, Raspberry Pi, micro:bit & CircuitPython with ease using Python and EduBlocks!

Try it out: https://app.edublocks.org

Website for more info: https://edublocks.org

Learn site: https://learn.edublocks.org

First steps in CircuitPython, a HackSpace Magazine feature article

Ditch the compiler and get coding the interactive way in the latest issue of HackSpace magazine, issue 18: Pages 84 to 89 – HackSpace site & PDF download.

CircuitPython snakes its way to Papyr

CircuitPython support is coming for the Papyr, a Nordic nRF52840 based ePaper display by Electronut Labs. Set up docs, Tindie, and Twitter.

Here is some drawing code, in progress – GitHub.

Codecademy CircuitPython course making the rounds

Codecademy + Adafruit Launched Hardware Course – dev.to

Python slithers into the pages of 2600 Magazine

The Spring 2019 issue of 2600 Magazine, The Hacker Quarterly, has a CircuitPython PyPortal project on pages 52-53, CITIZEN ENGINEER – 2600.

Game Boy turns 30, let the games begin again

It’s no secret we’re working on bringing easy to code and easy to develop gaming platforms to CircuitPython, along with some great hardware… What inspires us? The Nintendo Game Boy is one for sure, and this week/month you’ll see a lot celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Game Boy. We’ll be including a lot of retro gaming resources, from Python to Pico-8.

Game Boys have infinite lives. At 30, they live on in unexpected ways – L.A. Times.

Gameduino 2/3/3X asset converter – GitHub.

Celebrate Game Boy’s 30th with Retronauts’ 213th – Retronauts.

Drag and drop Game Boy game maker for Windows, Mac and Linux – gbstudio.dev

OpenEmu, open source video game emulation – openemu.org

KiGB, Game Boy Emulator.

PyPortal … 9 out of 10 in HackSpace Magazine

VERDICT! “The best hackable out- of-the-box IoT display available at the moment.” Pages 126 to 179 – PDF.

MicroPython is turning 6 next week

Next week is MicroPython’s 6th birthday! There was some debate about which day in April is the birthday day, so we asked the creator Damien George and we have the official dates.

29th April 2013: first line of code written (in private, before anyone knew about it, before it was even called Micro-Python)

17th Sept 2013: first code running on a microcontroller, on the very first prototype of the pyboard

2nd Oct 2013: register micropython.org

4th Oct 2013: first commit in what is now the main repository

late Dec 2013: source code up on GitHub

21st June 2014: last of the Kickstarter rewards sent out (for the first Kickstarter)

Happy Birthday MicroPython!

Thousands on their way to PyCon

Thousands of these little CircuitPython Digi-Key PyCon editions are heading to PyCon!. Here’s how each one was tested – YouTube.

News from around the web!

The Nightscout Project on an Adafruit PyPortal. The background color is based on blood glucose level which will go purple if the data grows stale. It is based heavily on Scott Hanselman’s repo but this device will incorporate alerting + notifications. It can be used for multiple people – Twitter, & GitHub.

Updates and more to the CircuitPython README.rst – GitHub.

PyPortal project using the AirVisual API dashboard. The background color changes to reflect the air quality level – Twitter, & YouTube.

Jeff’s “PiPortal” using a PyPortal to monitor Pi things ?? – Twitter.

CircuitPython based kits are available now for Boston teachers! Borrow an engineering kit to bring STEM to your classroom! Check it out at – teachfirstbyte.org/loaner-program

Organic Trail on the Hallowing – Twitter.

CedarGrove’s Eurorack CV quantizer allows setting min/max in and out limits, hysteresis (for noise reduction), and steps. Parameters are set via a knob or from six analog CV inputs using CircuitPython – Twitter, & YouTube.

John’s custom 3 Button CircuitPython keyboard – furcean.com

DIY FYI: Using a MAX7219 with an LED Matrix by Blitz City DIY – YouTube.

Looks like the PyLadies Dublink talk by Vicky went great – Twitter.

PyPortal Tweet display, via Reddit – Photos.

CircuitPython_Atom_helper is a small Python script used as a helper for CircuitPython development with Atom – GitHub.

The Adafruit Learning System has a new feature: any product ID has all the guides associated with it. For example, the PyPortal is product ID 4116 and here are all the guides – learn.adafruit.com

A preview from Sophy: a tutorial for BareConductive of a touch-capacitive headpiece from the Staff of Ra in Indiana Jones. It uses an Adafruit NeoPixel + Trinket M0 Express programmed in CircuitPython and is painted with conductive paint – Twitter.

CrickitSnek — snek on the Adafruit Crickit – keithhp.com andalso check out the snek-balloon example.

Laser-Cut Jewelry in HackSpace 18, by Sophy Wong.

BBC micro:bit MicroPython speech module – microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io

Build Your Own Custom MicroPython Firmware for the ESP8266 on Windows – YouTube.

Want to design your own TILES or ADAPTER for the pyboard D? The design files are here – Pyboard D-series design resources.

Chinese language MicroPython books, MicroPython tutorial V2.0 officially released – eeworld.com.cn

Pimoroni is working on a handheld gamer board. It looks like it may use a beefy ARM processor, so we asked for Python support of course! – Twitter.

Programming Environment for Simplified JavaScript – GitHub.

10 Top Reasons Python will be Popular in Web Development in 2019 – LinkedIn.

The Python Software Foundation launched their first ever Annual Report, a lot of good insights as to what, where, and how the foundation works to empower and help people learning and using Python – python.org

Pyodide: Bringing the scientific Python stack to the browser – GitHub, & Mozilla has some Discord Hubs bot project as well.

Adafruit Pi servo HAT, Raspberry Pi Zero W, Python Flask and some servos! – Twitter.

More artsy images of Boldport PCBs posted – GitHub.

The Google Cloud IoT Device SDK for Embedded C is an easy-to-port, open-source C library that connects low-end IoT devices to Google Cloud IoT Core – GitHub.

Using Python to analyze Game of Thrones by Rocky Kev.

expressPython – A small Python editor for learning and competitive programming – GitHub.

Buggy Python Code: The 10 Most Common Mistakes That Python Developers Make – toptal.com

The Infocom Cabinet: Binders and Folders of Infocom, Inc. (1981-1987). A collection of digitized scans from a large cache of documents related to the game publisher Infocom, Inc. of Cambridge, MA. Assembled by Steven Meretzky of Infocom – archive.org. Goes great with Historical Source – GitHub.

#ICYDNCI What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? Learn Hardware Programming with CircuitPython at Codecademy.

CircuitPython Weekly meeting recording for April 22th, 2019 on YouTube.

PyDev of the Week: Dane Hillard on Mouse vs Python

Made with Mu

The Mu editor is now running on the Nvidia Jetson Nano. The board is running Linux Tegra Ubuntu, connected to an Adafruit Trinket M0 – Twitter.

Tooling Tuesday PySerial – bigl.es

Coming soon

4-H boards! This version is 4-H themed, for use by anyone, but comes in a special green color and with the 4-H emblem on the back, to celebrate the positive youth development and mentoring organization. 4-H’s reach and depth are unmatched, reaching kids in every corner of America – from urban neighborhoods to suburban schoolyards to rural farming communities. The 4-H network of 500,000 volunteers and 3,500 4-H professionals provides caring and supportive mentoring to all 6 million 4-H’ers, helping them grow into true leaders today and in life that has inspired 6 million members.

A couple of variations and experiments with the CircuitPython-based gamer and badge.

The goal is to make it reasonably easy to port from one CircuitPython gaming machine to another. More to come over the next few months, prototype PCBs on OSH Park.

Fresh PCBs for the Air Lift lites!

New Learn Guides!

Bluetooth Controlled NeoPixel Lightbox from Dave Astels

PyPortal Tides Viewer from Carter Nelson

PyPortal Thingiverse Viewer from John Park

AD8495 Analog Output K-Type Thermocouple Amplifier from Kattni

League of Legends Level Trophy for PyPortal from John Park

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 147!

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 1913 28301 Adafruit_CircuitPython_Register 347 4297 Adafruit_CircuitPython_NeoPixel 311 4388 Adafruit_CircuitPython_BusDevice 289 9791 Adafruit_CircuitPython_PCA9685 265 2186 Adafruit_CircuitPython_Motor 240 2555 Adafruit_CircuitPython_ServoKit 182 1809 Adafruit_CircuitPython_CharLCD 130 8283 Adafruit_CircuitPython_framebuf 124 730 Adafruit_CircuitPython_BME280 114 1752

Upcoming events!

Happening April 26th and 27th 2019 in Chicago IL, USA, this will be the first and largest gathering of hardware developers using KiCad. Talks at the conference will span hardware design, revision control, scripting, manufacturing considerations, proper library management and getting started developing the underlying tools. All talks have been listed on the conference site. Additionally, there will be contests, roundtable discussions with the developers and hands-on demos to deepen knowledge of hardware design and using KiCad.

Is this a conference only for current users of KiCad? No! Attendees will learn general concepts around PCB design, hardware creation and developing products for the market. Attendees include hardware and software developers from around the world, including members of the core KiCad development team out of CERN in Switzerland.

Attend this unconventional conference to learn more about how to build your next hardware project using open source, extensible tools. Join industry figures (and sponsors) like Digikey, Adafruit, Supplyframe and Bantam Tools. Interact with manufacturing experts from OSHpark, Royal Circuits, Aisler and SnapEDA. Meet and get to know others in the hardware community, who regularly are creating new hardware for fun and profit – kicad-kicon.com

PyCon AU has recently announced their Call for Proposals.

Digi-Key + Adafruit @ PyCon!

PyCon 2019 returns May 1–9, 2019 to Cleveland, OH. USA – with talks, tutorials, sprints, and more!

Big news! Digi-Key and Adafruit have teamed up for PyCon 2019 so every attendee (about 4,000!) will receive a SPECIAL EDITION Circuit Playground Express, running … CircuitPython.

This effort is to get Python on hardware to the most folks out there, at the events that bring people together.

This is just one of many efforts we’re teaming up with Digi-Key to continue to fuel all the developers from beginners to pro, using Python on microcontrollers.

What else is happening? The CircuitPython team will be running several Open Spaces sessions (as they did last year), showing how to use CircuitPython on the Digi-Key / Adafruit PyCon special edition Circuit Playground Express. We’ll have extra addons to play with also: potentiometers, NeoPixel strips, and servos. The team will be running a CircuitPython Sprint for several days to work on CircuitPython libraries and CircuitPython core code. BYOMUSB “Bring your own Micro USB” cables, we’ll have some to borrow during the sprints/sessions, as well as some USB C adapters, good idea to bring one too!

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.

Scott will be leading a talk at the Python Language Summit, History of CircuitPython. The Python Language Summit is an event for the developers of Python implementations (CPython, PyPy, Jython, and so on) to share information, discuss our shared problems, and — hopefully — solve them – pycon.org/2019/events/language-summit

We will have a lot more updates, stay tuned to the Adafruit blog, Twitter, Discord, and more!

Latest releases

CircuitPython’s stable release is 3.1.2 and its unstable release is 4.0.0-beta.7. New to CircuitPython? Start with our Welcome to CircuitPython Guide.

20190420 is the latest CircuitPython library bundle.

v1.10 is the latest MicroPython release. Documentation for it is here.

3.7.3 is the latest Python release. The latest pre-release version is 3.8.0a3.

1160 Stars Like CircuitPython? Star it on GitHub!

Downloads are now available from circuitpython.org! This site makes it much easier to select the correct file and language for your board. The downloads page is here. Here are the latest boards added! There are 53+ boards!

Updates:

AirLift lite board added by Adafruit.

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.

jobs.adafruit.com

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. Not sure how to use the jobs board? We now have a video! – YouTube.

multiply.graphics is looking for a CircuitPython developer to help with basic and intermediate level NeoPixel sequencing – Instagram.

11,821 thanks!

The Adafruit Discord community, where we do all our CircuitPython development in the open, reached over 11,821 humans, thank you! Join today! https://adafru.it/discord

We updated awesome-circuitpython, the comprehensive, curated collection of all things CircuitPython – GitHub.

This week we have updated the boards in the hardware list as well as additional news items.

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.