Hardware Hacking Made Easy With CircuitPython

Summary Learning to program can be a frustrating process, because even the simplest code relies on a complex stack of other moving pieces to function. When working with a microcontroller you are in full control of everything so there are fewer concepts that need to be understood in order to build a functioning project. CircuitPython is a platform for beginner developers that provides easy to use abstractions for working with hardware devices. In this episode Scott Shawcroft explains how the project got started, how it relates to MicroPython, some of the cool ways that it is being used, and how you can get started with it today. If you are interested in playing with low cost devices without having to learn and use C then give this a listen and start tinkering! Announcements Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great. When you’re ready to launch your next app or want to try a project you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so take a look at our friends over at Linode. With 200 Gbit/s private networking, scalable shared block storage, node balancers, and a 40 Gbit/s public network, all controlled by a brand new API you’ve got everything you need to scale up. And for your tasks that need fast computation, such as training machine learning models, they just launched dedicated CPU instances. Go to pythonpodcast.com/linode to get a $20 credit and launch a new server in under a minute. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show! You listen to this show to learn and stay up to date with the ways that Python is being used, including the latest in machine learning and data analysis. For even more opportunities to meet, listen, and learn from your peers you don’t want to miss out on this year’s conference season. We have partnered with organizations such as O’Reilly Media, Dataversity, and the Open Data Science Conference. Go to pythonpodcast.com/conferences to learn more and take advantage of our partner discounts when you register. Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the newsletter, and read the show notes. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions I would love to hear them. You can reach me on Twitter at @Podcast__init__ or email hosts@podcastinit.com) To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends and co-workers Join the community in the new Zulip chat workspace at pythonpodcast.com/chat Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Scott Shawcroft about CircuitPython, the easiest way to program microcontrollers Interview Introductions How did you get introduced to Python? Can you start by explaining what CircuitPython is and how the project got started? I understand that you work at Adafruit and I know that a number of their products support CircuitPython. What other runtimes do you support? Microcontrollers have typically been the domain of C because of the resource and performance constraints. What are the benefits of using Python to program hardware devices? With the wide availability of powerful computing platforms, what are the benefits of experimenting with microcontrollers and their peripherals? I understand that CircuitPython is a friendly fork of MicroPython. What have you changed in your version? How do you structure your development to avoid conflicts with the upstream project? What are some changes that you have contributed back to MicroPython? What are some of the features of CircuitPython that make it easier for users to interact with sensors, motors, etc.? CircuitPython provides an easy on-ramp for experimenting with hardware projects. Is there a point where a user will outgrow it and need to move to a different language or framework? What are some of the most interesting/innovative/unexpected projects that you have seen people build using CircuitPython? Are there any cases of someone building and shipping a production grade project in CircuitPython? What have been some of the most interesting/challenging/unexpected aspects of building and maintaining CircuitPython? What is in store for the future of the project? Keep In Touch @tannewt on Twitter Website tannewt on GitHub Picks Tobias Wings Of Fire book series Scott Brandon Sanderson The Wheel Of Time Series Mist Born Links Adafruit CircuitPython MicroPython Podcast Interview Microcontroller Arduino Microsoft MakeCode NodeBots Espruino I2C Hackspace Magazine Adafruit Blinka learn.adafruit.com Scott Hanselman Blog Post Reflow Oven Adafruit Crickit – Creative Robotics Platform Adabox Moore’s Law SparkFun DigiKey The intro and outro music is from Requiem for a Fish The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA