# CircuitPython Weekly for 16 March 2020

Video is available here [on YouTube](https://youtu.be/qFL8alNFczc) and [diode.zone](https://diode.zone/videos/watch/2e726960-228c-4703-ad85-1eedec3665e7).


Join here for the chat all week: http://adafru.it/discord


The CircuitPython Weekly happens normally at 2pm ET/11am PT on Mondays. Check the #circuitpython channel on Discord for notices of change in time and links to past meetings.  The meeting schedule is also in an “icalendar/ics” format calendar, which works with many calendar packages.  Copy and paste this URL into any compatible software: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical


CircuitPython development is sponsored by Adafruit. Please support them by purchasing hardware from https://adafruit.com.


Reminders: Podcast available on most services. Let us know if we’re missing some.
## 4:55 Community News


5:05 We are 17,000 people! Post going up later!
https://discord.gg/adafruit


5:38 The biggest worldwide online Show and Tell begins Wednesday, March 18th, 2020 at 7pm ET
http://adafruit.com/showandtell
https://youtu.be/VmVkX_7PkLs


6:24 micro:mag issue 7, CLUE 10 of 10!
http://go.micromag.cc/issue7


6:51 hackster.io gets a CLUE!
https://youtu.be/E7NJklkyCBA


7:05 CircuitPython is fast for prototypers
https://twitter.com/infosnek/status/1239334447423426561


7:29 What Is Adafruit IO?
https://youtu.be/bYhRhDvTP5c


7:50 March 12, 2020: added USB device support (tinyusb stack), clarified that 2MB PSRAM is supported, not 4MB:
https://esp32.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=14532


Video is posted: IoT Design Week with Microchip’s “Wizard of Make” Bob Martin and Adafruit
https://youtu.be/fu37Uf-CXNE


8:07 Open Hardware Summit video, lots of CircuitPython:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifin8nPZpGA


8:44 Free teaching resources for CircuitPython - Google Docs:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IFW0hVlbdIL8TCOloOHHzwv5pYj0YG106IjXT6b7Qq8/edit


## 10:05 State of CircuitPython, Libraries and Blinka
### 10:28 Overall
* 314 pull requests merged
  * 13 authors - RichardA1, sommersoft, TG-Techie, dherrada, hierophect, jreese, fgallaire, dglaude, kattni, geekguy-wy, brentru, jerryneedell, caternuson
  * 12 reviewers - sommersoft, tannewt, dherrada, ladyada, hierophect, kattni, makermelissa, dhalbert, brentru, jerryneedell, FoamyGuy, caternuson
* 14 closed issues by 9 people, 19 opened by 8 people


Lots of Pull Requests, but many were automated.  As always, giving reviews is a great way to get started contributing to CircuitPython.  5.0.0 has been very solid, maybe no need for 5.0.1.  Instead, consider 5.1.0 with ulab and goodies.  Libraries and blinka continue to grow.  So many people are seen in forums using this software.
### 13:08 Core
* 4 pull requests merged
  * 2 authors - hierophect, TG-Techie
  * 2 reviewers - hierophect, tannewt
* 9 open pull requests
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/2044 (Open 221 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/2366 (Open 97 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/2598 (Open 38 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/2652 (Open 20 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/2669 (Open 14 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/2675 (Open 13 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/2685 (Open 9 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/2705 (Open 2 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/2706 (Open 1 days)
* 5 closed issues by 4 people, 6 opened by 4 people
* 264 open issues
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues
* 6 active milestones
  * 5.x.0 - Features: 7 open issues
  * 5.x.x - Bug Fixes: 22 open issues
  * 6.0.0: 26 open issues
  * Libraries: 11 open issues
  * Long term: 195 open issues
  * Support: 4 open issues
  * -1 issues not assigned a milestone


* Core download stats available at https://circuitpython.org/stats
### 14:50 Libraries
* 310 pull requests merged
  * 11 authors - RichardA1, sommersoft, dherrada, jreese, fgallaire, dglaude, kattni, geekguy-wy, brentru, jerryneedell, caternuson
  * 11 reviewers - sommersoft, tannewt, dherrada, ladyada, kattni, makermelissa, dhalbert, brentru, jerryneedell, FoamyGuy, caternuson
  * Merged pull requests (significant number removed from notes. See [here](https://adafruit-circuit-python.s3.amazonaws.com/adabot/bin/reports/circuitpython_library_report_20200316.txt) for the full list:
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Touchscreen/pull/8 (Days open: 40)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_TestRepo/pull/25 (Days open: 31)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_RockBlock/pull/4 (Days open: 7)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_IL91874/pull/7 (Days open: 6)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Thermal_Printer/pull/13 (Days open: 6)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_BLE_Eddystone/pull/3 (Days open: 6)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_SSD1675/pull/5 (Days open: 5)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_IL0398/pull/6 (Days open: 4)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_DisplayIO_SSD1305/pull/7 (Days open: 4)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Requests/pull/22 (Days open: 4)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MSA301/pull/9 (Days open: 4)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_CursorControl/pull/17 (Days open: 3)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_SSD1325/pull/7 (Days open: 3)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_HT16K33/pull/70 (Days open: 2)
   * 9 closed issues by 6 people, 13 opened by 4 people
* https://circuitpython.org/contributing
  * 170 open issues
  * 139 open pull requests (Oldest: 434, Newest: 1)
Library updates in the last seven days:

**New Libraries**

 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_RockBlock](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_RockBlock)

**Updated Libraries**

 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_BLE_BroadcastNet](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_BLE_BroadcastNet)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_Wiznet5k](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Wiznet5k)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_IL91874](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_IL91874)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_CLUE](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_CLUE)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_HT16K33](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_HT16K33)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_SSD1675](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_SSD1675)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_Thermal_Printer](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Thermal_Printer)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_SHT31D](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_SHT31D)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_Debouncer](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Debouncer)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_APDS9960](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_APDS9960)



### 17:20 Blinka
* 0 pull requests merged
  * 0 authors - 
  * 0 reviewers - 
* 0 open pull requests
* 0 closed issues by 0 people, 0 opened by 0 people
* 36 open issues
  * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Blinka/issues
* PyPI Downloads in the last week: 4098
Number of supported boards: 38
## 18:08 Hug reports
21:39 @Andrew Tribble (missing meeting)
* Group hug to all


21:45 @anecdata (absent)
* @foamyguy For all of the in-depth community support on CircuitPython, and other troubleshooting.


21:54 @AnneB (lurking)
* Group hug to all


@cater (lurking) 


22:00 @CGrover (text only)
* Group hug to the team and community. I especially appreciate some of the recent work done to maintain a more uniform user interface, such as the change for LED matrix brightness.
* And to the maker community at large for stepping up to recent challenges to support the online community with free educational and teleworking tools. 


@charlesburnaford (lurking)


@dakota.redstone (lurking)


22:25 @danh
* @pt for being incredibly proactive, responsive, flexible, and communicative in keeping Adafruit running smoothly during the coronavirus crisis
* Group hug for a warm and supportive community
* @ATMakersBill for use cases about safe mode and brownout for solar-powered devices


@davep (lurking)


24:09 @dglaude (lurking)
* @MakerMelissa for bootstrapping me on the Bit:Buggy.
* @ladyada for accepting PR that adds support for Scroll pHAT HD in Adafruit_CircuitPython_IS31FL3731.
* @TonyDiCola for making the IS31FL3731 library in the first place.
* @MakerMelissa again for the text scrolling example.


24:43 @drew fustini (text only)
* Thanks to everyone who participated in the virtual Open Hardware Summit!
* Thanks to CircuitPython for being a role model for an online community, OHS used Discord effectively and also StreamYard (thanks pt!)
* Thanks to those that joined the #badge-hacking channel on the OHS discord and discussed concepts for CircuitPython apps:
https://discordapp.com/invite/38C57Uf


25:26 @foamyguy (absent today)
   * @De∫hipu for creating the Pew Pew devices. My Pew Pew M4 is scheduled to arrive this week, super excited to play with it!
   * @jerryn for testing out an issue with the RGB led on Particle devices
   * Group hug for this wonderful community. Getting more involved over the past few months has been incredible. I am very happy for all the people I’ve met and things I’ve learned along the way.
   * @tannewt, and @MakerMelissa for feedback on circuitpython.org downloads page tutorial links PR. As well as @rasponicc for initially adding many of those links.


26:14 @geekguy (lurking)


26:43 @hierophect
   * @tannewt for reviewing and approving a bunch of PRs last week
   * Thanks to everyone who stuck with the Open Source Hardware Summit despite it moving to virtual! There were some excellent talks and panels and it was great that we all got to see them despite COVID. Big shoutout to the organizers there for pulling that off so well. 
   * @sommersoft for helping me with some docs CI weirdness


27:44 @jeff e.
   * Group hug
   * Everyone who made the virtual Open Hardware Summit a success
   * @ladayada @tannewt @paintyourdragon for help with Protomatter.  The panel is BLARING away and blinding me with rainbows right now


28:27 @jerryn
   * Group hug
   * @foamyguy for the awesome support efforts.


28:38 @kattni
   * @foamyguy and @anecdata for taking on the CircuitPython Helpers role on Discord, and diving headfirst into the role
   * @anonengineering for PRing the contribution of a project to the Python on Hardware weekly newsletter
   * @foamyguy for helping with @anonengineering’s PR
   * @dherrada for plowing through the Pylint/Black update/implementation project
   * @foamyguy for always being on board to help with whatever
   * @Andrew Tribble for helping out a ton in the #help-with-circuitpython channel on Discord
   * @jerryn for catching an important missed reference in the Adafruit Community CoC
   * @sommersoft for putting in PRs to every library to update the CoC, and then turning around and patching every library when it was pointed out that I missed updating something in the version of the CoC used for the original update.


@kingerNorth (lurking)


@kjw (lurking)


29:39 @MakerMelissa
   * @Drew Fustini and everybody else involved with making the OSHWA conference such a great conference and for making it virtual because I was able to at least listen in.
   * @tannewt for Streaming on Saturday. I still need to watch it. :)
   * Group Hug


30:13 @marius_450 
   * @v923z for ulab in general, and for all his answers.
   * Collective hug : you are the most amazing tech community I know. Thank you.


30:49 @MrCertainly (text only)
   * Thank you to @Drew Fustini and all the organizers of the Open Hardware Summit for an amazing conference. This is *how* you do a virtual event. I hope smaller communities who can’t host an event in person will use this as a template.
   * Thank you to @tannewt (and @ladyada in the chat) for an excellent stream on Pi Day. It’s super useful to see troubleshooting, debugging, and the overall thought process when building tools.


@mscosti (lurking)


31:23 @sommersoft (text only)
   * @kattni & @foamyguy for the Code of Conduct PR reviews & merges. We did 220+ of them in under an hour!
   * Group hug


31:48 @Szymon (text only)
   * Thanks to @ladyada for leading awesome company and support Open Hardware and Software 
   * To @tannewt and @kattini all other contributors of CP for great work being done in software and learning guides. That is awesome.


18:38 @tannewt
   * @kattni and @dherrada for all of the Black and PyLint work
   * @jepler and @paintyourdragon for the upcoming protomatter (RGB display) work.
   * @ladyada and @pt for letting me stream on Saturday
   * @sommersoft, @foamyguy and @kattni for Code of Conduct patches and continued Adabot maintenance.
   * @axiomatic for looking into fixing RGB support on Particle Xenons
   * @oshwa for the awesome virtual summit
## 32:30 Status Updates
@anneb (lurking)


@cater (lurking)


35:27 @CGrover (text only)
   * Wrapped up the chronograph project coding and will post the repos soon.
   * Switching to some woodworking projects for a change of pace. Plan to get back to electronics and coding in a week or two. Will audit this meeting for the next one or two sessions and will postpone the exam.


@charlesburnaford (lurking)


@dakota.redstone (lurking)


35:52 @danh
   * Continued debugging of spurious flash writes on SAMD51 boards
   * Started CircuitPython version of all the Adafruit BLE board services used by the Bluefruit Playground app.
   * Up next with higher priority: BLE BBQ thermometer reverse engineering


@davep (lurking)


37:41 @dglaude (lurking)
   * Last Week: One projet a week keep the virus away
   * Driving @Pimoroni Scroll pHAT HD from Circuit Python by just adding a few lines in Adafruit_CircuitPython_IS31FL3731 : https://twitter.com/DavidGlaude/status/1238974062560411649?s=20
   * Enhanced version of TFT Candy Hearts with scroll: https://twitter.com/DavidGlaude/status/1239219159239741444?s=20
   * Replicating @MakerMelissa BLE controlled Bit:Buggy : https://gist.github.com/dglaude/3338c5ebd48bbd0d9f8b6c221ba7d07c (secret as @MakerMelissa might do a learn guide)
   * Next Week:
   * Seriously teleworking for the first time
   * Dunno because I did last week all the things I wanted to do next week...


38:26 @Drew Fustini (text only)
   * The OHS goodies with the CircuitPython wrist badges are at NYU which is currently closed due to COVID-19.  OSHWA hopes to ship to ticket holders by end of month but it depends on NYU policy.
   * I did not go to NYC so I do not have the production version of the badge.  Therefore, I’m going to do manual rework on an earlier prototype so I can get the BME680 sensor working
   * I plan to investigate the BLE functionality on the wrist badge.  Alex Camilo has the idea that the wrist badge could transmit contact info.


39:09 @foamyguy (absent today)
* Last week
   * Tutorial links for circuitpython.org downloads pages.
   * Documented and create issue for seesaw neopixel brightness behavior
   * Helping out merging code of conduct updates
* Next week
   * Get reacquainted with the learn guide system.
   * Working on decoding IR signals from some old wireless keyboards and word processors

@geekguy (lurking)


39:41 @hierophect

* Last week
    * Finished PulseIn
    * Got everything moved over to new names for F7 and H7 work, so the stm32f4 port is now just the stm port, and we have also swapped over to using TinyUSB’s repo for all the ST drivers
    * Refactoring how the port manages packages, since ST has a lot of them and they conflict between families
    * Lots of notes about F7 and H7 differences
* This week
    * Big list of Makefile and macro revisions to support new H7 and F7 differences
    * Thinking about how to incrementally add support to various modules that are already supported by the F4, since there’s considerable work to add some of them.
    * Hopefully do get something to compile for the H743 Nucleo 


45:20 @jepler

* Last week:
    * Watched some of the OHS sessions on Friday
    * Worked on CircuitPython bindings for a new LED panel driver called Protomatter.  Made big strides just this morning
    * Worked on F-strings which will be amazing to have (was that just last week? yay)
    * Fixed the meeting calendar until it worked on multiple different pieces of viewer software.  Add it to your favorite calendar app!
* This week:
    * Continuing work on Protomatter.  Expecting it to continue into a guide page, may round out my week(?)
    * If not, or when I need a break, I'll look at issues.  Possibly starting with the Xenon status LED problems issue
    * Remembering to do some PR reviews on the regular too
* Ongoing fun stuff:
    * Starting a new project to convert my light alarm clock to Adafruit Blinka and add .ics/icalendar support for alarm times.  First experience with Blinka, first with parsing icalendars.
    * Hmmm should do something more with Adafruit IO.  Log my local circuitpython building activity to it?


48:55 @jerryn

* Last week:
   * Finally submitted PR for rfm69 library -- waiting for review.
   * BTW had to merge upstream/master to get docs to build due to recent updates to build process.
   * Implemented the same changes for rfm9x -- will PR once rfm69 accepted so I can implement any changes first.
   * Confirmed/opened  an issue with the status LED on the Particle Xenon
* Next week
   * Submit rfm9x PR if rfm69 OK
   * Continue trying to improve RFM69/9x  -- not satisfied with current state
   * Play with toys.


51:01 @kattni

* Last week:
   * Published Feather Sense guide.
   * Worked with Erin (@firepixie) on getting code adapted for her staff project
   * Pylint/Black PRs
   * Started guide for Bonsai Buckaroo
   * Renamed Adafruit_CircuitPython_Radio to _BLE_Radio
   * Worked with @sommersoft to get CoC updated across all libraries - there had been enough drift in updates that an initial patch wasn’t viable, so it required making a PR to every lib, and then merging said PRs. (and then patching them all afterwards because I missed something)
* This week:
   * Library Monday: PR Edition
   * Continue working on Bonsai Buckaroo guide


@kingerNorth (lurking)


@kjw (lurking)


52:52 @MakerMelissa

* Last Week:
    * Tested some PRs on eInk displays to make sure they still worked
    * Worked on fixing some rotation issues with the capacitive display on the Raspberry Pi
    * Worked on guide for adding boards to PlatformDetect
    * Started on a guide for adding boards to Blinka
* This Week:
    * Continue working on guide for adding boards to Blinka


53:28 @marius-450 

* Last Week
    * Experimented a little with BLE, to be continued.
    * Added one fractal drawing (Quasicrystals), optimised with ulab (50s to 6s)
* This Week :
    * Translate my quizz buzzer repo to english and reading about making it a guide perhaps ?
    * Add new fractals to my lib
    * Experimentations to fill a bitmap more quickly
    * Or anything as freelance, times will be rough


@Mr. Certainly (lurking)


@mscosti (lurking)


56:08 @sommersoft (text only)

* Last Week:
   * Libraries and cookiecutter:
      * Patched the CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md. Then, patched the patches. Apologies again for the email explosion, if you got all the notifications.
   * actions-ci-circuitpython-libs (centralized CI script):
      *  Submitted PR to remove the pip installs for Pylint, Black, and Sphinx+theme.
   * Adabot:
      * Re-worked and re-enabled the library infrastructure validator that checks the version of Pylint used in CI.
      * During all that patching, discovered and fixed that the repo discovery function was missing some CircuitPython repos that are forks. This was caused by my own doing in the past, in an effort to reduce API requests. Didn't realize at the time that some of Adafruit's repos are actually forks.
      * With that, there are a few repos that didn't receive the Actions patch to move Pylint, Black, Sphinx installs.
* This Week:
      * Get the Actions patches done for those missed above.
      * Update circuitpython-org’s adabot to pull in the above changes.
      * (3rd attempt) Further research adabot using boto3 for core metrics in AWS.


@stargirl (lurking)


57:33 @Szymon (text only)

Last week:
  * Fight again with my ESP32 cooprocessor to make it working via SPI with SAMD51 on the board which I’ve created, unfortunately so far I’ve failed. I think, that I will need @brentru help in this subject (GitHub issue created: https://github.com/adafruit/nina-fw/issues/19)
  * Learning Git and GitHub to use it more on daily basis
      
This week:

  * Check and learn how to use more libraries for CircuitPython


33:02 @tannewt

  * Wrapped up initial sleep work on nRF52 and SAMD51 mostly
  * Fixing and finishing SAMD21 next
  * iMX and STM32 after that. They will likely be easier because they’ll have fewer things that depend on the existing clock.
  * Fixed up _bleio for new bleak version.
  * Worked on TinyLogicFriend this weekend.


## 58:19 In The Weeds
58:45 @kjw
* Debugging: CircuitPython has no debugger, leaves print-style debugging and testing in CPython. There’s likely to be an increase in the need for application debugging as larger boards (e.g. SAMD51 & nRF52840) allow larger programs. Has there been any discussion of a debugger for micropython or CircuitPython? Hardware solutions like JTAG/SWD debugger are going to be too low level to help the majority of the CircuitPython userbase. Python’s unittest works well from CPython for testing CircuitPython application libraries and pdb can be used from that. https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues/298 was one idea for keeping REPL active and (presumably) interleaving commands with the running code. Single stepping, breakpoints and variable inspection in Mu would be very nice…

1:05:40 @tannewt - peripheral focussed design

* @hierophect - FPGAs are cool 
* Well yes but actually no, too early to expensive
* @tannewt - https://groupgets.com/campaigns/710-orangecrab
      
1:20:07 @jepler - status of ulab vs 5.1.0

## 1:22:35 Wrap-Up
