# CircuitPython Weekly for October 26th, 2020

NOTE: The US hasn’t switched daylight saving time yet so if you are outside the US the time may be different! See here to check the time: https://everytimezone.com/?t=5f961180,438


Video is available here [on YouTube](https://youtu.be/3UIsmOIAhJg).


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. Meeting times are also available in iCal format using the following link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical for use with standard calendar applications or in your browser: https://open-web-calendar.herokuapp.com/calendar.html?url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical


If you want to be able to participate in the meeting by speaking, you will need to be added to the @circuitpythonistas role on Discord. Please ask any one of the moderators or admins to add you if you’d like to join.


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.
________________
## 4:23 Community News
### A VSCode plugin for CircuitPython workflow
 VSCode plugin for CircuitPython 

Joe DeVivo has released a free plug-in for the Microsoft VSCode editor (also free) to bring the entire CircuitPython workflow into a single place within the editor: vscode-circuitpython. It includes:
* A library manager
* Serial console
* Autocomplete
More - Visual Studio Marketplace and GitHub.
### 4:51 Learn about data science and coding with Fei from Over the Moon
 Learn about data science and coding 

Inspired by the new Netflix Original, “Over the Moon,” Microsoft is launching three new Microsoft Learn modules that guide learners through beginning concepts in data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. The new Explore Space with “Over the Moon” learning path includes three parts:
* Plan a Moon Mission using the Python Pandas Library – 
* Predict Meteor Showers using Python and VC Code – 
* Use AI to Recognize Objects in Images using Azure Custom Vision – 
Read more - Microsoft.
### 5:27 A Hand Sanitizer use counter
 Sanitizer "Scoreboard" 

Teacher Sean Tibor set up an Adafruit Matrix Portal driving an LED Matrix to display the times a hand sanitizer unit is used during the current and prior days - Twitter.
### 5:50 Rainbow birthday card with CircuitPython
 Rainbow birthday card 

Twitter user @chardane built a beautiful maple wood birthday wish box. The outside had cutouts of leaves done by a Glowforge laser cutter. Inside uased an Adafruit ItsyBitsy M4 Express board and NeoPixel lights, making rainbow patterns via CircuitPython code - Twitter Thread.


The CircuitPython Weekly Newsletter is a CircuitPython community-run newsletter emailed every Tuesday. The complete [archives are here](https://www.adafruitdaily.com/category/circuitpython/). It highlights the latest Python on hardware related news from around the web including CircuitPython, Python and MicroPython developments. 
To contribute your own news or project, edit next week's draft [on GitHub](https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython-weekly-newsletter/tree/gh-pages/_drafts) and [submit a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/editing-files-in-your-repository/) with the changes. You may also tag @anne_engineer on Twitter, or email anneb@adafruit.com.


## 6:55 State of CircuitPython, Libraries and Blinka
### 7:38 Overall
* 18 pull requests merged
  * 14 authors - gamblor21, makermelissa, eteq, shadowclaw, Senuros, jerryneedell, siddacious, dhalbert, simallaire, sayler, carsonmcdonald, gpshead, 0-Arngerdur-1, FoamyGuy
  * 7 reviewers - makermelissa, FoamyGuy, jepler, ladyada, brentru, tannewt, kattni
* 15 closed issues by 7 people, 13 opened by 12 people
* Assigned Hacktoberfest label to 27 issues.


### 8:36 Core
* 2 pull requests merged
  * 2 authors - Senuros, 0-Arngerdur-1
  * 2 reviewers - tannewt, jepler
* 16 open pull requests
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3044 (Open 131 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3144 (Open 107 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3192 (Open 94 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3291 (Open 69 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3349 (Open 58 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3454 (Open 33 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3467 (Open 31 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3487 (Open 26 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3493 (Open 25 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3513 (Open 19 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3584 (Open 4 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3591 (Open 3 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3603 (Open 1 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3602 (Open 1 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3601 (Open 1 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/pull/3606 (Open 0 days)
* 2 closed issues by 2 people, 4 opened by 4 people
* Assigned Hacktoberfest label to 18 issues.
* 331 open issues
  * https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues
* 7 active milestones
  * 6.0.0: 1 open issues
  * 6.x.0 - Features: 4 open issues
  * 6.x.x - Bug Fixes: 14 open issues
  * 7.0.0: 3 open issues
  * Libraries: 12 open issues
  * Long term: 289 open issues
  * Support: 4 open issues
  * 4 issues not assigned a milestone


* Core download stats available at https://circuitpython.org/stats


We’re getting to the end of stabilizing 6.0 and will do another release candidate this week, maybe today.  One issue is on Dan’s radar so we may have another release candidate after that as well.  We should expect to see 6.1 alpha or beta pretty soon after that because there are some changes going into main that are not going to be released in 6.0.
### 11:00 Libraries
* 14 pull requests merged
  * 10 authors - gamblor21, makermelissa, eteq, shadowclaw, jerryneedell, siddacious, dhalbert, sayler, gpshead, FoamyGuy
  * 6 reviewers - makermelissa, FoamyGuy, ladyada, brentru, tannewt, kattni
  * Merged pull requests:
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_PyPortal/pull/86 (Days open: 14)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_BLE_Heart_Rate/pull/8 (Days open: 4)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MCP230xx/pull/35 (Days open: 2)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Waveform/pull/19 (Days open: 2)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_BNO08x/pull/6 (Days open: 1)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Display_Text/pull/93 (Days open: 1)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MIDI/pull/26 (Days open: 1)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MonsterM4sk/pull/2 (Days open: 1)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MonsterM4sk/pull/1 (Days open: 1)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_BLE_Heart_Rate/pull/11 (Days open: 1)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MatrixPortal/pull/30 (Days open: 1)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Fingerprint/pull/23 (Days open: 1)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_ImageLoad/pull/40 (Days open: 1)
    * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_VCNL4010/pull/14 (Days open: 1)
* 13 closed issues by 6 people, 9 opened by 9 people
* Assigned Hacktoberfest label to 9 issues.
* https://circuitpython.org/contributing
  * 214 open issues
  * 9 good first issues
  * 29 open pull requests (Oldest: 658, Newest: 1)
Library updates in the last seven days:
**New Libraries**
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_MCP2515](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MCP2515)
**Updated Libraries**
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_PCF8591](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_PCF8591)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_SHTC3](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_SHTC3)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_MAX31856](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MAX31856)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_BNO08x](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_BNO08x)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_Display_Text](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Display_Text)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_MCP230xx](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MCP230xx)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_Waveform](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Waveform)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_MIDI](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MIDI)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_BLE_Heart_Rate](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_BLE_Heart_Rate)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_MatrixPortal](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MatrixPortal)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_Fingerprint](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Fingerprint)
 * [Adafruit_CircuitPython_ImageLoad](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_ImageLoad)
 * [Adafruit_Blinka](https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Blinka)
 * [CircuitPython_Community_Bundle](https://github.com/adafruit/CircuitPython_Community_Bundle)


Overall we continue to see more contributed both to the Adafruit libraries and also to the community bundle.  A new library recently added was the Monster Mask library, which was excellent to have because we don’t always get contributed libraries in the main bundle.  We are available to answer any questions you have so that you can contribute.  Let us help you out.


### 13:53 Blinka
[@danh query: is this only adafruit-blinka or does it / should it include adafruit-blinka-displayio and adafruit-blinka-bleio? Can discuss in the Weeds.] 


* 2 pull requests merged
  * 2 authors - simallaire, carsonmcdonald
  * 1 reviewers - makermelissa
* 2 open pull requests
  * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Blinka/pull/304 (Open 140 days)
  * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Blinka/pull/322 (Open 94 days)
* 0 closed issues by 0 people, 0 opened by 0 people
* Assigned Hacktoberfest label to 0 issues.
* 26 open issues
  * https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Blinka/issues
* PyPI Downloads in the last week: 2190
Number of supported boards: 52




## 15:00 Hug reports
15:52 @kattni
* @johnpark for feedback on my guide code
* Group hug to the Discord community moderators - it’s always refreshing to step away for the weekend and come back to everything running smoothly.
* Group hug to the community - for continuing to be a positive, supportive, welcoming place to be!


@Kevin Thomas - mytechnotalent -  [Lurking…]


16:56 @MakerMelissa
* Ladyada and PT for your support since we lost a family member last week
* @kattni for reaching out to me as well
* @brentru for testing out my guide for creating MatrixPortal projects
* @dastels for submitting a PR to add a missing feature to the MatrixPortal library.
* Group hug to everyone else


@mark(gamblor) [lurking]


@mdroberts1243 (lurking)


@microDev (lurking)


17:57 @Mr. Certainly [text only]
* @tannewt for an excellent Deep Dive on Friday.
* Big hug for the Adabox team for knocking 016 out of the park.
* Group hug for everyone who makes this an open, friendly community.


18:15 @tannewt
* Cwalther for diving into CircuitPython and fixing issues
* Arachnid for helping me get pid.codes caught up.
* Kevin Thomas, cater, deshipu, danh, anecdata and jerryn for help in #help-with-circuitpython
* @igrr for help with ESP IDF SPI


@theliger?


19:11 @v923z
* @jepler for his always prompt help
* @tannewt for explaining the background of the adafruit learning system
* @kevinjwalters for pointing out a silly error in ulab
* @ciscorn for lending a hand with the python stub


@anecdata (lurking)


@anne b (lurking)

20:46 @askpatrickw (missing meeting)
* Thanks to @anecdata and @KevinThomas for helping me troubleshoot wifi on my ESP32-S2. Especially since the issue was my build environment. NOTE: Make sure IDF is up to date. ;-)


@cater (lurking)


21:05 @charlesburnaford (lurking)
* Group hug to all


21:12 @danh
* @cwalther for careful analysis and fixing of some tricky CircuitPython issues
* @dlech and @hbldh for fixes to bleak needed for adafruit-blinka-bleio.
* @ladyada for quick PR reviews
* @jepler for the continuing canio work


@DaveP (lurking)


22:18 @David.Glaude (lurking)
* All the people working on NinaFW.
* All the people working on the guide and library behind the Adabox.
* All the people doing adafruit live stream and contributing to Show and Tell.


@dherrada (lurking)


22:37 @foamyguy
* Outside CircuitPython but still very appreciative of the work of github user @philipl who created a utility to remap keys coming from specific HID devices to do other things in Linux
* @askpatrickw for chasing down some issues with Click and PyLint that cause trouble for Circup on python 3.9


2#:45 @hierophect
* @jepler and @microdev for their work on ESP32-S2 CAN and TouchIO, respectively
* Group hug


@jasonp (lurking)


23:59 @jepler
* @jerryn and @anecdata for helping me out in #help-with-circuitpython.  
* @Christian Walther for working on some highly technical issues in the core
* @v923z for ulab updates and bug fixes
* @hierophect welcome back!
* @danh for figuring out the NINA firmware thing
* @kattni for powering through a variety of technical and non-technical hurdles to get stuff done
* Group hug


25:01 @jerryn (late for meeting)
* @danh for fixing NINA Firmware build




## 25:19 Status Updates


26:22 @kattni
* Last week:
   * QT Py Activity Timer and Hydration Reminder guide published - https://learn.adafruit.com/qt-py-activity-timer-and-hydration-reminder
   * Couple of fritzing objects
   * Miscellaneous guide fixes.
* This week:
   * A lot of misc so far.
   * Battery “Fuel gauge” sensor library circuitpython guide


@Kevin Thomas - mytechnotalent -  [Lurking…]


28:52 @MakerMelissa
* Last Week:
   * Wrote a guide for creating MatrixPortal projects
   * Started working on an eInk guide overhaul and added GrayScale eInk pages
   * Tested some EPD refactor updates in Arduino since it now supports grayscale
   * Fixed a MatrixPortal issue when using multiple fonts
   * Updated another guide’s PiTFT install instructions
* This Week:
   * Continue working on eInk guide updates which should get faster and faster
   * Update the remaining PiTFT Install instructions
   * Add voice bonnet instructions to a google assistant guide


30:04 @mark(gamblor)
* Last week:
   * Working on moving the busdevice library to the core
* This week:
   * Writing my first status update ever!
   * Working on finishing moving busdevice to core


@mdroberts1243 (lurking)


30:37 @microDev (text only today)
* Last week I worked on native TouchIO implementation for the esp32s2.
* This week I plan to take a look into AudioIO and RotaryIO for the s2.


@Mr. Certainly [lurking]


30:56 @tannewt
* Adding grayscale e-paper support to the core. Need to test with nRF and then PR.
* Adding grayscale example to IL0373 driver as well.
* Found SPI issue but haven’t determined a fix. Looks like it transmits the correct number of bytes but they are all zeroes. Will take a fresh look today.
* Played with bare metal raspberry pi over the weekend. Looks very doable.
* Need to release rc.1. Any other issues to get in?


@theliger (assume lurking)


33:08 @v923z
* Have been busy with ulab in the last couple of weeks; fixed all outstanding numerical/algorithmic issues
* I really plan on releasing 1.0.0 in the coming days; reference docs have to be inserted into the manual
* If time permits, I will try to factor out a couple of maths functions in re-usable form


@anecdata (lurking)


@anne b (lurking)

@cater (lurking)


34:55 @charlesburnaford (lurking)
* Working on a midi autoharp. Going to try to do it on a metro m4 in CircuitPython


35:07 @danh
* Re-tested adafruit-blinka-bleio on all platforms. It uses the cross-platform bleak library. Found a bug in bleak in MacOS support, which was promptly fixed.
* Wrote a guide (currently in moderation) describing how to use adafruit-blinka-bleio on multiple platforms, with a number of examples. Updated some libraries for this.
* Debugged nina-fw build, which had BLE enabled, but it wasn’t working. Learned a lot through going down some blind alleys, and ultimately found the bug.
* Adding guide pages on how to use BLE on AirLift boards and breakouts.


38:07 @dglaude: (lurking)
* The place above is intentionally blank, nothing noticeable I could remember this week.


@dherrada (lurking)


38:16 @foamyguy
* Last week
   * Created a few different Monster M4sk “Jack-o-Lantern” eyes to use with command hook on a pumpkin
   * Testing for a few PRs, PyPortal text scaling feature, and a ProgressBar bug related to overriding width and height properties from TileGrid in Blinka
   * New computer, made the move to Linux, still getting everything set up. But did get my first successful CircuitPython build in.
* Next week
   * Get the Monster M4sk jackolantern code and assets added to the repo as an example. Perhaps work on a few other examples.
   * Get back to working on basic tutorial videos for Circuit Playground


40:05 @hierophect (missing meeting):
* Last week:
   * Vacation + projects
* This week:
   * Back to it!
   * Summoned for quest, implementing RMT on ESP32-Arduino
   * ESP32-S2 reviews (CAN and TouchIO)
   * STM32 TouchIO
   * Fix the F1 port (stalled)
   * RTC, RotaryIO, and CryptoIO planning


@jasonp (lurking)


40:36 @jepler
* Last week:
   * Worked on ESP32S2 canio implementation.
   * Transmission works, but hit bugs with setting message reception filters
   * Reproduced in an esp-idf sample when “-Os” optimization is enabled.
   * Filed a bug against esp-idf
   * Found a workaround that could be incorporated into CP, no esp-idf changes needed (but it’s ONLY a workaround)
   * Went through feedback on my guides
   * Finished my calculator guide
   * Filed PR to update ulab, did some work in ulab so their CI builds against CP and MP now instead of just MP before.
* This week
   * Looking for a fix or workaround for the message reception filter problem
   * Investigating whether ESP32S2 AudioOut can be made to work (need to learn ESP32S2 DMA)
* Fun stuff:
   * Made a PM2.5 AQI sensor for my father in law.  Cooking waffles & cinnamon apples raise the AQI to 80, so be careful in the kitchen


43:15 @jerryn
* Added LED support to adafuit_fingerprint library for the R503 sensor
   * This was an easy addition but a great example of good things that come from monitoring the forums. The lack of LED support came up as an aside when trying to help someone use the sensor. 
* Fixed pinout issue for SPI on the CPB -- also came out of a forum discussion
   * In 6.0.x branch -- not in main yet. Allows use of board.SPI() on CPB
* Tried building new NINA-FW build (1.7.1)-- success!
   * Quick test on metro_m4_airlift_lite- OK -- will try more boards this week.
* ## 45:30 In The Weeds
46:21 @danh
* Should blinka report section include data on all blinka-style libraries?


47:43 @v923z
* How can I turn python stubs directly into rst? (- check Sphinx)
* Is there a method of measuring the RAM cost of deeply nested functions?
* Should local variables created by m_new be freed before raising an exception? - not necessary.


53:27 @jerryn
* A few questions about busdevice moving to core:
   * Will it be included in M0 - non express builds?
   * Thinking about builds that have busdevice “frozen” in.
   * Will it require any API changes?
## 59:15 Wrap-Up
