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Update 2020-10-13.md 
thanks to @kattni for pointing out the mistake in markup
2020-10-14 11:48:46 -05:00

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CircuitPython Weekly for 13 October 2020

Video is available here on YouTube.

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.

1:25 Community News

1:25 Visual Studio Code now supports Raspberry Pi and ARM Chromebooks

Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VSC) is one of the most popular pieces of programming software on the planet, in part because it's available on any plaform a developer might want to use it on. At least, mostly. One missing piece was ARM support for Linux devices, but with the latest update, 1.50, that's been rectified. This news has two huge applications in Making and education. The first is the Raspberry Pi, running an ARM CPU and Linux and now Visual Studio Code. The Raspberry Pi 4 is a potent machine, with up to 8GB of RAM, but Visual Studio Code also makes it extremely easy to leverage remote machines for more intensive workloads. The other big application is ARM Chromebooks. It's been possible to install Visual Studio Code on Chromebooks with Linux support for some time, but ARM-powered devices have been lacking. Now it's officially a thing: downloading the ARM installer from the Visual Studio Code downloads page - Windows Central, Twitter and Download.

2:00 QT Py CircuitPython Tricks

QT Py Tricks is a collection of projects for using the Adafruit QT Py mini-board running CircuitPython 6. The code will also work on a Trinket M0 and othert CircuitPython-compatible boards with an adjustment to board pin assignments. Github

2:20 Today is Ada Lovelace Day

The world celebrates Ada Lovelace Day on the 2nd Tuesday of October (today!). Instead of lamenting all the in person gatherings and halloween hoedowns that aren’t happening this year; get into all the virtual activities coming your way! Today Adafruit is spending the day highlighting a number of women who are pioneers of their fields and inspiring women of all ages to make their voices heard. Finding Ada has some ways you can get involved and spread the word:

  • Send a Tweet
  • Update Facebook
  • Add a link to FindingAda.com on LinkedIn
  • Write about Ada Lovelace Day on your blog
  • Email your friends and/or relevant mailing lists
  • Post an item on LinkedIn or Facebook Groups You can read more, find events, and get involved! Shop Adafruit now

2:52 SparkFun survey

From the SparkFun banner: “Please take our customer survey for a chance to win $500 in SparkFun credit! We really appreciate the time you take to give us your extremely valuable feedback on how SparkFun can be its best - we couldn't do it without your input. Thank you!”

This is a chance to ask for more Feather and CircuitPython things from SparkFun.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RYZCZW3

3:22 Adafruit Update

Adafruit carries all the technology to make Halloween fantastic! See projects tagged #ElectronicHalloween all month for Halloween related projects using Adafruit gear - Twitter and Adafruit Blog. Adafruit is stocked and shipping orders! Now is the best time to get orders in for your favorite products, including items for students. Science is fun and educational when using Adafruit parts and free, easy to follow tutorials in the Adafruit Learning System.

3:53 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. You may also tag your information on Twitter with #CircuitPython and mention @anne_engineer

5:43 State of CircuitPython, Libraries and Blinka

Overall

  • 26 pull requests merged
    • 19 authors - kevinaj, oonid, eteq, siddacious, WarriorOfWire, hnohmi, kattni, tannewt, 2231puppy, hierophect, swarren, makermelissa, dherrada, hexthat, simallaire, jepler, wtuemura, weblate, virgilvox
    • 11 reviewers - siddacious, kattni, tannewt, gamblor21, ladyada, dhalbert, makermelissa, dherrada, jepler, brentru, FoamyGuy
  • 13 closed issues by 4 people, 13 opened by 10 people
  • Assigned Hacktoberfest label to 27 issues.

Overall: Reflects one week of stats. Also want to recognize swarren who was on yesterday’s list. We’re having a great number of participants, and we’ve been making a great deal of progress towards a release candidate, thanks in huge part to Scott. We work based on milestones, and those are being met soon.

7:10 Core

9:10 Libraries

12:30 Blinka

13:21 Hug reports

14:00 @jepler

  • Group hug
  • Cwalther for continuing to work on some core improvements
  • I’m totally blanking right now on who else I owe a thanks to

14:38 @jerryn

  • Group Hug

14:52 @kattni

  • @danh for “help” (which is to say it was mostly Dan) with writing up a simple version of the explanation of why time.monotonic() loses precision over time to explain why animations slow down over time in the LED Animations library on non-Express M0 boards
  • @Mark (Gamblor) for joining the CircuitPythonLibrarians review team, and reviewing two PRs for me
  • @jepler for a much needed chat

@Kevin Thomas - mytechnotalent - [Lurking…]

16:14 @makermelissa (Missing Meeting)

  • Group Hug

@Mark(Gamblor) [lurking]

@Mr. Certainly [lurking]

@stu (lurking)

16:28 @tannewt

  • Capslock for taking on adding transparency to ColorConverter
  • WarriorOfWire for enabling asyncio!
  • SparkPeng for diving into building CircuitPython to add displayio to non-haxpress.
  • @deshipu for helping folks out.
  • @cwalther for taking on moving memory off the heap at vm stop.
  • @kattni for leveling up other folks.

@warriorofwire (lurking)

@cater (lurking)

18:34 @CGrover (text only)

  • @brentru for awesome AIO learning guides and some recent help with a sticky requests library issue that was hampering my AIO learning indoctrination process.

@charlesburnaford (lurking)

@DaveP (lurking)

19:00 @David.Glaude (lurking)

  • @todbot for QT-Py Trick
  • @danh for all your BLE stuff, I hope you get better soon
  • @MakerMelissa for Matrix Portal guide
  • @kattni for the QT-Py guide

@deshipu (lurking)

@dherrada (lurking)

19:25 @foamyguy

  • @2231puppy for inquiring about a Circuit Python Discord Bot library. Then taking on the task of creating and sharing one in the Community Bundle when they found out there wasn’t one yet.
  • @Capslock for working on transparency for On Disk Bitmaps
  • @brentru for a great suggestion for potential new PyPortal library examples
  • @WarriorOfWire for working on Async / Await APIs. I have much to learn, but am excited to try these out.
  • @UnexpectedMaker, Scott, and everyone involved in creating the #help-with-git channel

20:49 Status Updates

22:12 @jepler

  • Last week:
    • Reviewed and approved PRs (after gentle reminder from Tannewt to do it) including translations
    • Worked on improving the build parallelization (some merged, some not yet merged)
    • Updated protomatter
    • Worked on Arduino CAN support, making sure it interoperates with CircuitPython
  • This week:
    • Wrapping up Arduino CAN, hopefully
    • Returning to a learn guide about a calculator project I did
    • Soon, doing CAN on esp32s2

22:38 @jerryn

24:51 @kattni

  • Last week, yesterday and earlier today:
    • Can’t remember where I left off last week so some of this may be duplicated.
    • Added CircuitPython page to the SH1107 guide
    • Fritzed up the Metro ESP32-S2
    • Solder up QT Py Haxpress
    • Tested LED Animation library on QT Py Haxpress
    • Started a QT Py and NeoPixels guide for both base QT Py and QT Py Haxpress
    • Added FAQ to CircuitPython LED Animations guide
    • Added Mark(Gamblor) to CircuitPythonLibrarians
  • This week:
    • Finish QT Py and NeoPixels guide - needs images/vid/GIFs
    • Think of a few (possibly simple) QT Py projects to do
    • Possibly write up a one-page guide on VS Code for Raspberry Pi/Chromebook
    • Various fritzing objects need to be created

@Kevin Thomas - mytechnotalent - [Lurking…]

27:22 @makermelissa (Missing Meeting)

  • Last Week:
    • Finished writing the BrainCraft HAT guide
    • Updated the Machine Learning my Raspberry Pi TensorFlow guide with the latest updates
    • Updated the PiTFT Easy Install page with the latest information including running my Python Script rewrite
    • Worked on improving/optimizing a Scoreboard Demo for JP’s workshop
    • Did a sweep of the existing PyPortal issues
    • Dug into some of the incompatible changes with Requests and PyPortal, but didn’t get very far
    • Started working on a new BrainCraft Google Assistant guide
  • This Week:
    • Finish up BrainCraft Google Assistant guide
    • Test out some more obscure MatrixPortal library configurations
    • Test out an issue with the SSD1351 on Arduino
  • Other Stuff:
    • Worked on hacking a keyboard to implement MIDI. I got as far as successfully detecting all key presses and releases. Ended up going the Arduino route due to 5-Volt logic used in the keyboard and not wanting to complicate things with logic level shifters.

@Mark(Gamblor) [lurking]

@Mr. Certainly [lurking]

@stu (lurking until in the weeds)

28:38 @tannewt

  • Finished up the iMX RT work and submitted it. The flash config is now unified and sets quad enable on start up.
  • Knocked out 6.0.0 issues.
    • Fixed STM I2C timeout issue due to clock going backwards. Reading 3 registers needs sync.
    • Fixed SAMD21 auto-reload broken due to sleep overriding the tick timeout.
    • Fixed SAMD21 timing problems that led to _pew flickering.
  • Going to do a release candidate this week. Any issues that should block it?
  • Next up is the deep sleep API (for real this time). I’m thinking it’ll be sleepio and alarm modules.

@warriorofwire (lurking)

@capslock (lurking)

@cater (lurking)

31:45 @CGrover (text only)

  • Learning, learning, learning. The LORA/Arduino-based Workshop Corrosion Monitor is now nearly all CircuitPython and AIO. Proof of concept was proved so now it’s time to order those expensive indoor and outdoor sensors. Still need to noodle a more reliable algorithm for predicting future corrosion potential.
  • In the design phase for two new EUROrack modules. Front panels, physical UI, and most CPy code modules are good-to-go. Just need to work out some pesky hardware issues. Predominantly, how much stuff can be jammed into a 10HP module?
  • Also designing a DC motor characterization workbench to study low-speed torque control for a couple of robot projects. Will be testing a dynamometer scheme as soon as strain gauges and the companion Wheatstone bridge arrive. Will take a shot at converting the 24-bit I2C Wheatstone ADC’s Arduino library code to CPy. Oh, and will need to pick up some additional 2020 extrusion hardware to mount the torque converter and test motor. Love working with those adult Erector Set components!

@charlesburnaford (lurking)

33:00 @danh

  • Starting to work again, split keyboard helping (Kinesis Freestyle Edge). Things are working out well.
  • Working on Blinka _bleio on Raspberry Pi: it strangely works on some boards (Pi0w and Pi3B) and not others (Pi3B+ and Pi4B). I’m working on a guide for Blinka _bleio, but need to resolve the RPi idiosyncrasies.

@dave P (lurking)

@David.Glaude (lurking)

@deshipu (lurking)

@dherrada (lurking)

35:04 @foamyguy

  • Last week:
    • Multi-tasking guide published
    • Testing for a few PRs on PyPortal library and Protomatter update in core
    • Made a bit of progress on the Mobile Phone app for my BLE “Smart” Charger. Was able to successfully “see” statuses from the Itsy Bitsy nrf.
  • Next week
    • Explore possibility of using SAMD21 as a Keyboard pass-through device to work around a weird driver quirk
    • Get Monster M4sk set up and perhaps a few other halloween decorations.

36:41 In The Weeds

  • 37:05 @tannewt: Micro:bit v2
  • 38:40 @tannewt: Any concerns about a release candidate?
  • 46:40 @kattni: Have we been keeping up with Hacktoberfest? Author lets us know, and we add the label.
  • 49:45 @stu: iot blockchain
  • 54:23 @david.glaude (simple question since I am text-only): Is it possible to talk to the SPI chip soldered on QT-Py while using the non Haxpress firmware? Maybe as a storage for data logging?

59:10 Wrap-Up