View this email in your browser. Warning: Flashing Imagery
Welcome to the latest Python on Microcontrollers newsletter! After months of work, the CircuitPython developers have released CircuitPython 10, filled with enhancements requested by the community. In addition, Raspberry Pi has refreshed the Raspberry Pi Operating System with a new Debian version and an all new desktop look and feel. All of this is in the shadow of RAM and flash memory price increases as AI data centers grow unchecked. The community continues to innovate with a raft of projects, with folks saying “We don’t need more memory than what’s on our development board!” Hurrah! – Anne Barela, Editor
We’re on Discord, Twitter/X, BlueSky and for past newsletters – view them all here. If you’re reading this on the web, please subscribe here. Here’s the news this week:
CircuitPython 10.0.0 Released
CircuitPython 10.0.0 is the latest major revision of CircuitPython and is a new stable release. Many changes and additions in audio, graphics, SSL certificate use, SD card handling and more – Adafruit Blog and release notes – GitHub.
New Raspberry Pi OS Trixie
With a new version of Debian Linux comes a major release of Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian. Support for 64-bit time means the Earth will be dust before the date will roll over. The release has a new theme with a new default font. Configuration is simplified in a single new Control Centre application – Raspberry Pi News and downloads –Raspberry Pi.
Linux 6.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures
Linus Torvalds has released Linux 6.17 including changes for Arm and RISC-V – CNX.
Notable changes in Linux 6.17
- Specific support for single-core processors has been removed, and Linux 6.17 and greater will ship with SMP support, even on single-core machines.
- Attack-vector controls implementation has been merged for the x86 architecture.
- The new DAMON_STAT kernel module provides simplified monitoring of memory-management activity in the system.
Some Raspberry Pi Products See Price Increases as the World Supply of Memory Is Consumed by AI
Memory prices have been rising rapidly for the last six months. Very high demand for High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) for AI applications is competing for fab space with the commodity LPDDR memory used by Raspberry Pi, leading to shortages and price increases. Memory costs roughly 120% more than it did a year ago. In response some Raspberry Pi offerings with 4 or 8GB memory will see $5 to $10 increases – Raspberry Pi News.
AI data centers are swallowing the world’s memory and storage supply, setting the stage for a pricing apocalypse that could last a decade. Once-cheap SSDs, DRAM, and HDD prices are climbing fast as AI demand and constrained supply converge to create the tightest market in years – Tom’s Hardware.
Testing the Raspberry Pi 500+’s New Mechanical Keyboard
Jeff Geerling performs testing of the Raspberry Pi 500+’s new mechanical keyboard. The keyboard runs on an RP2040, like many other modern mechanical keyboards, running a Pi fork of the popular QMK firmware – Jeff Geerling.
“It feels surprisingly good; I could type on this keyboard much easier than I can on the Pi 400/Pi 500’s flat keyboard, which feels like an old, cheap laptop keyboard. The new keyboard is a vast improvement over the previous Pi keyboards. Not being able to change out the switches is a let-down, as the clickety-clack of blue switches isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But having any option besides the ‘2000s chicklet’ style of prior generations is good.”
Mike Coats writes about the process of contributing software drivers for CircuitPython, collected into what CircuitPython calls the Community Bundle – Mike Coats.
A Special Needs CircuitPython Project Won the Bay Area Maker Faire 2025 Editor’s Choice Award
Adafruit Forums member ecobra (Michael Kadie) notes their recognition at Bay Area Maker Faire 2025 focusing on AAC communication aids – Adafruit Forums, website tssfaa.com and GitHub.
“The system is based on an RP2350 with I2S sound output, an I2C and / or SPI screen, and a set of input devices. Right now it is using a MSP430FR chip as an IO expander which will be removed when we go over to an RP2350B. Everything was first prototyped and tested using Adafruit parts and all the coding will be in CircuitPython after we move over to the RP2350B.”
This Week’s Python Streams
Python on Hardware is all about building a cooperative ecosphere which allows contributions to be valued and to grow knowledge. Below are the streams within the last week focusing on the community.
CircuitPython Deep Dive Stream
Last Friday, Tim streamed working on SPI Register.
You can see the latest video and past videos on the Adafruit YouTube channel under the Deep Dive playlist – YouTube.
CircuitPython Parsec
John Park’s CircuitPython Parsec this week is on Circup Font Bundle – Adafruit Blog and YouTube.
Catch all the episodes in the YouTube playlist.
The CircuitPython Show
The CircuitPython Show has returned for a sixth season. In the first episode, host Paul Cutler welcomes John Fletcher. John shares how he ported CircuitPython to web assembly to be able to run CircuitPython in the browser and how using Claude Code helped – The CircuitPython Show.
Airplane-Journal on GitHub has created a remote shutter control for CircuitPython-based cameras like the Adafruit MEMENTO. The remote communicates to the camera using the ESP-NOW protocol – GitHub.
Popular Last Week
What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? October is Open Hardware Month. And check out Adafruit’s daily Open Hardware choices – Adafruit Blog.
Did you know you can read past issues of this newsletter in the Adafruit Daily Archive? Check it out.
Adafruit Playground Notes
Adafruit Playground is a new place for the community to post their projects and other making tips/tricks/techniques. Ad-free, it’s an easy way to publish your work in a safe space for free.
News From Around the Web
“I trapped an AI model inside an art installation” using Raspberry Pi and Python – YouTube and website.
WIZnet has developed new drivers for their W6300 series Ethernet chips for CircuitPython – GitHub and MicroPython – GitHub.
Introduction to ROS Part 3: Nodes, Topics, Publishers, and Subscribers with Python – YouTube.
We’ve all asked: I want to use one of Espressif’s more powerful chips but it doesn’t have the built-in WiFi. esp-wifi-remote is Espressif’s new solution which allows coupling a more powerful chip, like the ESP32-P4, with an ESP32, ESP32-S or ESP32-C processor for connectivity – Espressif.
Making a LEGO elevator with a servo, micro:bit and MicroPython – X.
Typing and keyboard control using the HID library (CircuitPython School) – YouTube.
Why Windows 3.11 is my favorite operating system for my Raspberry Pi – How-TO Geek.
The MicroPython & CircuitPython CRSF driver ia a pure-Python port of the AlfredoCRSF C++ library tailored for RP2040-based boards running MicroPython or CircuitPython. The driver speaks the Team BlackSheep Crossfire (CRSF) protocol over UART – GitHub.
A standalone e-paper calendar and clock with Pi Pico W and MicroPython – elchika.com (Japanese).
Get your kids coding in Python! In this project, they will learn how to use for loops through a fun turtle race game – Code Club.
3 channel output programmable arbitrary frequency clock generator with Raspberry Pi Pico and MicroPython – X (Japanese).
Compiling Python to run anywhere – Confessions of a Code Addict.
5 Raspberry Pi 5 projects that actually push the hardware to its limits – XDA.
Learn to play wav & MP3 sound files on the Raspberry Pi Pico (2025) – YouTube.
Programmers who use Python in Excel will love this latest feature – Neowin.
4 tiny single-board computers that outclass the Raspberry Pi – XDA.
Python tricks that made me look like a hacker (even when I wasn’t) – Medium.
Python on the Edge: Fast, sandboxed, and powered by WebAssembly – Wasmer.
New
Olimex RP2350-PICO2 open hardware boards expose all 48 GPIOs for breadboard prototyping – CNX.
CalSci is a combination calculator and IoT device powered by an ESP32-S3 and MicroPython – Reddit, YouTube, and website.
New Boards Supported by CircuitPython
The number of supported microcontrollers and Single Board Computers (SBC) grows every week. This section outlines which boards have been included in CircuitPython or added to CircuitPython.org.
There were no new boards added to CircuitPython this week.
Note: For non-Adafruit boards, please use the support forums of the board manufacturer for assistance, as Adafruit does not have the hardware to assist in troubleshooting.
Looking to add a new board to CircuitPython? It’s highly encouraged! Adafruit has four guides to help you do so:
New Learn Guides
The Adafruit Learning System has over 3,200 free guides for learning skills and building projects including using Python.
Fruit Jam Video Music from Liz Clark
CircuitPython Libraries
The CircuitPython library numbers are continually increasing, while existing ones continue to be updated. Here we provide library numbers and updates!
To get the latest Adafruit libraries, download the Adafruit CircuitPython Library Bundle. To get the latest community contributed libraries, download the CircuitPython Community Bundle.
If you’d like to contribute to the CircuitPython project on the Python side of things, the libraries are a great place to start. Check out the CircuitPython.org Contributing page. If you’re interested in reviewing, check out Open Pull Requests. If you’d like to contribute code or documentation, check out Open Issues. We have a guide on contributing to CircuitPython with Git and GitHub, and you can find us in the #help-with-circuitpython and #circuitpython-dev channels on the Adafruit Discord.
You can check out this list of all the Adafruit CircuitPython libraries and drivers available.
The current number of CircuitPython libraries is 545!
Updated Libraries
Here are this week’s updated CircuitPython libraries:
What’s the CircuitPython team up to this week?
What is the team up to this week? Let’s check in:
Dan
I fixed the last couple of bugs for CircuitPython 10.0.0 final over the past few days. Then I released 10.0.0-rc.0, and a day later, 10.0.0 final. Please try it and submit issues as needed.
We split off the 10.0.0 line from 9.x.x in mid-March. 9.0.0 came out in mid-March 2024, so it’s been about a year and half since our last major release.
Tim
I have been working on refactoring the Adafruit Register library to make it have support for SPI communication and opening up possibilities other types in the future. I’ve been able to successfully use it to add SPI support to development versions of the BMP5XX and SPA06-003 drivers. I also started working on a new Fruit Jam project, a logic gate simulator that can be used to learn the basics of logic flow and gates. In between those I’ve started experimenting with RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) with aim of getting better CircuitPython specific results out of LLMs.
Scott
This week I’ve primarily been helping Dan and Tim keep cranking on CircuitPython bugs and a new register library addition. I got the ESP-IDF update building for all boards but my C6 is currently crashing. So, I’m slowly debugging that.
Liz
This week I published the guide for the Fruit Jam Video Music project. This build uses a Fruit Jam along with a PDM mic to sample the incoming audio over time and analyze it with FFT. I coded up three animations in CircuitPython. The first uses diamond shapes that change color like the Atari Video Music that this project is based on. Then I couldn’t resist adding some party parrots and finally some dancing lines.
Upcoming Events
The next MicroPython Meetup in Melbourne will be on October 22nd – Meetup. You can see recordings of previous meetings on YouTube.
The Hackaday Superconference is back! Join this global conference of hardware hackers, makers, and tech enthusiasts this Oct 31st – Nov 2nd in Pasadena, California – Eventbrite.
The final KiCad conference (KiCon) will be 15 November, 2025 in Shenzhen, China – KiCad.
PyLadiesCon returns December 5–7, 2025. 100% online conference designed for our global community. Talks, workshops, panels, and community fun – PyLadies.
Send Your Events In
If you know of virtual events or upcoming events, please let us know via email to cpnews(at)adafruit(dot)com.
Latest Releases
CircuitPython’s stable release is 10.0.0. New to CircuitPython? Start with our Welcome to CircuitPython Guide.
20251003 is the latest Adafruit CircuitPython library bundle.
20250919 is the latest CircuitPython Community library bundle.
v1.26.1 is the latest MicroPython release. Documentation for it is here.
3.13.7 is the latest Python release. The latest pre-release version is 3.14.0rc3.
4,345 Stars Like CircuitPython? Star it on GitHub!
Call for Help – Translating CircuitPython is now easier than ever
One important feature of CircuitPython is translated control and error messages. With the help of fellow open source project Weblate, we’re making it even easier to add or improve translations.
Sign in with an existing account such as GitHub, Google or Facebook and start contributing through a simple web interface. No forks or pull requests needed! As always, if you run into trouble join us on Discord, we’re here to help.
39,043 Thanks
The Adafruit Discord community, where we do all our CircuitPython development in the open, reached over 39,043 humans – thank you! Adafruit believes Discord offers a unique way for Python on hardware folks to connect. Join today at https://adafru.it/discord.
ICYMI – In case you missed it
Python on hardware is the Adafruit Python video-newsletter-podcast! The news comes from the Python community, Discord, Adafruit communities and more and is broadcast on ASK an ENGINEER Wednesdays. The complete Python on Hardware weekly videocast playlist is here. The video podcast is on iTunes, YouTube, Instagram), and XML.
The 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 Monday. 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.
Join the Adafruit Discord or post to the forum if you have questions.
