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Welcome to the latest Python on Microcontrollers newsletter. What a week! The echoes from the Qualcomm acquisition of Arduino are still reverberating through the community. I found a couple of highlights on that. A new beta of CircuitPython is out with an Espressif SDK update. What’s the latest with MicroPython? There are two recent projects worth a look. All this and much more for this spooky week. – 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:
Behind Qualcomm’s Arduino Acquisition: 33 Million IoT Developers
Steve McDowell goes in-depth, from an industry perspective, on Qualcomm’s acquisition of Arduino – Forbes.
“But IoT markets, particularly robotics and edge AI, feature fragmented ecosystems of startups and small manufacturers where enterprise sales approaches fail. Arduino provides access to this ecosystem without requiring Qualcomm to rebuild its go-to-market infrastructure from scratch. The Arduino acquisition short-circuits this process by giving 33 million developers immediate access to Dragonwing. It also strongly positions Dragonwing as an accessible brand.”
Questions Arise on the Arduino Uno Q Open Source Claims
pt on X (formerly Twitter) writes: “Looks like Arduino’s Qualcomm Q board is off to a closed start. Advertised as open-source, it’s not – the ‘CAD Files’ are not the editable design files like other open-source Arduino products which say ‘open-source’ … what are these in the zip?” – X and Arduino Forum.
Ed: the image above is from X, a render of the board fab files, but this is not the design files needed for open source.
CircuitPython 10.1.0 Beta 0 Released
CircuitPython 10.1.0-beta.0 is a beta release for 10.1.0. It has known bugs that will be fixed before the final release of 10.1.0 – Adafruit Blog and release notes – GitHub.
Highlights of this release
- Update the Espressif ESP-IDF to v5.5.1 and support the ESP32-C61
Why Your USB Cable Won’t Program Your Microcontroller
Have you ever had the issue where your development board isn’t working but you’re positive you’ve set everything up correctly? Suspect your USB cable! There are so many of the “charge only” cables going around, which save money by not including the data wires. Some say just cut those and throw them away. See how you can identify the good from the bad in this video. It applies to USB-B too – DigiKey Blog.
The 2025 Hackaday Superconference Communicator Badge Runs MicroPython
The badge for the upcoming Hackaday Superconference on October 31st through November 2nd is a rather powerful device sporting an ESP32-S3 with 8 MB of PSRAM and 16 MB of flash, LCD screen, SX1262 LoRa module, LiPo battery/charging and a Solder Party custom keyboard. It runs MicroPython with lvgl_micropython running on the display for LVGL graphics – Hackaday.
MicroPython Used in a New PlayStation 5 Game
FORTUNE COOKIE d.o.o. has used MicroPython to port an old game from 2009 to the PlayStation 5. It’s just the first of many Python games they plan to resurrect. What’s also interesting is that, in order to avoid the hassle of dealing with Sony’s SDK’s, they’ve embedded the game (MicroPython included) inside Unreal Engine 5. So the whole game is running in a sort of a “virtual machine”-like environment inside UE, and then UE tools are used to export the game to PlayStation 5 – GitHub and PlayStation Store.
“Overall, I’m quite happy with how MicroPython is performing, it’s been quite a journey learning how it works and how I can tune it to work good in a low latency environment needed for games.”
NeoPixel Light Pipe Add-on for Fruit Jam
Mikey Sklar came up with a simple 3D printed add-on for the Fruit Jam that isolates the light from each NeoPixel LED, making the lights more crisp and defined – Adafruit Blog and GitHub.
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 was working on CircuitPython Requests library tests.
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 the Spyce Invaders Alien Grid – Adafruit Blog and YouTube.
Catch all the episodes in the YouTube playlist.
In the latest episode of The CircuitPython Show released October 27th, Paul interviews Sam Blenny. Sam is the author of over 30 guides on the Adafruit Playground and they discuss Sam’s work with the Fruit Jam, including a MIDI tester, Gamepad Tester, Color Checker, and more – The CircuitPython Show.
CircuitPython Weekly Meeting
CircuitPython Weekly Meeting for October 20, 2025 (notes) on YouTube.
Project of the Week – STELLA: Bridging Agriculture & Technology in the Classroom With CircuitPython
Educator Craig Kohn from Waterford Union High School demonstrates how open-source, affordable, STELLA-Q2 spectrometer instruments are transforming agriscience education – YouTube and NASA. Via Adafruit Blog.
STELLA-Q2 spectrometer units (~$150 per unit) have 18-band electromagnetic radiation detection (410-940 nanometers). Devices composing the spectrometer are connected via qwiic/STEMMA QT I2C cables, no soldering, and includes a combination of SparkFun and Adafruit components. The different versions of the STELLA instrument are programmed in open-source CircuitPython.
Popular Last Week
What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? Ladyada’s EYE on NPI review of the Qualcomm & Arduino UNO Q Microcontroller Board.
Did you know you can read past issues of this newsletter in the Adafruit Daily Archive? Check it out.
New Notes from Adafruit Playground
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.
Fun with Fruit Jam NeoPixels – Adafruit Playground.
News From Around the Web
Top 5 most powerful microcontrollers in 2026 – YouTube.
- ST Microelectronics STM32N6
- Espressif ESP32-P4
- NXP i.MX RT1180
- Renesas RA8 M85
- Nordic nRF54
Through Humble Bundle, for $8 (roughly £6/€7), you’ll get DRM-free copies of several Raspberry Pi Press books worth $357, and paying $10 more unlocks 13 additional books. Your purchase will support the Raspberry Pi Foundation‘s work to help young people reach their potential with computing. Check out the All Things Raspberry Pi bundle, which runs from Monday 20 October to Monday 10 November – Raspberry Pi News and Humble Bundle.
As the new Arduino UNO Q is a Linux computer, it can be loaded with the Thonny editor and can code MicroPython to run on another board like a Raspberry Pi Pico, as Roland Schulz demonstrates – X.
Introducing sbc.compare, find the perfect SBC for your project with comprehensive benchmarks, specifications, and real-world performance data – bret.dk.
Inside the RISC-V Hardware Wars: A Streetfighter’s Unfiltered Take – EE Journal.
RISC-V SBI and the full boot process – Uros Popovic. Via X.
PyScript 2025.10.3 brings in latest MicroPython (1.27.0 preview) and Pyodide + guards against incompatible Pyodide packages and much more – Release Notes and main site – pyscript.net. Via X.
How to build a GPS vehicle tracker using Raspberry Pi Pico: a MicroPython & Thonny IDE tutorial – YouTube.
The MEGA TERMINAL CHEAT SHEET from Julia Evans’ “The Secret Rules of the Terminal” – X.
MicroPython LVGL – using GC9A01 round displays – YouTube.
Announcing the Python Software Foundation Fellow Members for Q3 2025 – PSF.
5 peripherals I can’t stop hoarding for my Raspberry Pi projects – XDA.
Raspberry Pi vs Raspberry Pi Zero 2 vs Raspberry Pi Pico in Raspberry Pi Official Magazine 159 – Raspberry Pi.
From Python to Kotlin: a transition worth making – JetBrains blog.
Automate away your daily frustrations with these clever Python scripts – XDA.
New
The Pico Stretch is a pin-compatible replacement for the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 with more GPIOs and RAM, and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity – hackster.io and GitHub.
The SparkFun Inventor’s Kit for MicroPython is powered by the IoT RedBoard RP2350, and programmed using MicroPython, a lightweight version of Python 3 designed specifically for microcontrollers. A YouTube video series is available for the kit – YouTube.
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.
This week there were three new boards added:
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.
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 549!
New Libraries
Here are this week’s new CircuitPython libraries:
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’m debugging CircuitPython 10 issues related to SD card use on Espressif and possibly other ports. Symptoms include safe-mode crashes and other behavior, like slow display refreshes.
Tim
The Fruit Jam logic gates guide mentioned in my previous update is now published. I was out part of last week for vacation. Before leaving I wrote the guide for the Apple //e emulator. This week I rolled out a patch and release to all CircuitPython libraries that removes the usage of a deprecated ruff rule, and fixes a styling issue that some RTD pages have. I also made a few final tweaks in the SPA06_003 PR to add SPI support to that driver, and it is now merged. I’ve started working on a guide for another Fruit Jam emulator, this one is the Intel 286. It has got me digging out ancient DOS knowledge from the depths of my brain. There is a working QBasic disk that runs inside of it which I always love running across because it was the first programming language that I ever used.
Scott
Last week I was on vacation visiting family. This week, my ESP IDF 5.5.1 update was merged in a release as 10.1.0-beta.1. Please give it a try! Next, I’m working on adding MIPI DSI display support. I’m excited to open up a new tier of displays to CircuitPython.
Liz
This week I worked on documenting the new STHS34PF80 IR Presence / Motion Sensor. This breakout works like a PIR sensor, but its controllable over I2C. I wrote a CircuitPython driver for the sensor, that is currently in the bundle. I’ve also started working on a Halloween project that involves a Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi camera and speaker bonnet.
Upcoming Events
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.
The next MicroPython Meetup in Melbourne will likely be November 19 – Meetup. You can see recordings of previous meetings on YouTube.
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 10.0.3 and its unstable release is 10.1.0-beta.0. New to CircuitPython? Start with our Welcome to CircuitPython Guide.
20251024 is the latest Adafruit CircuitPython library bundle.
20251021 is the latest CircuitPython Community library bundle.
v1.26.1 is the latest MicroPython release. Documentation for it is here.
3.14.0 is the latest Python release. The latest pre-release version is 3.15.0a1.
4,361 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.
39,040 Thanks
The Adafruit Discord community, where we do all our CircuitPython development in the open, reached over 39,040 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. To contribute your content, please email your news to cpnews (at) adafruit (dot) com with information and link(s) to your content.
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