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Let me take you away from your mid-November events and bring you up to speed regarding Python on Hardware, if I may. A great deal has happened this last week! There were many releases, from IKEA going all in on the Matter home automation standard to a new Arduino collaboration and Make’s 2026 boards guide coming out.
Google transferred the Blockly programming effort to Raspberry Pi (and I missed it a couple weeks ago). In projects, you can build a MicroPython Quadcopter and hack a Raspberry Pi 5000+. All this along with a new Adafruit AdaBox (and AdaBaby) and so much more. I hope you enjoy this issue. – 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:
IKEA Launches a New Smart Home Range With 21 Matter-Compatible Products
IKEA is launching 21 new smart home products focusing on lighting, sensors, and control — all built to work with Matter, the universal smart home standard. The launch marks a significant step in making smart home technology easier to use, more affordable, and better adapted to real-life needs in the home. This includes lighting, sensors and control – Ikea.
Raspberry Pi is the New Home for Blockly
The Raspberry Pi Foundation is the new home for Blockly, the leading open source library for visual programming. Formerly at Google, Blockly can be found in Scratch, MakeCode, Adafruit IO and some versions of Python – Raspberry Pi Foundation Blog. Via LinkedIn.
The 2026 Make Maker’s Board Guide is Out
The Guide to Boards 2026. This edition celebrates innovation and versatility, spotlighting boards designed for next-generation projects in AI, IoT, and creative applications. From the powerful Raspberry Pi 500+ and Arduino Uno Q to compact solutions like the Seeed Studio XIAO family for space-constrained IoT designs, this guide has options for every maker. Explore boards that assist in in robotics, smart environments, and LED artistry, including advanced controllers like Pixelblaze V3 and Adafruit Sparkle Motion – Maker.io. Via X.
Centauri: A New Fully Custom Quadcopter System Built with MicroPython
Centauri is a complete, end‑to‑end custom quadcopter ecosystem. From the airframe to the pilot’s controller, from the communication platform to the analysis tools, every piece has been designed and built from scratch. The Centauri Flight Controller is a custom MicroPython‑based flight controller running efficiently on a low‑power Raspberry Pi Pico – GitHub and YouTube. Via X.
Arduino Partners with M5Stack on the Compact Arduino Nesso N1 Dev Kit
Arduino, fresh from the launch of its Arduino UNO Q single-board computer, has announced another new development kit. This time it’s a compact all-in-one device for Internet of Things (IoT) projects powered by the Espressif ESP32-C6 microcontroller: the Arduino Nesso N1, designed in collaboration with M5Stack – hackster.io and CNX.
Displaying Time on the Raspberry Pi 500+ Computer Keyboard with Python
One of the nice features of the Raspberry Pi 500+ computer is all the colorful backlights for the keyboard. We’ve known they’re programmable, but in reviewing the device, Sky on Sozorablog has created a Python program to display the current time in scrolling lights across the keyboard – sozorablog (Japanese). Via X.
Adafruit is Shipping a New AdaBox after a Hiatus
AdaBox 22, the first AdaBox in a while, is currently shipping. The price is the same but the method for confirming your interest is a bit different. If you are a subscriber prior to this, please watch this video and watch your emails to get the details. And a special AdaBaby announcement – YouTube.
Visual Studio 2026 is Now Generally Available
Visual Studio 2026 is now generally available. It’s faster, smarter, and a hit with early adopters – X and Microsoft.
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 explored dithering options in CircuitPython.
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 Spyce Invaders Player Collision and Game Over – Adafruit Blog and YouTube.
Catch all the episodes in the YouTube playlist.
Project of the Week: Hear the world using Azure OpenAI, Python and Raspberry Pi
Marco Gerber wanted to build a small device, helping visually impaired people understand their surroundings. The result was a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W connected to sensors and audio. Python does the work on the Pi and Azure in the cloud – marcogerber.ch.
Popular Last Week
What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? Self Learning Clock (SLC).
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.
LoRa Wireless Greenhouse Monitor – Adafruit Playground.
Pyboom: A game for the Fruit Jam – Adafruit Playground.
News From Around the Web
A password-protected over-the-air (OTA) Web interface (IDE) for MicroPython on ESP32 / ESP32-S3 boards – GitHub.
Minos VII is an operating system for ESP32 Xtensa microcontrollers – GitLab.
Making a pothole detection system with Raspberry Pi 4, Python and a Large Language Model – X.
Celebrate 10 years of the European Astro Pi Challenge — registration for 2025–26 is open. The deadline for Mission Zero submissions is 23 March 2026 – Raspberry Pi Foundation Blog.
Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-S3 GPIO viewer using MicroPython – GitHub.
Run Python up to 150× faster with C – Towards Data Science.
termbuf: a MicroPython library for displaying OLED graphics in the terminal – GitHub. Via X.
MicroPython: an introduction to programming hardware in Python – Real Python.
Remote Python development on Raspberry Pi: 5 easy setups – Raspberry Tips.
MicroPython LVGL – run the LVGL simulator on a Raspberry Pi – YouTube.
Using a Raspberry Pi Pico and MicroPython to record how long it takes for a battery to drain – Maker.io.
Stop using limited mobile Python apps, here’s how to get the real thing on your phone with a Raspberry Pi (or other SBC) – How-to Geek.
The tiny Python habit that quietly made me a better programmer – Python in Plain English.
The Raspberry Pi Pico now has official Rust tools – here’s how it works – YouTube.
5 Raspberry Pi projects that made my smart home even smarter – XDA.
Python Tutorial: AsyncIO – A complete guide to asynchronous programming with animations – YouTube.
New
Waveshare CM5-DUAL-ETH-4G/5G-BASE is an industrial carrier board for the Raspberry Pi CM5. It features dual Ethernet (GbE + 2.5GbE), 4G/5G options, and includes an optional metal enclosure, active cooling fan, and power supply, which is an upgrade from the previous CM5-DUAL-ETH-BASE carrier board – CNX.
Raspberry Pi just got a pro upgrade with Pi Vision 10.1 CM5, a rugged industrial human-machine interface platform built around the powerful Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 – How-To Geek.
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 no 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.
eInk Slow Movie Player from John Park
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 550!
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 continuing to work on a native-C implementation of the ESP32SPI library. As part of this work I merged a PR to the CircuitPython library by Neradoc that adds a more compatible socket API. I also simplified the import naming scheme for the library. I’ll include both of those in the C version.
Tim
This week I have added support to Fruit Jam OS for screensavers, and implemented a few classics from After Dark. I am writing a guide page that details how to set your screensaver, shows previews of the ones that are included, and documents the interface used for implementing your own custom screensavers. I’ve also continued testing PRs for circup that have added new functionality for pinning versions, and support for offline fallback.
Liz
This week I’ve been wrapping up the guide for the HyperHDR build. I ended up writing an Arduino script to run on the Pixel Trinkey to control the NeoPixel strip. The full build is installed behind my TV and it looks really cool.
Upcoming Events
The next MicroPython Meetup in Melbourne will be on November 26th – Luma. 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.
Coming in 2026
- PyCascades 2026 will be 20 March 2026 – 21 March 2026 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- PyCon DE & PyData 2026 will be 13 April 2026 – 17 April 2026 in Darmstadt, Germany
- The Open Source Hardware Association Open Hardware Summit is coming to Berlin, Germany on May 23rd and 24th, 2025.
- PyCon AU 2026 will be 26 Aug. 2026 – 30 Aug. 2026 in Brisbane, Australia
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.1. New to CircuitPython? Start with our Welcome to CircuitPython Guide.
20251114 is the latest Adafruit CircuitPython library bundle.
20251107 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.
4,385 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.
39,054 Thanks
The Adafruit Discord community, where we do all our CircuitPython development in the open, reached over 39,054 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.
Join the Adafruit Discord or post to the forum if you have questions.
