View this email in your browser. Warning: Flashing Imagery
Welcome to the latest Python on Microcontrollers newsletter! Big news this week: MicroPython is 13 years old on Wednesday! And it’s better than ever with its new release. CircuitPython also got a final release last week. There is also a great deal of goodness “below the fold” as CircuitPython gets a 3rd party WebAssembly port and two related articles: How to convert EAGLE CAD files to KiCad 10, and Espressif provides a free “Claw” LLM agent for ESP32-S3 boards with at least 8MB of Flash and 8MB PSRAM, which is so much easier than configuring alternatives. I’m hoping you have a good 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:
Happy Birthday MicroPython!
We’re celebrating MicroPython’s 13th birthday on April 29th! – micropython.org.
Here are some important milestone dates provided in 2019 by Damien:
- 29th April 2013: first line of code written (in private, before anyone knew about it, before it was even called MicroPython)
- 17th Sept 2013: first code running on a microcontroller, on the very first prototype of the pyboard
- 2nd Oct 2013: register micropython.org
- 4th Oct 2013: first commit in what is now the main repository
- late Dec 2013: source code up on GitHub
- 21st June 2014: last of the Kickstarter rewards sent out (for the first Kickstarter)
- 7th April 2026: MicroPython v1.28.0 released
CircuitPython 10.2.0 Released
CircuitPython 10.2.0 is a minor revision of CircuitPython and is the new stable release – Adafruit Blog and Release Notes – GitHub.
Highlights of This Release
- New
audiotools.SpeedChanger.
- New
qspibus support for displayio.
- Stability improvements to USB SD card handling.
- Merge of MicroPython v1.27.
- Update to ESP-IDF v5.5.3.
- Many additions to the Zephyr port.
- Simulated hardware testing is now being done in the Zephyr port.
Exciting Python Features Are on the Way
Transformative new Python features are coming in Python 3.15. In addition to lazy imports and an immutable frozendict type, the new Python release will deliver significant improvements to the native JIT compiler and introduce a more explicit agenda for how Python will support WebAssembly – InfoWorld.
Jumping Jerboa – Transfer A Mouse+Keyboard To Other Computer
This project is a combination of Python and CircuitPython scripts to transfer the mouse and keyboard of your computer to another computer. A Raspberry Pi Pico is used as a USB HID Mouse/Keyboard – GitHub, hackster.io and YouTube.
MicroPython on LiteX Refreshed and Enhanced
The LiteX port of MicroPython has been refreshed and enhanced with new peripherals support – GitHub. Via X.
ESP-Claw Lets You Build IoT Projects via Chat
While not technically Python, this is a big step in using microcontrollers for personal projects. Using the newly released ESP-Claw, you can chat with your ESP32 board to bring hardware projects to life without writing code. It requires at least 8MB Flash and 8MB PSRAM. Board definition formats are specified to allow more platforms; more boards are being added here – hackster.io, Official Site and GitHub.
Comparing Thread, Zigbee, and Matter
You’ve probably heard multiple mentions of Thread, Zigbee, and Matter from different companies. While Matter is a connectivity protocol that determines which language your smart home devices speak, Zigbee and Thread are wireless protocols that govern how your devices interact. ZDNet discusses them all – ZDNet.
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 filled in for Scott and he streamed more work on the CircuitPython Zephyr port.
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 external monitor rotation – Adafruit Blog and YouTube.
Catch all the episodes in the YouTube playlist.
Deep Dive with Tim
Last week, Tim streamed work on enabling more Core Modules in Zephyr storage and gifio.
You can see the latest video and past videos on the Adafruit YouTube channel under the Deep Dive playlist – YouTube.
CircuitPython Weekly Meeting
CircuitPython Weekly Meeting for April 20th (notes) on YouTube.
Project of the Week: Detecting Drones with a Raspberry Pi
DroneAwareDan has been messing around with turning a Raspberry Pi using Python into a drone detector by reading Remote ID broadcasts over WiFi (2.4GHz) and Bluetooth – Reddit, hackster.io and GitHub.
Popular Last Week
What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? Stop buying Raspberry Pis: Why a cheap used mini PC is the better choice.
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.
CircuitPython WASM Port – Adafruit PlayWASMground.
Import Eagle Libraries into KiCad 10.0 – Adafruit Playground.
News From Around the Web
I used Claude to learn about Python and I should have sooner – XDA.
Native Zephyr support for reTerminal E1001 is now available. Powered by ESP32-S3, reTerminal E1001 now supports the standard Zephyr RTOS build using flash and debug workflows for ePaper applications – Zephyr. Via X.
Matthias Wandel turns metal Into proximity sensors with the Raspberry Pi Pico’s PIO blocks – hackster.io, GitHub and YouTube.
Give an HP Robots Otto Kit the gift of hearing. With two microphones, the bot will turn towards a noise. This project shows how to design circuits and 3D printed parts, and then use MicroPython and Thonny to make a robot that listens for a loud sound and then turn in that direction – nLab and YouTube. Via Adafruit Blog.
Claude Code Lego Flag is a physical Lego mailbox with a motorised flag that tells you when Claude Code is working vs. ready for your next prompt. A servo raises the flag when Claude finishes a response and lowers it as soon as you send a new message. Using Python and Arduino – X and GitHub. A bonus: a brick Claude – MecaBricks.
SamuRoid – a Raspberry Pi-powered 22-DOF humanoid robot with Multimodal LLMs and ROS support programmable in Python and C++ – CNX and YouTube.
Maker Andy Warburton has turned an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller into a handheld, wide-format, pocket-friendly cyberdeck “built for chaos:” the GR3ML1N, running CircuitPython – Andy’s Site, hackster.io and GitHub.
The PiPaper Frame is an e-ink wall mount device designed to treat information like furniture. It uses a 7.5-inch Waveshare E-Paper display and a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 programmed in Python- hackster.io.
DigiKey and Microchip to host educational webinar on programming Embedded Systems April 30th – Morningstar.
IoT With CircuitPython is a collection of hands-on IoT projects by Kritish Mohapatra built with CircuitPython on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W — exploring sensors, displays, wireless communication, and more – GitHub.
Python vulnerability allows out-of-bounds write on Windows systems (update recommended) CVE-2026-3298 (high) – Cyber Security News.
Five tiny Raspberry Pi projects that can fit in the palm of your hand – BGR.
Five essential gadgets every Raspberry Pi enthusiast should have – BGR.
I stopped reaching for Raspberry Pi when the $60 board hit $95 (and jumped to Raspberry Pi Pico 2W) – XDA.
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS “Resolute Raccoon”: What’s new since 24.04? – OMGUbuntu and YouTube.
New
BeagleConnect Zepto – A “$1 computer” based on TI MSPM0L1117 Cortex-M0+ MCU and qwiic connector(s) – CNX.
Challenger+ RP2350 NB-IoT is a Feather-compatible board pairing a Raspberry Pi RP2350 microcontroller and a certified NB-IoT cellular module with built-in GNSS, suitable for long-range, low-power connectivity. It looks to be a variant of the earlier Challenger+ RP2350 WiFi6/BLE5 board that replaces an ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, BLE, and 802.15.4 module with an STMicroelectronics ST87M01 NB-IoT and GNSS module – CNX.
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 15 new boards added!
- Pimoroni Badger2350 by Pimoroni
- Pimoroni Explorer RP2350 by Pimoroni
- TinyCircuits Thumby by TinyCircuits
- TinyCircuits Thumby Color by TinyCircuits
- Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch AMOLED 2.41” by Waveshare
- WeAct Studio RP2350B Core by WeAct Studio
- Xteink X4 by Xteink
- Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 by Adafruit (Blinka)
- NodeMCU ESP8266 by NodeMCU (Blinka)
- Orange Pi 5 Ultra by Shenzhen Xunlong Software CO., Limited (Blinka)
- Pico 2 by Raspberry Pi (Blinka)
- Pico 2 W by Raspberry Pi (Blinka)
- Pico W by Raspberry Pi (Blinka)
- Banana Pi BPI-P2 Pro by SinoVoip (Blinka)
- LuckyFox Pico Ultra by LuckyFox (Blinka)
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:
Check Out the Adafruit Learning System Guides
The Adafruit Learning System has over 3,300 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 569!
New Libraries
Here are this week’s new CircuitPython libraries:
- No new libraries this week.
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 released CircuitPython 10.2.0 final last week. The release candidate, 10.2.0-rc.0, had a regression that caused problems when web workflow was used. I fixed that with some helpful advice from an LLM about some unnecessary changes I had made.
I’m now working on some other bugs, including a mysterious problem with memcpy on ESP32-C6.
Tim
This week I wrote a guide about using iNTERCEPT with a USB SDR on a Raspberry Pi. It’s a signals intelligence system that can scan various types of radio signals and record them and metadata about them. I enabled a few more modules in the zephyr port this week: jpegio, gifio, and storage. I also fixed the flash size declaration for the Feather RP2040 zephyr board def. I’m also working on finishing up a sweep over the libraries with a patch to update the version of ruff being used and some new capabilities in adabot that will allow me to fix any errors raised by the new ruff rules efficiently.
Scott
At the end of last week, I fixed the P4 logic analyzer capture firmware and that got me thinking about what I need to get things scaled up a bit. So, I’ve been heads down designing a basic ESP32-P4 board. It is a platform for learning everything needed for the new ESP32-P4. I’ve done the schematic and board layout. I’m adding silkscreen labels and then will get the bill of materials formalized for ordering. Once this is ordered, I want to make a logic analyzer specific board and a hardware-in-the-loop specific board.
Liz
This week I worked on some CircuitPython Tetris code. This code runs on an RP2040 Prop-Maker Feather with a NeoPixel grid as the display and a seesaw gamepad as the controller. This is for an upcoming Learn Guide with Noe Ruiz. He modeled the MIT Green Building, which is famous for being hacked with lights in its windows to show various displays including a playable game of Tetris.
Upcoming Events
PyCon US is May 13 – May 19, 2026 in Long Beach, California
The next MicroPython Meetup in Melbourne will be on May 27 – Luma. You can see recordings of previous meetings on YouTube.
Other Events This Year
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 10.2.0. New to CircuitPython? Start with our Welcome to CircuitPython Guide.
20260424 is the latest Adafruit CircuitPython library bundle.
20260414 is the latest CircuitPython Community library bundle.
v1.28.0 is the latest MicroPython release. Documentation for it is here.
3.14.4 is the latest Python release. The latest pre-release version is 3.15.0a8.
4,477 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.
39,025 Thanks
The Adafruit Discord community, where we do all our CircuitPython development in the open, reached over 39,025 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.
