March 2025 Meetup
Hank shows off his latest doohickey. Matt delivers the news roundup.
News Round-up
Big ticket items
New OpenMV Kickstarter: Two new cameras!
OpenMV has announced a new Kickstarter for the OpenMV N6 and AE3! These are both exciting upgrades to the previous generation of OpenMV cams, using the new STM32N6 and Alif Ensemble E3, both are powerful micros and include support for HW accelerated ML - very useful for image processing!
There is a lot to talk about with these cameras and co-founder Kwabena Agyeman has been in many interviews - see the March OpenMV newsletter for a list of his appearances, including this interview with Damien:
Update: The Kickstarter was fully funded (AU$80K goal) in a couple of days.
AU$~130 and AU$~190 (AE and N6 respectively)
SparkFun <3 Python & MicroPython
SparkFun recently annouced two new IoT RedBoards and a bunch of other hardware. More notably - for us at least! - is that they also announced a significant expansion of their software support…47 new Python libraries that support Python and MicroPython!
The libraries look to be quite high-quality and are all mip-installable. Great support from SparkFun!
It’s also worth noting that there have been some recent PRs for SparkFun boards…
Matt’s New Hardware
None this month (!).
Hardware News
STM32U3 series
ST announced the new STM32U3 range of microcontrollers. Super low-power (10μA/MHz, twice the efficiency of the U5) but also powerful - a 96MHz Cortex-M33 core with 256KB RAM and up to 1MB flash. Throw in a couple of I3C interfaces low-power comparators, ULP timers and up to 82 GPIO and these are amazingly meaty for the power they consume.
Seeed Studio XIAO 6-Channel Wifi DC Relay
Seeed Studio released a 6-channel Relay powered by an ESP32-C6 XIAO. Handy piece of kit!
US$20
Silicon Labs announces tiny BG29 microcontroller
For “Smart Teeth”!
Silicon Labs reveal their very small (2.6x2.8mm) BLE-capable Cortex-M33 BG29. And it packs a punch, 77MHz, 256KB RAM, 1MB flash. They seem to be aiming it at medical applications but it looks generally useful to me!
No pricing yet.
Other news
You Should Build a Robot (MicroPython and MicroProcessors)
Sage Elliott presented a compelling argument as to why you should build your own robot at PyCascades in Portland. With MicroPython, naturally!
Pin IO performance - for Retro Computing goodness
XSK started investigating Pin IO performance, trying to figure out how to optimise code in MicroPython for bitbanging. Turns out he was trying to create a reader for SNES cartridge ROMs - so IO perf was important! I pointed him toward Damien’s Writing fast and efficient MicroPython and threw in a couple of other suggestions and off XSK went, delving into using mem32, thumb assembly and a few other methods.
Long story short, the time to read a 4MB cartridge was reduced from >2 hours to under 10 minutes. And it’s likely that it could be improved further.
Fast transfers using Dupont wires and breadboards rarely end well - and so signal integrity also needed to be resolved:
Really interesting project!
Important LVGL bindings MR merged
The long-standing !341 MR in the LVGL Bindings repository was merged recently! Although deep in the weeds, this MR lays the foundation for an easier integration of LVGL and MicroPython by allowing the bindings to co-exist more smoothly as a standard C user module.
It’s still challenging to build MicroPython with LVGL support but this is a huge step in the right direction to simplifying the process. Stay tuned!
Pocket Spectrometer Update
Chinna Devarapu updated - v2 - his excellent Pocket Spectrometer.
The update makes it much easier to assemble the device with refined 3D prints and better connections between the parts.
Adding a battery to my Tulip
Andy has a neat write-up on how he added a battery to his Tulip.
An easy hardware mod - and the software already accommodates the feature!
Carlos Escobar Brings MicroPython to the MSX Family
Carlos Escobar replaced the Z80 of the retro Japanese computer MSX with an RP2040. It’s a lovely - and technically very interesting! - update to the ye olde computer.
Final Thoughts
Animation vs. Coding
DeepSeek hallucinates about Peter Hinch
In a Github Discussion, MichaelMuckKremtz notes that his recent interaction with the LLM DeepSeek informed him all about a stepper motor driver that long-time MicroPython contributor Peter Hinch wrote. Which doesn’t exist and never happened!
Intellisense Knows What We Need
Thanks folks!
