Matt presented the usual news roundup.

News: Matt Trentini

• The OHS Badge is an interesting, MicroPython-driven badge with E-ink developed for the OHS conference attendees
  • Now available on Tindie
• The Blyst Nano, a tiny NRF52 board, is seeking funding on Crowd Supply
  • There is an NRF52 port of MicroPython, shouldn’t take much tweaking to run on this module
• The ESP32-CAM, a small ESP32-powered 2MP camera module is now available
  • Should run standard MicroPython though there’s currently no known camera driver that would work…
• The Air602 is a Cortex-M3 micro with wifi support crammed into a tiny castellated module
  • No MicroPython port yet and could be difficult as there is a lack of documentation
  • Especially remarkable for the low price (<$2)
• Espressif announced their support for Alexa on ESP32
  • Makes it easier to create Alexa skills for ESP32. Currently just C-API support and only on Lyra boards.
• Bluetooth update: Matt has tried to pull together all the individual parties working on MicroPython Bluetooth API’s but it’s difficult…
• Make: Electronics 2018 Humble Book Bundle was a good-value set of books for budding electronics enthusiasts - but it’s expired now! Sorry if you missed out.
• M5Stack M5Stick first-batch announced
  • ESP32 with small OLED, battery and optional accelerometer. Small, neat and cheap.
• TinyPICO update: Rev 4 just assembled
  • Improved WiFi (3D antenna) and APA102 on-board now. Experimenting with adding PSRAM. Small, very capable PICO ESP32 dev board!
• MicroPython documentation update
  • Big improvement: Damien reorganised the documentation so it’s no longer port-centric
  • Now the documentation is generic-first with links to port-specific docs
  • Should encourage more generic implementations
  • Matt is personally keen to begin the ESP32 documentation effort…
• UI libraries
  • We have the Loboris port and Peter Hinch’s micropython-nano-gui but there’s room for improvement here
  • Matt is considering working on a MicroPython GUI library - particularly to support the 320x240 display of the M5Stack
  • If you’d like to help out please get in touch!
• Python (not Micro) update
  • 3.7.1 and 3.6.7 were released