Matt Trentini delivered the news roundup and Damien George talked about a mixed bag of topics including the Code of Conduct, BLE, Manifest files and Boards for the ESP32.

News roundup

PyLadies Workshop

• Delivered a MicroPython Starter Workshop to the PyLadies
  • Was a fantastic experience!
• First time we’ve been through our MicroPython Workshop material
  • Github, Introductory Slides
• Intent is that this can be used by any beginner
  • With documentation that is clear
• Hardware ‘kit’ needs to be cheap ($25)
  • TTGO ESP32, RGB LED Shield
  • More shields available to purchase
  • Shields for simplicity

Pycom GOINVENT

• Pycom are in the middle of a global tour to promote their products
  • The Melbourne session was Monday, entry included a FiPy
• My take-home…
  • Some really nice hardware (all sorts of RF interfaces!)
  • Demos were underwhelming
  • VS Code plugin was problematic
  • Some interesting ideas: pybytes in particular
  • Their license is a deal-breaker for me

Adafruit New Products

• Feather STM32F405 Express
  • Runs MicroPython, CircuitPython soon
  • Limor submitted the PR to support the board
  • Out of stock…
• nRF52840 Itsy Bitsy
  • “Coming Soon”, nearly done
  • Should be an excellent small BLE-capable dev board

Lessons learned from building a CircuitPython board

• Thea Flowers has a nice blog post discussing lessons learned
• Valuable read if you’re wanting to make your own hardware
  • Particularly for Micro/CircuitPython

MicroWebSrv2

• Hot off the press (today)!
• MicroWebSrv2
  • A new version of Jean-Christophe Bos’ (jczic) Web Server for MicroPython
• Features
  • Asynchronous architecture, SSL/TLS, web routes, web sockets module, template system, good documentation

Seeed Studio: RISC-V

• Doubling down on RISC-V
• Sipeed Longan Nano
  • RISC-V GD32VF103: 128KB flash, 32KB RAM
  • 160x80 IPS display
  • US$4.90
• Wio Lite with ESP8266
  • Feather form factor, wifi
  • US$6.90
• Also stocking Sipeed K210-based boards

mp-RA8875

• MicroPython driver for the RA8875
  • Allows TFT displays of 800x480
  • Also: Resistive touch
  • Port of a CircuitPython library

MicroPython Taking photos with an ESP32

Mauro Riva: Taking photos with an ESP32

• Uses the ESP32-CAM, I2S and an OV2640 driver
• Really detailed! More on Mauro’s “LeMaRiva” site
• MicroPython: VSCode IntelliSense, Autocompletion & Linting capabilities
• MAiX Dock & MicroPython: Hands-On with low power AI at the edge
• Review: Meet the M5Stack FIRE
• MicroPython: Home Automation using Blynk connected to a WiPy 3.0 / 2.0
• MicroPython: Programming an ESP using Jupyter Notebook

MicroPython C Module Documentation

• Micropython-usermod on Read the Docs
  • By Zoltán Vörös - thanks!
  • An excellent resource if you want to build a C module for MicroPython!
  • Covers: argument parsing, classes, iterables, error handling

CoC, BLE, Manifest FIles and Boards for ESP32

Damien talked about a mixed bag of topics including the Code of Conduct, BLE, Manifest files and Boards for the ESP32.