A compact snap-fit enclosure specifically for the CYD2USB (Type-C interface variant) of the ESP32-2432S028R Cheap Yellow Display. All ports have dedicated cutouts, heat dissipation holes on the back, LED cutouts, reset and boot buttons. Unique feature: separate cutout for the light sensor next to the display (missing from most other designs). No screws needed — insert display, press back cover firmly into place. Newer 2026 parametric version also available (linked in description). By user_1407252492

download the files on: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1080088-cyd2usb-cheap-yellow-display-esp32-2432s028r-wai-k

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

A compact tool designed to keep two cables perfectly aligned during soldering. Two adjustable clamps tighten via a threaded mechanism to securely hold cables while keeping hands free for precise soldering. Optimized for easy 3D printing without supports — quick to print, ready to use straight off the printer. Community reviewers report it works better than store-bought equivalents. Ideal for electronics work, repairs, and DIY assembly

download the files on: https://makerworld.com/en/models/2163197-solder-cable-holder

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

Carry your adafruit circuit playground bluefruit safely including cables

download the files on: https://www.printables.com/model/1839393-lab-carry-box-for-adafruit-circuit-playground-blue

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

A multifunctional desktop terminal powered by an ESP32 CYD (ESP32-2432S028) touch TFT screen. 700+ downloads and growing. Full DataDisplay Ecosystem Collection with custom wall mounts, Skadis/Parkside pegboard mounts, desk stands, and accessories. Web-based firmware flasher and GitHub project page linked. Recent update expands weather insights and optimizes display for readability and stability. By lachimalaif

download the files on: https://makerworld.com/en/models/2402822-datadisplay-v1-updated

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

A Pi Zero 2W(H) snap-fit case with multiple variants for different header setups, optional screw holes, and dedicated heat sink opening. Wall/Magnetic mount with 40mm spacing (DIN rail + power supply mount compatible). Magnet holes require supports. Alternative Pi Zero case for the enclosure block. By i-BoxIt

download the files on: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1054628-raspberry-pi-zero-2w-case-slim-snap-fit

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

A faceted geometric Jack-o’-Lantern from the designer’s Stone Collection with sculpted ‘stone armor’ texture. Two versions: multi-color print (AMS use, stem + pumpkin separate colors) or single-color (save filament, add stem detail with acrylic paint pen). Hollow inside with cutout base for LED candle. Modern take on the classic pumpkin. By MY LIGHT

download the files on: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1691167-geometric-jack-o-lantern-led-pumpkin

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

Transform your ESP32 2.8″ CYD into a real-time MakerWorld profile stats display. Live counts for Downloads, Prints, Boosts, and Points with decimal precision. Real-time notifications when someone downloads or prints your models. Account display shows your username prominently. RGB LED feedback with color-coded alerts, optional buzzer for audio notifications (buzzer mount included). Uses M3×4 bolts to secure the CYD. Clean professional-looking case with snap-fit assembly. By aqua3D

download the files on: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1870648-makerworld-live-monitor-esp32

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

From the mail bag!

I want to say thank you! I recently graduated with a
bachelors in Electrical Engineering, and will graduate with my Master’s in
December. Adafruit has helped me so much with its components, forums, prices
and delivery service. I have grown so much as an engineer thanks to being
able to order the exact components I need for any projects. I am currently
making a remote control car with parts I got from your company, and I just
want to say thank you for everything!

Quick-release clamps as add-ons for squinn’s popular Adjustable PCB Holder Tool. When you need to solder many boards in a row, screw-adjusting isn’t ideal — these clip-on clamps fix that. Ball-joint connected clips with an integrated cable holder for soldering cables together. Print profile also includes standalone bases with slots for 3×1.6mm magnets — mount to an old printer build plate for magnetic bench holding. Requires the base + screws from squinn’s original model. By Mittelpunkt Studios

download the files on: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1070999-solderclamps-for-adjustable-pcb-holder-tool

Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord

Adafruit on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adafruit

Shop for parts to build your own DIY projects http://adafru.it/3dprinting

3D Printing Projects Playlist:

3D Hangout Show Playlist:

Layer by Layer CAD Tutorials Playlist:

Timelapse Tuesday Playlist:

Connect with Noe and Pedro on Social Media:

Noe’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/ecken

Pedro’s Twitter / Instagram: http://instagram.com/videopixil

Turn your Fruit Jam into an arcade machine you can hook up to any TV. John Park’s new Learn Guide will show you how!

Pew pew!  DO you wanna play a game of pixel-accurate Space Invaders , even when you can’t remember where you put your original 1978 Taito or Midway arcade cabinet. Or maybe Mr. or Ms. Pac-Man  is more your speed? Heck yesh! Donkey Kong ? Check. Galaga ? YES! How about some  Burger Time ? Totally!! Lunar Rescue  perhaps? LET’S DO THIS!!!

Rather than running them on the Intel 8080- or Zilog Z80- or MOS 6502-based arcade PCBs, these are native Arduino ports for the Fruit Jam on an RP2350 chip, which loads your original game ROMs from a microSD card at boot. The video is output to DVI over HDMI with included I2S audio over the headphone jack, and uses directly wired arcade buttons as input.

Read more at Arcade Machine Ports for Fruit Jam

Researchers from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Marmara University in Türkiye designed a wearable device for use by people with tremors. Receiving a patent in the U.S., the device will ease symptoms and make routine tasks easier to manage.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, essential tremor is one of the most common movement disorders. Its defining feature is shaking of both hands and arms during action, although it can also affect the head, voice or lower limbs. It can begin at any age and may remain mild or worsen gradually over time.

Unlike the resting tremor commonly associated with Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor occurs when a person is trying to perform a voluntary movement.

NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit TSL2585 Digital UVA and Ambient Light Sensor

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Adafruit TSL2585 Digital UVA and Ambient Light Sensor is a great “three-in-one” light sensor that  has ambient light sensing, Infrared channel and UVA (315nm-400nm). In particular its not that common to get UVA narrow-band sensing on an I2C sensor, so this is great for outdoor light monitoring. It can also be used to measure curing lights, blacklights and reptile lamps!

Please Note: this sensor will give ‘counts’ for the ambient light sensor, and is not lux calibrated, so you can use it for measurements but it wont convert to Lux. The UVA sensor does have a calibration byte, but only for ‘factory corrected’ counts, not µW/cm².

The sensor has an auto-gain system with up to x4096 gain, plus adjustable integration time, so it can detect down to 1 millilux.

This chip is tiny and normally uses 1.8V power and logic so we’ve wrapped it into a tasty Stemma QT breakout board with SparkFun qwiic compatible STEMMA QT connectors for the I2C bus so you don’t even need to solder. Just wire up to your favorite micro with a plug-and-play cable to get data ASAP. For a no-solder experience, just wire up to your favorite micro using a STEMMA QT adapter cable. The Stemma QT connectors also mean the TSL2585 can be used with our various associated accessories. QT Cable is not included, but we have a variety in the shop

Communicating to the sensor is done over I2C, check out our Arduino and CircuitPython/Python code to get started fast and read data over I2C in a jiffy.

In stock and shipping now!

If you are going to track a butterfly you will need an extremely tiny tag. These two inch radio tags are solar powered, weigh about 60 milligrams, and are attached with eyelash glue. At $200 apiece, they aren’t cheap, but researchers in Wisconsin were recently able to fit 30 monarch butterflies with the custom trackers. Before the project, we had a good idea of where butterflies come from and where they go, but what happened in-between remained a mystery. Anyone can follow journey with the Project Monarch app!

Read more from Wisconsin Public Radio:

At a Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance event this month, staff and volunteers caught monarchs in nets and released 30 butterflies with the new radio tags at the Goose Pond Sanctuary. Brenna Marsicek is the director of outreach with the alliance.

“In order for us to better support this insect, we need to better understand what they’re up against along their migration and where the needs are for more habitat,” she said.

Learn more about Monarch Watch

Related stories Tracking Individual Monarch Butterflies

Butterfly Bench with Edge Lit Acrylic

The Python for Microcontrollers Newsletter is the place for the latest news involving Python on hardware (microcontrollers AND single board computers like Raspberry Pi).

This ad-free, spam-free weekly email is filled with CircuitPython, MicroPython, and Python information that you may have missed, all in one place!

You get a summary of all the software, events, projects, and the latest hardware worldwide once a week, no ads! You can cancel anytime.

It arrives about 11 am Monday (US Eastern time) with all the week’s happenings.

And please tell your friends, colleagues, students, etc.

Please sign up > > >

Stackable Steppers and DC motor control for your Raspberry Pi

Let your robotic dreams come true with a DC+Stepper Motor HAT or DC+Stepper Motor Bonnet from Adafruit. These Raspberry Pi add-ons are perfect for any motion project as they can drive up to 4 DC or 2 Stepper motors with full PWM speed control.

Learn more!

3D Hangouts – Franky Candy, E-Ink FruitMesh and Long Fingers
https://youtube.com/live/PTCjShegeXU?feature=share

This week @adafruit Noe is publishing his Franky candy dispenser project. Pedro has more updates on the e-ink meshtastic project and a new time lapse of articulating extended fingers.

Learn Guide
https://learn.adafruit.com/franky-candy-dispenser

YouTube Video
https://youtube.com/shorts/yNbIKtg1oE4?feature=share

Feather RP2040 PropMaker:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/5768

LED Glasses Starter Kit
https://www.adafruit.com/product/5255

4.2 300×400 Tri-Color e-ink display
https://www.adafruit.com/product/6382

Feather ESP32 S3
https://www.adafruit.com/product/5323

HelTech Case
https://makerworld.com/en/models/160873-h1-case-for-heltec-v3-running-meshtastic

Timelapse Tuesday:

Parametric Articulated Finger Extensions By ShugyoPrint
https://makerworld.com/en/models/3114173-parametric-articulated-finger-extensions
https://youtu.be/KKIErP7QzWA

Community Makes

https://www.printables.com/model/1839393-lab-carry-box-for-adafruit-circuit-playground-blue

If you missed this week’s livestream of John Park’s Product Pick(s) of the Week, not to worry, here’s the video. This week’s pick is the Adafruit I2S 3W Class D Amplifier Breakout – MAX98357A! Watch the video to find out about the Adafruit I2S 3W Class D Amplifier Breakout – MAX98357A!, how to use ’em, a live demo, and more.

Want more JP’s Product Pick of the Week?! Tune in every Tuesday at 3pm ET and 12pm PT on Youtube LIVE, Twitch, Periscope (Twitter) and Facebook. LIVE TEXT CHAT IS HERE in the Adafruit Discord chat!

Catch previous editions on YouTube and don’t miss our gift guide!

Paul Moore breaks down “who actually makes Wikipedia” in this piece for It’s Nice That:

Although we may take it for granted, the expansive database has a fascinating aesthetic: minimal, data-first, accessible, beautifully simple – but who designs Wikipedia? I’m here to find out once and for all.

Read more

Welcome to the latest Python on Microcontrollers newsletter! Having just concluded her second Vintage Computing Federation gathering near Chicago, your editor is exhausted, having brought all of her IBM gear (minus a nice Model M keyboard) to sell to the next generation. Why divest? I have so much to do otherwise, so the IBMs were sitting idle.

Not sitting idle is the Python on hardware community. Many of us have run into issues with a project stalling due to Python garbage collection. New work helps to avoid stutters in programs. A new Visual Studio Code extension helps with CircuitPython work. And so much more this issue. Thank you for being a reader. – 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:

An Incremental Garbage Collector For MicroPython

nunomo/raspy135 has added incremental garbage collection for MicroPython. It eliminates stop-the-world garbage collection which is one of the disadvantages of using MicroPython. It can keep high FPS in graphics applications with massive data allocations – GitHub. Via X.

• ATB expanded to 4bit
• GC skips scanning for ‘data’ type such as bytearray.
• GC can run partially in background, for scan and sweep.
• ESP32 and unix port are available, easy to port to other boards.

CircuitPython Remote

CircuitPython Remote 0.0.2 is an early beta VS Code extension for browsing and editing files on CircuitPython Web Workflow devices over WiFi. It is designed around the standard CircuitPython Web Workflow API, but other boards, operating systems, firmware versions, and network configurations have not yet been verified. The author is looking for community feedback – Adafruit Forums, code Visual Studio Marketplace and GitHub.

These Are The Programming Languages Developers Want To Learn The Most

New programming languages pop up seemingly every day, but despite a sea of options, a few figures routinely stand out as the most sought-after. According to Stack Overflow’s Developer Survey, the three most in-demand programming languages in order of developer popularity are Python, JavaScript, and Rust – BGR.

Refinements in the Centauri Quadcopter System

Tim Hanewich continues to refine Centauri, a fully custom quadcopter system with a custom MicroPython‑based flight controller, running efficiently on a low‑power Raspberry Pi Pico. Unlike most quadcopter projects that rely on off‑the‑shelf flight controllers, Centauri is entirely original – Blog, GitHub and YouTube. Via X.

Snakie Now Allows Picking a Microcontroller Board From a List of Nearly 240 Devices

Kevin McAleer’s Snakie editor / integrated development environment (IDE) for MicroPython and CircuitPython now lets you pick the board to code for and flash from a catalog of nearly 240 boards – X and Snakie app.

Making a Python Interpreter in 1024 Bytes

Austin Z. Henley set himself a weekend challenge to write a Python interpreter in 1024 bytes of C, with no macro tricks and no libraries – austinhenley.com and GitHub. Via the Adafruit Blog.

CPython Officially Adds RISC-V Support As a Tier 3 Platform

The Python core development team has announced that the open instruction set architecture RISC-V is now officially supported by CPython as a Tier 3 platform. The announcement was shared on the Python Insider blog by contributor Stan Ulbrych, following sustained efforts across the community to stabilize and validate the implementation on real silicon – InfoQ and Hacker News.

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, Scott streamed work on Zephyr pin muxing.

You can see the latest video and past videos on the Adafruit YouTube channel under the Deep Dive playlist – YouTube.

Deep Dive with Tim

Last week, Tim streamed work on pico-faces Image Gen Model Running on RP2350 Outputting DVI.

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 September 8, 2026 (notes) on YouTube.

Project of the Week: Rebuilding a 1995 GPS Time Server with Raspberry Pi and Python

A 1995 TrueTime XL-AK GPS time server has been rebuilt around a Raspberry Pi 5 by maker Jeff Geerling. The original unit was bought in June to learn about the history of GPS-based time. Sixteen days later, a similar GPS time server took down Australia’s cell service for 12 hours.

The restomod drops a Pi 5 and a GNSS HAT with a u-blox NEO-M9N into the chassis, then drives a vintage Densitron 16×2 LCD and the bicolor status LED from the Pi’s GPIO. Chrony and gpsd handle stratum 1 NTP duty using PPS. The build is reversible: two connectors swap the original TrueTime hardware back in – Jeff Geerling, YouTube and GitHub.

Popular Last Week

What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? The $15 Raspberry Pi Zero line board everyone recommends now costs $60, so here’s what to buy instead.

Did you know you can read past issues of this newsletter in the Adafruit Daily Archive? Check it out.

Notes from Adafruit Playground

Adafruit Playground is a 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.

Bringing new conveniences to an old CNC (v1 – unmodified machine) – Adafruit Playground.

News From Around the Web

A Compaq Portable II keyboard rebuild using a Raspberry Pi Pico and CircuitPython – YouTube.

Ruff vs Black vs Flake8: 389x faster linting – Tech Insider.

An LED reaction game with the XIAO ESP32-C6 in MicroPython – draeger-it.blog and YouTube. (German)

Voicebox FX is a blueprint for CircuitPython I2S audio – Hackaday.

The new full length Visual Studio Code documentary – YouTube. Via X.

Token optimization using Python for prompt development – opensourceforu.com. Via Adafruit Blog.

Five ESP32 projects that punch way above their weight – XDA.

RE-BOUND is a feature-rich, high-speed brick-breaking arcade game engineered specifically for the 72×40 monochrome OLED display of the Thumby micro-console, coded in MicroPython – itch.io. Via X.

How to change the Bluetooth name on a Raspberry Pi Pico 2W using MicroPython – YouTube.

A 10-feature GPS tracker with Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W, NEO-6M and MicroPython – YouTube and GitHub.

Using the Pimoroni Tiny FX LED Effects Controller for model LED lighting with MicroPython – maker.io.

Not all ESP32 boards are the same, and picking the wrong one wastes weeks of your project time – XDA.

Testing the behavior of MicroPython _thread, specifically for Raspberry Pi Pico series – coXXect.

An $8 ESP32 beats Raspberry Pi for these 4 DIY smart home projects – How-To Geek.

How to use Python code in Simulink – YouTube.

New

YuzukiNeko is a Raspberry Pi Pico-sized single board computer powered by a new Allwinner F101 RISC-V SoC. The processor features a single 1.008 GHz C907 RISC-V core, 8 MB or 16 MB PSRAM, and support for various display interfaces such as MIPI DSI, 24-bit RGB, and LVDS. The YuzukiNeko board itself features the F101 SoC, an SPI NOR flash, a microSD card for storage, a USB-C port, and two 20-pin GPIO headers – CNX.

Waveshare ESP32-C5 Pico board brings the ESP32-C5 dual-band WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread) SoC to the Raspberry Pi Pico form factor.

The board features an ESP32-C5-MINI-1 Series module with PCB or external antenna, two 20-pin GPIO headers, a USB-C port for power and programming, Reset and Boot buttons, and a few LEDs. It also supports Li-Ion battery charging and discharging – 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 was one new board added:

• Challenger RP2040 NFC by Invector Labs

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:

• How to Add a New Board to CircuitPython
• How to add a New Board to the circuitpython.org website
• Adding a Single Board Computer to PlatformDetect for Blinka
• Adding a Single Board Computer to Blinka

New Adafruit Learning System Guides

The Adafruit Learning System has over 3,200 free guides for learning skills and building projects including using Python.

Adafruit Monster Eyes from Liz Clark

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 585!

New Libraries

Here are this week’s new CircuitPython libraries:

• adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_TMF8801
• adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_TMF8806
• TheFilipcom4607/circuitpython-pn7150

Updated Libraries

Here are this week’s updated CircuitPython libraries:

• adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Register
• adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_GPS
• adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_MPU6050
• todbot/CircuitPython_SynthTools

What’s the CircuitPython team up to this week?

What is the team up to this week? Let’s check in:

Dan

I’m finishing up working on BLE workflow bugs. There were multiple bugs and multiple causes for the bugs, depending on the microcontroller chip and also the operating system of the host computer. Then I’ll start becoming familiar with the Zephyr port and working on its issues and desired features.

Tim

The SP-1 and watchdog guides are both published. Next up for me is porting pico-faces to run on the Fruit Jam and output via HSTX/DVI. I’ve got it working, and added an optional 2×2 colored grid effect inspired by Andy Warhol. Now I’m working on getting it cleaned up and writing a guide for it.

Scott

Last week I merged a fix to the Zephyr continuous tests and proposed another test using address sanitizer to catch issues. That PR is nearly merged. Now I’m catching up on reviews from the long US weekend. Next, I’m wrapping up the Adaboot bootloader that is built on Zephyr and MCUboot. It’ll make it easy to update CircuitPython based on Zephyr and establish standard partition layouts for new boards.

Liz

The Monster Eyes guide was published this week. Since the code has grown, I’m going to refactor it into an Arduino library, that way folks can use it alongside projects more easily. I’ve also been documenting the TMF8801 time of flight sensor. There is a CircuitPython driver available for it.

Upcoming Events

The next MicroPython Meetup in Melbourne will be on September 23 – Luma. You can see recordings of previous meetings on YouTube.

Maker Faire Bay Area is September 26-28 at Mare Island, California.

Other Events This Year

• PyConZA 2026, South Africa’s Python conference, will be 14–18 Oct at Belmont Square, Cape Town, South Africa.
• Espressif DevCon 2026 will be November 3-4 in Milan, Italy and online.

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 10.3.0. New to CircuitPython? Start with our Welcome to CircuitPython Guide.

20260910 is the latest Adafruit CircuitPython library bundle.

20260910 is the latest CircuitPython Community library bundle.

v1.29.0 is the latest MicroPython release. Documentation for it is here.

3.14.7 is the latest Python release. The latest pre-release version is 3.15.0rc2.

4,551 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.

38,892 Thanks

The Adafruit Discord community, where we do all our CircuitPython development in the open, reached 38,892 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.

From the GitHub release page:

This is CircuitPython 10.4.0-alpha.2, an alpha release for 10.4.0. Further features, changes, and bug fixes will be added before the final release of 10.4.0.

Highlights of changes since 10.3.1

• 5 GHz WiFi support.
• Allow importing turbo (@viper and @native) .mpy files on many espressif, nordic, and SAMx5x boards (already enabled on RP2xxx).
• BLE numeric-comparison (PIN) pairing on Espressif.
• Merge from MicroPython v1.28 and v1.29.
• Many bug fixes.

Download from circuitpython.org

Firmware downloads are available from the downloads page on circuitpython.org. The site makes it easy to select the correct file and language for your board.

Installation

To install, follow the instructions in the Welcome to CircuitPython! guide. To install the latest libraries, see this page in that guide.

Try code.circuitpython.org or the latest version of the Mu editor for creating and editing your CircuitPython programs and for easy access to the CircuitPython serial connection (the REPL).

Documentation

Documentation is available in readthedocs.io.

Port status

CircuitPython has a number of “ports” that are the core implementations for different microcontroller families. Stability varies on a per-port basis. As of this release, these ports are consider stable (but see Known Issues below):

• atmel-samd: Microchip SAMD21, SAMx5x
• cxd56: Sony Spresense
• espressif: Espressif ESP32, ESP32-C2, ESP32-C3, ESP32-C5, ESP32-C6, ESP32-C61, ESP32-H2, ESP32-S2, ESP32-S3
• nordic: Nordic nRF52840, nRF52833
• raspberrypi: Raspberry Pi RP2040, RP2350
• stm: ST STM32F4 chip family

These ports are considered alpha and will have bugs and missing functionality:

• analog: Analog Devices MAX32690
• broadcom (will be removed in CircuitPython 11): Raspberry Pi boards such as RPi 4, RPi Zero 2W
• espressif: ESP32-P4
• litex: fomu
• mimxrt10xx: NXP i.MX RT10xxx
• renode: hardware simulator
• silabs: Silicon Labs MG24 family
• stm: ST non-STM32F4 chip families
• zephyr: multiplatform RTOS, running on multiple chip families

Changes since 10.3.1

Fixes and enhancements

• Fix argument validations, internal calculations, and edge cases in many places, including audio code. #11385, #11384, #11381, #11378, #11377, #11370, #11368, #11367. Thanks @peterbay.
• Allow 5 GHz channels in wifi.Monitor. #11375. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Allow 5 GHz channels in wifi.Radio.start_ap(). #11374. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Compress localized messages further. #11373, #11369. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Save firmware space by shrinking property objects on more ports. #11371. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Allocate space only for terminal font glyphs that exist. #11365. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Set ARM Thumb bit on code pointers consistently. #11361. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Merge from MicroPython v1.29.0. #11349. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Merge from MicroPython v1.28.0. #11334. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• wifi.Radio.connect() can now take a Network from scan result. #11309. Thanks @mikeysklar.

Port and board-specific changes

Analog Devices

Broadcom

Espressif

• Enable turbo (@viper and @native) .mpy loading. #11392. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• BLE numeric-comparison pairing. #11340. Thanks @mmabey.

i.MX

Nordic

• Enable turbo (@viper and @native) .mpy loading. #11360. Thanks @mikeysklar.

renode

RP2xxx

• Use a smaller version of the internal timezone code. #11379. Thanks @lynt-smitka.

SAMx

• Enable turbo (@viper and @native) .mpy loading. #11356. Thanks @mikeysklar.

SiLabs

Spresense

STM

• Enable turbo (@viper and @native) .mpy loading. #11355. Thanks @mikeysklar.

Zephyr

• Correct staleness check for autogen_board_info.toml. #11396. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Fix BLE problems, including those affecting BLE workflow. #11366. Thanks @dhalbert.
• In tests, read serial output in chunks instead of one byte at a time. #11353. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Run tests in parallel. #11348. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• In CI runs, cache each port’s submodules in its own cache entry. #11345. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Limit west update to projects we actually use. #11344. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Only build boards that enabled a changed module. #11316. Thanks @lynt-smitka.

Individual boards

Pimoroni PicoSystem: enable picogame. #11359. Thanks @lynt-smitka.

Documentation changes

Build and infrastructure changes

• Experiment with merge queues. #11399, #11398, #11390, #11389, #11388, #11387. Thanks @tannewt.
• Cancel PR merge runs when a later PR is merged, to save CI time. #11388. Thanks @tannewt.
• Regenerate translation data when TRANSLATION is changed in a build directory. #11372. Thanks @dhalbert.

Translation additions and improvements

New boards

• SecuringHardware.com Xiaomao. #11395. Thanks @securelyfitz.

Known issues

• See https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues for other issues, including issues still to be addressed for:
  • 10.3.x
  • 10.x.x
  • 11.0.0
  • long term

Thanks

Thank you to all who used, tested, and contributed toward this release, including the contributors above, and many others on GitHub and Discord. Join us on the Discord chat to collaborate.

NEW PRODUCT – Adafruit TCS3448 14-Channel Light / Color Sensor Breakout

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Adafruit TCS3448 (a.k.a TCS34488) Multi-Spectral Sensor is a multi-channel spectrometer, which is a special type of light sensor that is able to detect not only the amount of light present but also the amounts of light within different wavelengths. This means that you can use it to detect much better than the human eye is capable of, what color or colors of light is present.

The TCS3448 packs within its 3x2mm footprint 25 photodiodes that can detect 11 separate, overlapping bands of visible light, plus one near infrared, one clear and a flicker channel for 14 channels total. Compared to the AS7341, this sensor has 4 more light channels – but you’ll need to use a new firmware driver since it’s not back-compatible.

The TCS3448 is ams Osram’s ‘refresh’ of the AS7343, so it’s an upgrade from the AS7341 and has some slight improvements/changes over the AS7343:

• I2C address changed from 0x39 to 0x59.
• Retuned optical filters: channel centers move by a few nanometers and several visible channels have higher responsivity especially violet/blue and the F8 far-red channel.
• Sensitivity is not higher everywhere; NIR response is lower.
• Firmware is not 100% drop-in! You’ll need to recompile since the I2C address has changed

The multi-spectral color measuring capabilities of the TCS3448 can be used to quantify the specific makeup of light, either emitted or reflective. It’s kind of like a mini spectroscopy sensor. This is possible thanks to the impressive collection of sensors in the TCS3448 being routed through 6 independent 16-bit ADCs that take the raw measurements and convert them to digital values that can be read out over I2C.

14 readable individual sensor elements (13 light channels plus flicker detection) don’t exactly fit through a 6-channel ADC all at once, so the chip includes a so-called Super MUX (SMUX) that allows you to route the signal from any sensor to any ADC channel. The sensor also has GPIO and interrupt pins that can allow it to communicate directly with other sensors, or the microcontroller itself.

All of this capability is made accessible by mounting the sensor on a STEMMA QT form factor breakout board, complete with level shifting circuitry and SparkFun Qwiic compatible Stemma QT connectors. This means that you can, without needing to solder, connect our TCS3448 breakout into your 3.3V or 5V microcontroller of choice be it an Arduino Uno, Raspberry Pi, or one of the many CircuitPython-compatible boards. While it certainly takes a bit of work to make all those different light sensors share their measurements, our Arduino and CircuitPython libraries take care of all of that hard work for you and even include example code to help get you started. QT Cable is not included, but we have a variety in the shop.

In stock and shipping now!

NEW PRODUCT – ScoutMakes DRV5011 Digital Magnetic Hall Effect Sensor

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is a breakout for the Texas Instruments DRV5011 Digital Magnetic Latch Hall Effect Sensor. It is the perfect way to add magnetic sensing to your project. It looks and sounds a lot like the DRV5032 but this version has a latching output.

The sensor has a digital output that goes LOW when a south-side magnetic field is detected, and will stay low until a north-side field is detected, then it goes back HIGH. This makes it great for detecting a rotating magnet since you’ll get nice clean pulses on the transition from N to S and S to N. However, it’s not great for detecting when there’s no magnetic field. For that, pick up the DRV5032

The breakout comes with a 3-pin header for breadboard use. This board has a simple plug-and-play JST PH (2mm pitch) 3-pin input connector for solderless use. This cable is sold separately but is not needed to use the board.

Note: this breakout board may come with either a black or tan JST-PH connector.

In stock and shipping now!

From September 24th through the 27th, you can check out Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair for discussions, exhibitions, lectures, and book launches at MoMA PS1.

Printed Matter’s NY Art Book Fair (NYABF) is the world’s leading fair for artists’ books. Over four days, NYABF convenes hundreds of independent publishers, artists, antiquarian booksellers, zine collectives, institutions, and distributors from across the globe to MoMA PS1. This year, both PS1 and Printed Matter celebrate a shared milestone: 50 years of commitment to experimental artistic practices in the New York City cultural landscape.

GitHub user ch32-riscv-ug has developed wch-protocols, a knowledge base for the protocols behind flashing and debugging WCH’s CH32 RISC-V chips.

The aim is a spec you can implement from without being tied to any one tool. Byte layouts, register addresses, the procedures themselves. Enough to write your own programmer in Python, Rust, C etc.

It works through the protocols one layer at a time. There are four separate routes to the target chip, and each one goes through a different set of layers. Existing implementations, ch32rv among them, get read as documents rather than taken as the final word.

The good part is that every entry tells you how much to trust it. Verified means the author captured it on real hardware. Attested means several earlier implementations agree. Single-source, conflict and todo cover the weaker cases. Draft means original design work that nobody has built or measured yet. There is a coverage file showing which documents are complete enough to build from and where the holes are.

One catch: it is all in Japanese right now, while the details are still moving. English is planned. MIT license.

See more on GitHub.

jzb at LWN reports that Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced seven stable kernel releases at once: 7.2.6, 6.18.52, 6.12.110, 6.6.157, 6.1.188, 5.15.221 and 5.10.270.

Kroah-Hartman says the batch may set a record for patch count, with more than 9,000 patches across the seven releases. The 7.2.6 release alone carries more than 1,800 of them. Users of any of these kernels are advised to upgrade.

See more at lwn.net.

Writing on yuvalino.com, jachashx traced a demo crash at DEFCON 34 down to a 40 year old kernel bug. The demo was a VM running an SSH server inside an iOS app, with a userspace TTY built from a pair of connected UNIX domain sockets. It crashed only on the first run after a fresh boot, which ruled out ASLR and thread races.

A sanity check comparing a socket’s stored inode number against a fresh fstat() was failing. Two fstat() calls on the same socket end returned different inode numbers. The cause is in XNU’s uipc_sense(): it lazily assigns an inode from a global counter using unp_ino++ instead of ++unp_ino. The counter starts at zero, so the first socket ever stat’ed on the system gets inode 0, which the code treats as uninitialized, and the next call hands out a different number.

The same logic appears in XNU 123.5 from Mac OS X 10.0 in 2001, and in 4.3BSD-Tahoe before that. The line was last touched on December 20, 1985. An earlier commit message from that May reads “fake up inode numbers and dev for the naive.”

See more at yuvalino.com.

Come on by for JP’s Product Pick of The Week ! A new product pick will be revealed. The show airs at 3pm ET / 12pm PT

We’re making changes to some show schedules at Adafruit, so this will be the new time slot for JPPPoW, put it on your calendar! Grab some lunch or a snack!

Check out the livestream right here inside this product page you won’t want to miss it because there will be a LARGE DISCOUNT during the show!

Tune in for:

• • John Park’s newest product pick
  • Learn how to use it
  • Live Demo

The live video will also be on YouTube LIVE, Twitch, Periscope (Twitter) and Facebook. LIVE TEXT CHAT IS HERE in the Adafruit Discord chat! Come on into the chat to participate in the conversation!!

New Time Today and moving forward, every Tuesday @ 3pm ET/12pm PT!

NollKollTroll has published OpenSpand on Codeberg, an all-in-one expansion for the Sinclair ZX81 and its clones. It works much like the ZXpand+, with more functions and extended versions of the existing ones.

OpenSpand takes over the machine’s memory entirely. The ZX81 internal ROM and RAM are always disabled, and the board supplies all the memory the computer needs. The hardware design and the software are both open source, so anyone can change or add to them. The project says it is relatively cheap and easy to build, and the hope is that others find it easy to extend.

The repository carries a full manual, OpenSpand_manual.md, with the details the summary leaves out. Support threads are running on the Sinclair ZX World and tlienhard forums.

See more at codeberg.org. Via Hackaday.

An anonymous writer at A6M-Zero set two rules for a hardware experiment: describe a board in plain English, then stay out of the design. The prompt asked for an RP2350 development board that drives an E-ink display. Fable 5 worked autonomously for a couple of hours and produced a KiCad project with 65 footprints, 54 nets and 118 unconnected lines.

The first pass had 65 DRC errors, which were reported back to the model and nothing else. Two footprints were wrong: a W25Q128JVS SPI flash in SOIC-8 wide sitting on SOP-8 pads, and an undersized transistor for the E-ink boost converter. The flash was swapped for a P25Q64SH. Freerouting ran seventeen passes over two minutes and left 49 connections undone, so the rest were hand-routed by Claude. KiCadRoutingTools, found later, finished the same placement in 1.25 seconds.

Five assembled boards from JLCPCB cost 130 Euros, with the 1.54 inch displays bought locally. The board enumerated over USB on first plug-in with no short between 3v3 and ground. It now runs a watch face, a stopwatch, a .txt e-reader off the SPI flash and a dithered one-bit photo album. Next up is a Jetson Orin Nano tablet.

See more at a6mzero.com.

Ayush Pande, writing at XDA Developers, snapped one of the MIPI latches on his Raspberry Pi 5 within a few months of buying the board. He ignored it until he wanted to run two cameras into a Frigate server on the same Pi. That meant both MIPI sockets had to work, so he needed a replacement latch.

The Pi 5 swapped the older full-size CSI and DSI connectors for two smaller interchangeable MIPI sockets, and the latches on them are easy to break. The latch is a small piece of plastic that slides between two wedges, so a print was worth a try. STL files for the older CSI and DSI latches are easy to find. The MIPI version took more searching, and he found a model on Printables.

He printed it in PETG rather than PLA, since the board gets warm enough to warp PLA, and adjusted the deflection settings so the small details survived slicing. The print took two minutes on a stock 0.4mm nozzle. There was some stringing inside the part, which a heat gun cleaned up. The latch slotted into the Pi 5 and held a camera ribbon cable the board detected without trouble.

See more at xda-developers.com.

Can a $20 hotspot help you conquer doomscrolling? bkovac on GitHub created this texting device from an inexpensive modem.

The project combines a MSM8916-based 4G hotpsot (purchased for $20), a Clicks Keyboard, and a Sharp memory display into a portable texting device. A pocketable texting device could help stay of the apps designed for endless scrolling, which is why the creator humorously referred to “the Thing” as the “we have the Clicks Communicator at home.” 

Due to the mysterious laws of supply and demand, and the magic of supply chains – somehow you can get a 4G modem with WiFi, bluetooth, a display, fully battery powered and completely unlocked – for less than $20 shipped. This, of course, is the cornerstone of our project.

There are versions with and without a display. The non-display one just swaps the display for LED-s, though the PCB is the same. Display is a GC9107 powered one, but it looks like ass so i ditched it.

Learn more!

In the future, every microcontroller will be able to run models with 1.5 million parameters.

The Pico-Faces project is an image generation model that can run on a microcontroller. The model implements a latent flow diffusion transformer (DiT). Similar to techniques used by some larger GenAI image models, but with some tricks and efficiencies that pack it down to 5000 times fewer parameters than typical larger image gen models. The model runs on the RP2350 and generates 128×128 pixel images of faces.

The original project supports two output modes: 1) USB serial link with image data transferred in it and rendered on a host PC with help from the Python Imaging Library. 2) VGA output using the Pimoroni Pico VGA Demo Base. I have added support for the Fruit Jam and HSTX/DVI video output.

In the ethos of “Art is what you can get away with”, I also added a fun 2×2 color grid effect inspired by Andy Worhol’s artwork.

Read more at Pico-Faces On Fruit Jam

Michael Larabel at Phoronix reports that Firefox 157 Beta is out, moving the browser’s next release into public beta testing.

The beta channel is where Mozilla’s next set of changes lands before it reaches the stable release. Anyone who wants to see what is coming, or test a site against it early, can install the beta build now. Phoronix has the rundown of what is new in this cycle.

See more at phoronix.com.

Julian Horsey at Geeky Gadgets compares two pocket-sized e-ink readers, the BOOX Picco and the XTE Ink X4 Pro, drawing on a breakdown from TechAvid.

The Picco keeps things simple. It has a 3.97-inch monochrome e-ink touchscreen, physical page-turn buttons for one-handed reading, an adjustable warm front light and a Linux-based operating system. Several specifications are still unconfirmed, including battery capacity, weight and screen resolution. It is expected in November 2026 at an estimated $100.

The X4 Pro is shipping now at $99. Its display is slightly larger at 219 PPI, and its front light offers both warm and cool tones. Open firmware allows custom software installs, typography controls and wireless workflows, and it uses a magnetic charging system that may mean buying an extra accessory.

See the video below and more on geeky-gadgets.com.

rh1tech has published FRANK-386, an i386 PC emulator that runs on the RP2350, the chip on the Raspberry Pi Pico 2. It is based on Tiny386 by Chunhui He, ported to the microcontroller by Mikhail Matveev and DnCraptor.

The firmware targets RP2350 boards that have VGA or HDMI output, an SD card slot, and keyboard input. It handles PS/2 and USB keyboards and mice, a NES gamepad, and audio output. Four GPIO layouts are covered: M1, M2, PC (Olimex), and Z2 (Waveshare). When USB HID is enabled, the native USB port is used for input and the USB serial console is disabled, so debug output goes over UART.

Disk images live in a 386/ directory on the SD card, with floppy, hard disk, and CD-ROM images configured in config.ini. SeaBIOS and a VGA BIOS are needed, either from the SeaBIOS releases or the copies included in the repository. A runtime Disk Manager swaps images without a restart and writes the changes back to config.ini. The project is MIT licensed.

See more on GitHub. Via Hackaday.

Adafruit has published turbo on GitHub, a pair of pieces that let CircuitPython run machine code from the @micropython.native and @micropython.viper decorators. The language already has the decorators. What was missing was firmware that can load the result and a tool to produce it. turbo firmware is built with CIRCUITPY_LOAD_NATIVE=1, which adds a 2 to 3 KB loader and no on-board compiler, and the host CLI compiles a module with the official mpy-cross and installs it where the importer will find it.

On twelve boards measured so far, a viper inner loop ran 19x to 72x faster than the same code as bytecode. The benchmark is a 160×120 Mandelbrot at 64 iterations, and every variant has to produce checksum 407644 or it is not installed. Float bytecode speed changes by under 0.1% with the loader in the build.

ESP32-S2, S3 and C5 are verified on hardware. Getting Xtensa working took fixing MICROPY_MAKE_POINTER_CALLABLE, which OR-ed the ARM Thumb bit into every code pointer. Note that code.py cannot be accelerated, because it runs through pyexec_file rather than import.

See more on Hackaday and on Adafruit.

lambdamikel has published Perfect Paul ][ on GitHub, a DECtalk speech synthesizer card for the Apple II built around a Raspberry Pi Pico. It is named after DECtalk’s default voice. The card speaks plain text, sings in DECtalk’s phoneme mode, and can hold a conversation. You drive it from Applesoft BASIC with POKE.

The interface is as small as it gets. Bytes written to the card’s slot window are queued as text, and a carriage return speaks the line. The card decodes no address lines at all, relying on /DEVSEL, so it works in any slot from 1 to 7 with no jumpers and no reflash. Only one constant in BASIC changes. Core 0 catches the bus writes with RP2040 PIO, core 1 runs DECtalk synthesis. There is no slot ROM and no read cycle, which keeps the hardware to two logic chips.

Both audio paths are on the board: I2S through a MAX98357A and PWM through a PAM8403, selected with a jumper. Revision 2 has been fabricated, assembled and tested in a real Apple II, and the Gerbers are published. The demo disk includes Daisy Bell and a talking ELIZA.

See the video below and more on GitHub. Via Hackaday.

Dave Farquhar, writing at The Silicon Underground, looked into the Osborne Effect and found reason to doubt it happened. Osborne Computer Corporation filed for Chapter 11 on September 13, 1983, with $40 million in assets against $45 million in debt. It emerged in January 1985, defaulted on a payment in early 1986, and was liquidated on April 9, 1986.

The familiar story is that Adam Osborne killed demand for the Osborne 1 by talking up the Osborne Executive too early. In his 1984 memoir Hypergrowth, written with John C. Dvorak, Osborne said on page 118 that he invented that explanation to account for two months with no income, and fed it to a Wall Street Journal reporter for the July 13, 1983 issue. Farquhar searched Computerworld and InfoWorld and found no mention of the effect before that date.

He also found June 1983 ads promising IBM compatibility for the Executive. Hypergrowth reveals it was a third party add-on that did not exist yet. The real damage, Farquhar argues, was accounting: a break-even fiscal year restated as a $4 million loss, then $8 million, which sank the planned IPO.

See more at dfarq.homeip.net.

gpasquero has published the source for Vintage Emulator Studio (VES) on GitHub. VES is an audio plug-in for macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows, and Linux, in AU and VST3 formats where supported, plus a standalone application. It wraps a curated set of vintage synthesizers, drum machines, sound modules, and samplers emulated by MAME into a plug-in a musician can load in a DAW.

The current source baseline is VES 0.9.289.1 with an embedded MAME 0.289 tree, upstream commit f34f02505e32c1993c6a782b6814232cbfc74e36. The repository holds the JUCE-based host code, artwork and layout resources, platform build integration, the patched MAME source, and a patch series describing the changes. The MAME integration adds a reduced vesembedded target, in-memory audio and MIDI bridges, video capture for plug-in rendering, machine profiles, and virtual MIDI retrofit paths for some instruments.

Instruments come from Akai, Casio, Ensoniq, Linn, Oberheim, Roland, Sequential, and Yamaha. Accuracy depends on the state of each MAME driver, so some machines have incomplete features. No release binaries are included, and ROMs, firmware, and NVRAM are excluded from source control. Users supply their own machine data and point the plug-in at it.

See more on GitHub.

Ed, writing at The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning, spent a morning tracking down why printing stopped working on a Manjaro system. The culprit was the recent CUPS update to 2.4.19. The error messages gave no useful clue about what had broken.

The fix was to downgrade two packages, which put printing back the way it was. Ed notes that CUPS itself may not have needed reverting, but was not inclined to experiment further once printing worked again. Both packages are now pinned in /etc/pacman.conf so the next update does not undo the repair.

For the downgrade itself, Ed used manjaro-downgrade, calling it the least awful option. It can be done with pacman or pamac instead, but reading through the list of packages in the update cache helped identify what had actually changed.

See more at softsolder.com.

Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month! Running mid-month from September 15 through October 15th this is a time to share stories, learn about history and celebrate America’s diversity.

Throughout this month the Adafruit blog will feature important stories, people and events, you can check in and follow along here!

About National Hispanic Heritage Month:

Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402.

And more from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino:

Hispanic Heritage Month provides an additional opportunity to explore the incredible impact Latinas and Latinos have had on the United States for generations. The Latino presence in America spans centuries, predating Spain’s colonization of what is now part of the United States, and they have been an integral part of shaping our nation since the Revolutionary War. Through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Treaty of Paris that followed the Mexican-American and Spanish-American wars, the United States gained territories in the Southwest and Puerto Rico. This incorporated the people of this area into the United States and further expanded the presence of Hispanic Americans.

Be sure to Check Back!

From the GitHub release page:

This is CircuitPython 10.3.1, a bugfix revision of CircuitPython, and is a new stable release.

Highlights of changes since 10.3.0

• Allow importing turbo (@viper and @native) .mpy files on RP2xxx boards. More to come.
• Espressif ESP32-C5 support.
• Espressif and nordic BLE fixes that improve BLE workflow.
• Many other bug fixes.
• Many build infrastructure improvements and speedups.

Download from circuitpython.org

Firmware downloads are available from the downloads page on circuitpython.org. The site makes it easy to select the correct file and language for your board.

Installation

To install, follow the instructions in the Welcome to CircuitPython! guide. To install the latest libraries, see this page in that guide.

Try code.circuitpython.org or the latest version of the Mu editor for creating and editing your CircuitPython programs and for easy access to the CircuitPython serial connection (the REPL).

Documentation

Documentation is available in readthedocs.io.

Port status

CircuitPython has a number of “ports” that are the core implementations for different microcontroller families. Stability varies on a per-port basis. As of this release, these ports are consider stable (but see Known Issues below):

• atmel-samd: Microchip SAMD21, SAMx5x
• cxd56: Sony Spresense
• espressif: Espressif ESP32, ESP32-C2, ESP32-C3, ESP32-C5, ESP32-C6, ESP32-C61, ESP32-H2, ESP32-S2, ESP32-S3
• nordic: Nordic nRF52840, nRF52833
• raspberrypi: Raspberry Pi RP2040, RP2350
• stm: ST STM32F4 chip family

These ports are considered alpha and will have bugs and missing functionality:

• analog: Analog Devices MAX32690
• broadcom (will be removed in CircuitPython 11): Raspberry Pi boards such as RPi 4, RPi Zero 2W
• espressif: ESP32-P4
• litex: fomu
• mimxrt10xx: NXP i.MX RT10xxx
• renode: hardware simulator
• silabs: Silicon Labs MG24 family
• stm: ST non-STM32F4 chip families
• zephyr: multiplatform RTOS, running on multiple chip families

Changes since 10.3.0

Fixes and enhancements

• Keep serving web workflow after a watchdog reset. #1337. Thanks @grgrant.
• Add a guard service to BLE workflow services so user-created services won’t cause problems. #11333. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Allow loading “turbo” (native and viper) .mpy files without adding the @native and @viper compilers. #11332, #11331. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Fix WaveFile 8-bit sample padding at end of file. #11320. Thanks @4RH1T3CT0R7.
• Validate epoch_time in TimeAlarm. #11318. Thanks @4RH1T3CT0R7.
• Allow scanning 5 GHz WiFi channels on dual-band boards. #11308. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Validate passed display in picogame. #11306. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Add freeze property to audiodelays.PitchShift. #11293. Thanks @relic-se.
• Fix dirty-rectangle checks in picogame. #11290. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Fix dropped note when re-pressed after decay in synthio #11289. Thanks @bdbarnett.
• Fix regression in LED status code display. #11288. Thanks @dhalbert.
• usb_hid: honor boot protocol request that arrives after startup. #11282. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Fix synthio Biquad filter reset. #11278. Thanks @bdbarnett.
• Fix audiofilters.Distortion(soft_clip=False). #11277. Thanks @bdbarnett.
• Fix synthio oscillator wrapping one sample late. #11276. Thanks @bdbarnett.
• Fix synthio Biquad filter computation. #11275. Thanks @bdbarnett.
• Mark usb_audio.Speaker OUT adaptive so Windows UAC2 driver can start. #11256. Thanks @jbirchall-svg.

Port and board-specific changes

Analog Devices

Broadcom

Espressif

• Fix touchio.TouchIn regression. #11307. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Don’t run out of space for BLE CCCDs. #11304. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Don’t drop Characteristic.value notifications under load. #11301. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Add ESP32-C5 support. #11297. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Don’t lose _bleio.PacketBuffer data when buffers are temporarily not available. #11286. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Don’t clear sleep memory after a reload; only clear after hard reset. #11274. Thanks @mikeysklar.

i.MX

Nordic

• Fix hardcrash when activating watchdog in boot.py. #11925. Thanks @FoamyGuy.
• Add emmcio module, currently only used for Teenage Engineering SP-1. #11257. Thanks @FoamyGuy.

renode

RP2xxx

• Fix mDNS WiFI hostname. #11035. Thanks @grgrant.

SAMx

SiLabs

Spresense

STM

• Make entering bootloader more robust by retrying. #11270. Thanks @mikeysklar.

Zephyr

• nrf7002dk: give slot0 the unused 32 kB storage partition. #11335. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• RP2xxx: make nvm size be a whole erase block. #11272. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Build changes:
  • Build translations more selectively. #11336. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
  • Run tests only when a change can reach them. #11327. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
  • Allow display capture tests to stop the simulator after the last display write. #11323. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
  • Add asan native_sim build. #11317. Thanks @tannewt.
  • Install 32-bit SDL2 packages only for native_sim. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
  • Use Python 3.13 for board jobs because wheels do not yet exist for some 3.14 packages. #11312. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
  • Check that zephyr board firmware layouts match the non-zephyr builds for those boards. #11310. THanks @lynt-smitka.
  • Use dummy SDL video driver for native_sim. #11303. Thanks @tannewt.
  • Use autogen for emmcio, picogame, board. #11296. Thanks @tannewt.
  • Run tests in their own workflow. #11294. Thanks @mikeysklar.
  • Increase timeouts for test_saved_word test. #11280. Thanks @dhalbert.
  • Add partition layout check. #11273. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
  • Add ranges to partitions node. #11271. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
  • Ignore more file changes that don’t affect board builds. #11264. Thanks @tannewt.

Individual boards

• Pajenicko PicoPad: Use 62.5 MHz for display SPI frequency. #11291. Thanks @lynt-smitka.

Documentation changes

Build and infrastructure changes

• Run zephyr tests as three jobs, to improve parallelism. #11350. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Add lib/mp3 as a dependency for mimxrt10xx in ci_fetch_deps.py. #11346. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Get ninja from ESP-IDF tools instead of fetching it again with apt. #11343. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Fix unix coverage build on arm64. #11330. Thanks @4RH1T3CT0R7.
• Predict translation sizes to avoid needing to build translations that will not overflow during PR runs. #11326. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Split ports with more than 256 board jobs into several matrix jobs. #11325. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• Build firmware.size.json in all cases now. #11314. Thanks @lynt-smitka.
• use -j$(nproc) for make parallelism. #11313. Thanks @lynt-smitka.

Translation additions and improvements

New boards

• Challenger RP2040 NFC. #11321. Thanks @TheFilipcom4607.
• Espressif ESP32-C5-DevKitC-1-N8R8. #11297. Thanks @mikeysklar.
• Teenage Engineering SP-1. #11298, #11261. Thanks @FoamyGuy.

Known issues

• See https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues for other issues, including issues still to be addressed for:
  • 10.3.x
  • 10.x.x
  • 11.0.0
  • long term

Thanks

Thank you to all who used, tested, and contributed toward this release, including the contributors above, and many others on GitHub and Discord. Join us on the Discord chat to collaborate.

A new project called zSST is a SystemVerilog implementation of the 3dfx Voodoo Graphics chipset, the SST-1. Paired with the z486 soft CPU and the rest of a PC’s hardware, it forms z486 XL: a DOS machine with Voodoo graphics running entirely in the programmable logic of a Xilinx KV260 board. Tomb Raider runs on it with its original 3dfx renderer.

zSST covers most of the central Voodoo features, including texture filtering and mipmapping, depth and alpha tests, fog, blending, dithering and buffer swaps, with both the fixed-point and floating-point setup interfaces. The CPU and renderer run at 100 MHz. The DE10-Nano does not have the room for the graphics addition.

The hard part was memory, not math. The original card gave the texture unit and framebuffer unit their own 64-bit EDO buses with interleaved banks. The KV260 shares DDR through the Zynq AXI ports, so zSST uses an 8 KiB texture cache, eight outstanding line fetches, a replay queue and a 64-entry reorder buffer. In simulation it hits 78.5 MPix/s for textured triangles. Doom runs at 38.5 FPS, Quake 1.06 at 8.1 FPS.

See more at nand2mario.github.io and content on GitHub.

Marko Štamcar, writing for the Računalniški muzej in Ljubljana, traced the origins of the plastic case used by the Iskra Delta Partner, the most successful Slovenian microcomputer. The 1983 Partner was built around the Zilog Z80 family and CP/M 2.2, with boards made to order in Italy, enclosures made in England, and assembly and BIOS work done in Ljubljana.

The museum found a manufacturer’s stamp inside its five Partners, pointing to the English firm Peerless Foam Moulding. The same case turned up on a Logitech LG-10 in Switzerland, and on a Linotype-Paul machine holding an Apple II. A former associate of Satherley Design Associates, Peter Bessey, still had a BICC-Vero Electronics catalog that named the enclosure: the Gemini II. The housings were moulded using the Cinpres process, which injects nitrogen into the melt to form hollow sections and a surface good enough to skip painting.

The Partner also lives on in three emulators, archived ROM dumps, and newly made reproduction motherboards and graphics cards from the Oddbit Retro community.

See more on racunalniski-muzej.si.

Kenton Varda documented the LAN party house he and Jade Wang built in Austin, Texas, at lanparty.house. The basement game room has 12 PCs built into the walls that fold away when not in use. A conference table in the office opens to reveal six more stations. Twenty identical game machines live in a separate room with its own air conditioning, fed by fiber optic DisplayPort and USB runs of 35 to 100 feet.

Each machine was built in 2023 with an Intel Core i5-13600, 32GB of RAM and a GeForce RTX 4070. None of them has a local install. They all netboot from one shared disk image on a server, with a copy-on-write overlay per machine that is wiped after the party. Varda published the scripts that run this on GitHub. Internet is 2 Gbps fiber, and the game machines sit on a 10G switch.

The 22 game machines, with monitors, cables and peripherals, came to about $75,000. Varda notes the cabinetry around the stations cost roughly as much as the computers inside them. He also answers the question network engineers kept asking: yes, he should have used patch panels.

See more at lanparty.house and content on GitHub.

Ken Shirriff has published another look inside Intel’s 8087 floating-point coprocessor on righto.com, this time tracing the microcode behind a single instruction: FSCALE. He is working with the Opcode Collective, a group reverse engineering the chip’s microcode ROM, which holds 1648 micro-instructions.

FSCALE multiplies a number by a power of two by adding to its exponent, which is much faster than a real multiplication. Shirriff expected it to be trivial. It is not. The routine runs over 140 micro-instructions and three levels of subroutine calls to cover the special cases: empty stack slots, infinity, NaN, denormals, overflow, underflow, and four rounding modes. The straightforward path alone takes about 22 micro-instructions.

Along the way he walks through the shifter, the adder, and the exponent converter, and how guard, round and sticky bits are generated. He also turned up an undocumented behavior: a jump on the “round up” condition also sets the visible CC1 condition code. Intel did not document that until the 387SX in 1987.

See more at righto.com.

Marcin Wichary, writing on his blog Unsung, points readers to the Game UI Database, a reference site covering the interfaces of almost 2,000 games through more than 75,000 screenshots. It was built by Edd Coates, who calls himself a UI artist. The site is organized so you can jump straight to specific sections and tags.

Wichary notes the database is deliberately short on context. Coates told Mashable at launch that designers can use it to spot recurring patterns in successful titles, and that the contrast between images is the point. Wichary disagrees, and thinks games handle some interface problems better than productivity software does.

He also flags that Coates is working on a book, The Game UI Bible, due in the first half of 2027. Wichary says the price is high and that interviews with designers are often a mixed bag, but he is still interested.

See more at unsung.aresluna.org and the Game UI Database.

Mike Rankin posted on X about trying OSP, a less expensive PCB surface finish, for the first time. He ordered boards from JLCPCB to compare it against the ENIG finish he normally uses.

In his photo the top board is classic ENIG and the bottom is OSP, which has a darker, copper-looking color. OSP is pitched as very flat, which makes it a good match for BGA parts.

One tradeoff came up in the replies: OSP boards oxidize faster, so they need to be assembled sooner after they arrive than ENIG boards do.

See more at x.com.

The Chip Letter published a guest post by Jordan Taylor on computing with air. It covers fluidic logic: circuits that switch and store state using pressure and flow instead of electrons. Harvard’s Wyss Institute Octobot ran on a hydrogen peroxide reservoir and a platinum catalyst with a pneumatic control system, no motors, batteries or CPU, for about eight minutes at a time.

The piece walks through how a fluid stream can act as a transistor, either with a sprung valve or with no moving parts at all using the Coanda effect. A bistable amplifier holds its output after the control signal stops, which gives you memory. The DC-10 used fluidic logic to drive its thrust reverser. Univac built FLODAC in the 1960s with 250 fluidic NOR gates. The University of Michigan made a microfluidic 8-bit processor.

The limits are size and speed. Microfluidic elements are around 10,000 times larger than transistors made with EUV lithography, and switching times are near one millisecond against picoseconds to nanoseconds for electronics. Taylor works through what a pneumatic Commodore 64 would take, and the RAM is the hard part.

See more at thechipletter.substack.com.

Mike McCoy writes at mbmccoy.dev about a preprint that proves the Spherical Hadwiger Conjecture, open since about 1974.

The paper, by Wang and Wu of Hunan University, credits OpenAI Codex with helping develop proof details, finding gaps, organizing the manuscript, and editing the English. The authors say they reviewed and verified all AI-assisted mathematical content and take full responsibility for the paper.

McCoy tried to prove the same result in grad school and again earlier this year with AI help. He has not fully verified the new proof, but says it passes a first read and follows the Leiden Declaration principles for AI use.

He points back to OpenAI’s GPT-4 labor impact report, which put mathematicians at the top of its exposure list: 100% exposed across three models, ahead of writers, translators, artists, and graphic designers. His argument is that math lagged behind those fields not because it is harder, but because it has less economic value and less training data. He then asks whether research mathematics ends up like classical music, kept alive in a conservatory by a small slice of capital.

See more at mbmccoy.dev and the paper is here. Via Hacker News.

Image Lena Gulenko, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons