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MICROCONTROLLERS

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MICROPYTHON CIRCUITPYTHON

Adafruit eInk Display Breakouts

Easy E-Paper With Built In Memory

Easy e-paper finally comes to microcontrollers, with this breakout that's designed to make it a breeze to add a tri-color eInk display. Chances are you've seen one of those new-fangled 'e-readers' like the Kindle or Nook. They have gigantic electronic paper 'static' displays - that means the image stays on the display even when power is completely disconnected. The image is also high contrast and very daylight readable. It really does look just like printed paper!

CircuitPython 101: Basic Builtin Data Structures

Tuples, Lists, and Dictionaries! Oh My!

CircuitPython (and Python) gives you a lot of tools for storing and manipulating data. Storing that data in ways that makes sense become important when on a small microcontroller board. This guide looks at three data structures that CircuitPython provides.

Paper Craft Zoetrope with Crickit

Make a spinning optical illusion toy with some paper and a motor

A Zoetrope is a device for making a short series of images appear animated. This project shows how to build your own simple paper craft zoetrope, generate your own animations, and program it to run using CircuitPython.

Adafruit Feather M4 Express

This Feather is fast like a swift, smart like an owl, strong like a ox-bird

It's what you've been waiting for, the Feather M4 Express featuring ATSAMD51. This Feather is fast like a swift, smart like an owl, strong like a ox-bird (it's half ox, half bird, OK?) This feather is powered by our new favorite chip, the ATSAMD51J19 - with its 120MHz Cortex M4 with floating point support and 512KB Flash and 192KB RAM. Your code will zig and zag and zoom, and with a bunch of extra peripherals for support, this will for sure be your favorite new chipset.

MIT App Inventor and Particle.IO

Use MIT's App Inventor to easily make a killer Android UI that controls your Particle Photon or Electron Project.

by R. Albritton

App Inventor is an easy way to make Apps for the Android platform. We will go through how to use App Inventor for communicating with any Particle device. This is setup to work with the Web Connected LED example app for the Particle Spark, Photon, or Electron.

CircuitPython-Powered 3-minute Nightlight

Make a nightlight with just a Gemma M0 and CircuitPython! Or use a Circuit Playground Express for a super-featured version.

A Gemma M0 running CircuitPython has everything you need to make a simple nightlight or a fancier one with brightness and color control. No assembly required! Put together this simple configurable night-light in only a couple minutes!

Make it Move with Crickit

If your project needs to move, here is the guide to assist you.

Getting from the concept of "I want my project to move X to Y" to something which works like your concept can be surprisingly difficult in the past. With the Adafruit Crickit robotics platform, you can understand what motors you want to consider and create working code within minutes.

CircuitPython with Jupyter Notebooks

Interact with CircuitPython Code from within a Jupyter Notebook

by Brent Rubell

Jupyter lets you create interactive notebooks containing code, text, and rich media that you can share with your friends. We're going to learn how to combine Jupyter with CircuitPython to create interactive notebooks for your hardware.

A NeoPixel Pomodoro Timer

Help manage your time and take regular breaks with this Pomodoro Timer project.

Pomodoro timer is a technique for keeping focused on your work while also taking regular breaks. This project uses some NeoPixels, a rotary encoder and an ItsyBitsy M0 Express to make one.

CircuitPython on Linux and Raspberry Pi

Make hardware and interface with sensors super easy using CircuitPython

CircuitPython is the best new way to code microcontrollers. But what if you want to run that same code on a more POWERFUL computer like a Raspberry Pi (or really any Linux SBC?) Well now you can - take advantage of the wide collection of drivers and example code we have for CircuitPython and now you can run it right on your Pi!

Contribute to CircuitPython with Git and GitHub

From fork to merge, this guide covers all the steps necessary for a successful Git and GitHub workflow.

by Kattni Rembor

You already have Git setup, and you have a GitHub account. You want to contribute to an open source project like CircuitPython, but you're not sure where to start. This guide walks through the steps from forking your first repo to your GitHub account, to cloning it locally, creating a working branch, making a commit, pushing your code to your fork, creating a PR, and both receiving and giving a review. You'll learn good practices and tips and tricks, and before you know it, you'll be a pro contributor. Pick a project, find an issue, and let's get started!

Crickit Powered Minerva Owl Robot

Eyes that move, wings that flap! Build your own owl robot!

Use Circuit Playground Express and Crickit to control your own owl robot that uses a clever, but simple to build construction trick using paper cups for moving eyes! Plus, your owl will be able to speak using a small speaker and some prepared wav files!

Sparky the Blue Smoke Monster Automaton

Talking Sparky guides you when you are wiring things up

This project for CRICKIT and Circuit Playground Express teaches basic CircuitPython programming skills and can be adapted into an automaton that performs multiple functions.

Automation with Crickit and Capsela

Use vintage toys as modern fun with Crickit!

Capsela was a staple of childhood creativity in the mid-80's-90's. Motorized, you could build many things. Capsela and other toys can take on new lives by controlling their classic motors with modern, inexpensive robotics controllers such as Adafruit Crickit.

Rotary Encoder in CircuitPython

How to use a rotary encoder in your CircuitPython projects!

by Kattni Rembor

Learn how to use a rotary encoder with CircuitPython! Encoders are great when a potentiometer is the wrong fit. You can programmatically make this knob do your bidding.

Introducing Adafruit ItsyBitsy M4

Choo choo! ItsyBitsy M4 Comin' Thru!

What's smaller than a Feather but larger than a Trinket? It's an Adafruit ItsyBitsy M4 Express featuring the Microchip ATSAMD51! Small, powerful, with a ultra fast ATSAMD51 Cortex M4 processor running at 120 MHz - this microcontroller board is perfect when you want something very compact, with a ton of horsepower and a bunch of pins. This Itsy is like a bullet train, with it's 120MHz Cortex M4 with floating point support and 512KB Flash and 192KB RAM. Your code will zig and zag and zoom, and with a bunch of extra peripherals for support, this will for sure be your favorite new chipset.

Proximity Based Lighting

Have lights react when something gets close. Useful or spooky? You decide.

Using a TrinketM0, NeoPixels, a distance sensor breakout, and some CircuitPython code, make a small board that will control lighting based on how close something is.

Microcontroller Compatible Audio File Conversion

Ensure your audio clips are playable by your favorite boards!

Sound in every project! We search our libraries and the Internet for the perfect project sound. But is that particular sound file ready to be used by your microcontroller? How do we even know? This tutorial will help you check your files and ensure they are ready for action.

CircuitPython Made Easy on Circuit Playground Express

Get started with just a few lines of code!

by Kattni Rembor

New to CircuitPython? Looking for an easy way to get started? We've written a library for the Circuit Playground Express that makes it super simple to begin using all the sensors, switches and lights. This guide will show you all the features of this library and how to use each one. Let's get coding!

Tightrope Unicycle Bot

Step right up and build a robot that rides a unicycle on a tightrope!

Crickit and Circuit Playground Express drive a motor that rides the line! With a cardboard chassis designed to keep the pulley wheel right over the center of gravity, your circus robot will soar overhead with ease.

Digital Circuits 7: MCUs... how do they work?

Inside the ATMega238: a guided tour of a classic Microcontroller

We look at the ATMega328, one of the most prolific 8-bit MCUs. The '328 can be found in the Arduino UNO and various other microcontroller boards. To better understand MCUs, and be able to work with them more effectively, we need to go inside and understand what's in there and how it all works.

Introducing ItsyBitsy M0 Express

What's smaller than a Feather but larger than a Trinket? It's an ItsyBitsy!

ItsyBitsy M0 Express is only 1.4" long by 0.7" wide, but has 6 power pins, 23 digital GPIO pins (12 of which can be analog in, 1x analog out, and 13x PWM out). It's the same chip as the Arduino Zero and packs much of the same capability as an Adafruit Metro M0 Express or Feather M0 Express but really really small. So it's great once you've finished up a prototype on a Metro M0 or Feather M0, and want to make the project much smaller. It even comes with 2MB of SPI Flash built in, for data logging, file storage, or CircuitPython code.

Controlling a Classic Nintendo R.O.B. Robot Using Circuit Playground Express

Forget finding an old CRT, R.O.B. the Robot can be controlled by you!

Nintendo released the R.O.B with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) back in 1985. Only two games ever used R.O.B.s capabilities and Nintendo shipped later units without R.O.B. Dust off your R.O.B. and control him with wirelessly with a simple CircuitPython program.

Debugging CircuitPython On SAMD w/Atmel Studio 7

Un-Constricted CircuitPython Debugging in a Windows Environment!

by M. Schroeder

This guide will help you to start debugging CircuitPython on the SAMD21 or SAMD51, using Windows and Atmel Studio 7. Take the squeeze off virtual environments and do some work in your native operating system!

Adafruit pIRkey

A Python Programmable InfraRed USB Adapter

The pIRkey adds an IR remote receiver to any computer, laptop, tablet...any computer or device with a USB port that can use a keyboard. This little board slides into any USB A port, and shows up as an every-day USB keyboard. The onboard ATSAMD21 microcontroller listens for IR remote signals and converts them to keypresses, mouse movements, or even USB serial output.

Living Starry Night Painting

Build your own animated version of Starry Night

Add movement and light to famous works of art using Circuit Playground Express, CRICKIT, and CircuitPython. This beginner level project uses simple household materials and teaches basic programming skills.

Gemma LightTouch

It takes a light touch to light up your Gemma!

by Kattni Rembor

You just got this amazing little board. Now, how about a quick little project you can do with only a few minutes of your time? Sounds great! This guide provides two different ways to interact with your Gemma using capacitive touch and the built-in LED. Quick, simple, and super fun!

Motorized Turntable

"You spin me right round..."

Use 3D printing, a servo motor & CircuitPython to create a photography turntable. Spinning your subject will give your photos and videos extra flair.

Digital Circuits 5: Memories

There are 2 types of memories: those you remember and those you don't.

In this guide we'll look at digital memory. We'll look at how it evolved over time and where it might go in the future. We'll mostly focus, though, on the types of memory that we can hack with.

Trellis Feather DSP-G1 Synthesizer

Build a 1980s-style synthesizer with DSP-G1 synth-on-a-chip, a Feather, and Trellis keypads and knobs for control!

The DSP-G1 is a digital synthesizer chip modeled after an analog synth, that has three oscillators per voice, a +24dB filter, two ADSR envelope generators, LFO, and more, for a great, paraphonic, five-voice 80s synth sound! Control it using MIDI note messages with a Trellis or two for input, and six knobs to send MIDI CC parameters to the synth.

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