# simple range mapper, like Arduino map()
def map_range(s, a1, a2, b1, b2):
    return  b1 + ((s - a1) * (b2 - b1) / (a2 - a1))

# example: map 0-0123 value to 0.0-1.0 value
val = 768
outval = map_range( val, 0,1023, 0.0,1.0 )
# outval = 0.75

Constrain an input to a min/max

The Python built-in min() and max() functions can be used together to make something like Arduino's constrain().

# constrain a value to be 0-255
outval = min(max(val, 0), 255)
# constrain a value to be 0-255 integer
outval = int(min(max(val, 0), 255))
# constrain a value to be -1 to +1
outval = min(max(val, -1), 1)

Preventing Ctrl-C from stopping the program

Put a try/except KeyboardInterrupt to catch the Ctrl-C on the inside of your main loop.

while True:
  try:
    print("Doing something important...")
    time.sleep(0.1)
  except KeyboardInterrupt:
    print("Nice try, human! Not quitting.")

Also useful for graceful shutdown (turning off neopixels, say) on Ctrl-C.

import time, random
import board, neopixel, rainbowio
leds = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.NEOPIXEL, 1, brightness=0.4 )
while True:
  try:
    rgb = rainbowio.colorwheel(int(time.monotonic()*75) % 255)
    leds.fill(rgb)
    time.sleep(0.05)
  except KeyboardInterrupt:
    print("shutting down nicely...")
    leds.fill(0)
    break  # gets us out of the while True

Prevent auto-reload when CIRCUITPY is touched

Normally, CircuitPython restarts anytime the CIRCUITPY drive is written to. This is great normally, but is frustrating if you want your code to keep running, and you want to control exactly when a restart happens.

import supervisor
supervisor.disable_autoreload()

To trigger a reload, do a Ctrl-C + Ctrl-D in the REPL or reset your board.

Raspberry Pi Pico boot.py Protection

Also works on other RP2040-based boards like QTPy RP2040. From https://gist.github.com/Neradoc/8056725be1c209475fd09ffc37c9fad4.

# Copy this as 'boot.py' in your Pico's CIRCUITPY drive
# Useful in case Pico locks up (which it's done a few times on me)
import board
import time
from digitalio import DigitalInOut,Pull

led = DigitalInOut(board.LED)
led.switch_to_output()

safe = DigitalInOut(board.GP14)  # <-- choose your button pin
safe.switch_to_input(Pull.UP)

def reset_on_pin():
    if safe.value is False:
        import microcontroller
        microcontroller.on_next_reset(microcontroller.RunMode.SAFE_MODE)
        microcontroller.reset()

led.value = False
for x in range(16):
	reset_on_pin()
	led.value = not led.value  # toggle LED on/off as notice
	time.sleep(0.1)

This guide was first published on Apr 02, 2022. It was last updated on Jun 25, 2021.

This page (More Esoteric Tasks) was last updated on Mar 29, 2022.

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