Over on the Adafruit Blog, there’s a call for thoughts about the state of CircuitPython, a recap of 2021, and our thoughts about 2022. Although my 2021 got sort of blown out of the water by the pandemic and my Major Health Crisis(tm), I’m renewing my focus
for 2022. So although I’m not recapping the dumpster fire that was 2021 for me, I’ll share a few thoughts about the current state of play, what I’d like to see in 2022, and a few of the places I’m putting my focus.
CircuitPython and Microcontrollers: Holy Cow
To say that it’s an amazing and wondrous time to be a maker is, to put it mildly, a bit of an understatement. The variety of hardware that’s available, and what you can get compared to the cost, are staggering.
Consider this: the Circuit Playground Bluefruit has about 30 times the processing power of my first home computer, includes a raft of sensors and connectivity, and costs $25 (about 1/65th of the price of that first computer). There are both cheaper and more capable micros out there than the Bluefruit, of course. In fact, the array of microcontrollers and sensors and other building blocks available today is staggering; sometimes it’s hard to know which one to use!
I really think that CircuitPython has been, and continues to be, a game-changer for the hardware maker community. Python is accessible, well-documented and overall well supported, and I think writing code in Python and copying a script file to your device feels like a lower barrier to entry than the Arduino or FreeRTOS workflows.
That flexibility and range of options is not without its attendant challenges, though. I find it’s sometimes hard to pick a board for my projects. Should I use a Circuit Playground? An ItsyBitsy? Which one? The SAMD? The nRF52840? Or maybe I should try the new hotness and use an RP2040.I guess having too many good choices to pick from is a good problem to have…
Things I’d Like to Work On In 2022
Here in no particular order are some of the things I’d like to work on in 2022:
CircuitPython Dependency Management Tools: CircUp helps a lot with keeping the libraries on my CircuitPython boards updated, but it’s less of a help for me in getting the right libraries installed in the first place. In a perfect world, my CircuitPython scripts could include metadata (“I’ll be running on a Circuit Playground Bluefruit and I need the following libraries”), and there’d be an automated way to install those things and their dependencies. Something like pyproject.toml but for CircuitPython. I started a hacky Python script to do some of this, and I’d like to see if I can refactor it into something that could be added to CircUp.
Twitch Maker Streaming!: I love the fact that Twitch has grown so far beyond just video games. I follow a number of musicians on Twitch, as well as folks cooking, coding, doing magic…the list goes on. I’m planning to start streaming maker content on Twitch (hopefully by the end of February) with a focus on doing stuff with CircuitPython. My Twitch stream is aiming to be live by the end of February, so follow now if you’re interested.
CircuitPython Hardware for Music: I’m really interested in exploring sound synthesis, MIDI, and the other musical capabilities of CircuitPython and microcontrollers. I’ve seen some cool projects out there already, but I’d like to explore what’s possible.
CircuitPython for Magic: One of my friends, infoXczar, performs magic on Twitch. I’ve been brainstorming with him, and I think there are some cool opportunities at the intersection of magic, microcontroller technology, and devices that can communicate with the Internet. I’d like to explore that.
Getting Better With
displayio_: There’s a lot of documentation out there now, but I still feel like there’s room for some tutorials which draw all of them together. I don’t know if it’s documenting my own projects from thought process through execution, or if it’s a more focused beginner’s “here’s how to make sense of all these docs and get started” guide, but I’d like to figure that out.Contributing More to the Community: I’d like to make some contributions to the CircuitPython libraries this year. I’d also like to see if there are opportunities to contribute to the core of CircuitPython itself, since I’ve improved my C/C++ skills since the last time I looked at that. But whatever the details, part of the renewed focus on what matters to me is going to be finding ways to get a lot more active in the community.
Design a CircuitPython Board: This one is a bit of a stretch goal, but I’m working on filling in gaps in my basic electronics knowledge (and updating what I do know for the new world we live in). I’d like to get better at PCB design and working with SMT parts, and one way I’d like to do that is to design a CircuitPython-compatible board and make at least one. It doesn’t have to be better than boards on the market, and it doesn’t have to be practical to manufacture in quantity, but I think designing and building a one-off board would be an interesting challenge and a good excuse to really learn KiCAD.
So, there we have it! It’s an exciting time to be a part of the CircuitPython maker community, and I’m looking forward to getting more involved in 2022.
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