The CircuitPython Show

Episode 62 - Tod Kurt Part 3

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Paul welcomes Tod Kurt back to the show. Tod shares CircuitPython Custom, which creates custom CircuitPython firmware using GitHub actions.

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Show Notes

00:57 Using GitHub Actions to build CircuitPython

3:51 CircuitPython Custom on GitHub

CircuitPython Custom configuration web page

9:24 The CLI display

10:37 Adding custom modules

11:42 How to run CircuitPython Custom

14:34 SerialPlotster

Download SerialPlotster

19:32 New hardware?

20:40 Creating synth engines

21:32 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 61 - Michael Czeiszperger

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Czeiszperger joins the show and shares ScrollKit, a new CircuitPython library to help add text and animations to LED Matrix panels.

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Show Notes

1:22 Michael’s start with electronics

2:38 ScrollKit

Scrollkit.dev

5:33 How ScrollKit works

7:08 Scrollkit’s hardware

8:09 How over-the-air-updates work

8:49 Graphics in ScrollKit

10:42 Challenges to overcome

15:09 The ScrollKit simulator

16:35 Theme Park Waits

Theme Park Waits

17:33 What’s next for ScrollKit?

18:18 Which board?

18:51 Wrap-up

Michael’s homepage

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 60 - Michael "T-Rex" Kadie

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Michael "T-Rex" Kadie joins the show and discusses the T-Rex Talk family of assistive devices built with CircuitPython.

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Show Notes

1:25 Michael's start with computers

1:56 How Michael started building communication devices in the 90s

4:46 The T-Rex Talk 3.0

8:55 Using AI to help

9:58 Using the Fruit Jam as an assistive device

13:27 The training game

13:56 The Sip-N-Puff

16:38 The CircuitPython reading light

17:07 Jay Leno's antique electric car - with CircuitPython

21:21 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 59 - Tom Fox

Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tom Fox joins the show and shares his creation, the SPOKE board.

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Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:36 Tom's start with computers and electronics

1:25 Discovering CircuitPython

2:31 The SPOKE board

4:11 Whom is the SPOKE for?

5:38 The SPOKE Mini

7:25 What students have made with the SPOKE

9:15 What were the challenges bringing the SPOKE to life?

10:33 The SPOKE online editor

13:53 What's next for SPOKE?

14:59 Where to learn more?

15:26 How much does the SPOKE cost?

15:38 Which board?

16:22 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 58 - Developing for the Fruit Jam

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Paul is joined by three former guests: Tim Cocks, Dan Cogliano, and Cooper Dalrymple who share their experience developing apps, games, and screensavers for the Adafruit Fruit Jam and Fruit Jam OS.

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Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:38 FruitJamOS

3:44 Cooper's excitement for the Fruit Jam

7:24 Dan's interest in the Fruit Jam

8:52 Dan's screensavers for the Fruit Jam

Screensaver bundle

10:48 Coding for the Fruit Jam

12:20 The Fruit Jam app library

Fruit Jam Library

18:02 GPIO and expansion

19:44 Display support

Using DVI Video Learn Guide

24:07 Challenges when developing for the Fruit Jam

31:01 Advice for creating games or apps for the Fruit Jam

Cooper's Fruit Jam / Pong tutorial

36:48 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 57 - Physical Computing - Interactive Art, Robotics, & Tech for Good

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Paul is joined by Abby Bergman and Esha Patel who both recently completed the Physical Computing - Interactive Art, Robotics, & Tech for Good course taught by Professor John Gallaugher at Boston College.

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Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:56 Professor Gallaugher's Physical Computing course

1:42 Abby's motivation for taking the class

Early Childhood Maker Literacies – DevTech Research Group

2:38 Esha's motivation for taking the class

3:32 Surprises discovered during the course

5:20 Esha's Interactive Hopscotch project

Adaptive Tic Tac Toe

7:38 Abby's Very Hungry Caterpillar (assistive tech with RFID and button input)

10:29 Soldering challenges encountered

11:36 The Festival of Lights event

12:26 Advice for prospective students

14:29 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 56 - John Park

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

John Park joins the show and shares how he started hosting shows, his pre-show preparation, some of his favorite memories and projects, and more.

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Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:36 JP's start with computers and electronics

3:59 MAKE: Television

10:47 Preparing for a show

JP's Workshop YouTube Playlist

16:54 Favorite CircuitPython memories

20:09 Favorite projects over the years

25:55 Favorite synthesizer

29:20 Which board?

30:36 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 55 - The Open Pressure Sensor Device

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

An open source medical device that helps mastectomy patients, that runs CircuitPython. Guests Michelle Hui and Reitwiec Shandilya, both Cornell Tech master's students, join the show.

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Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:46 The Open Pressure Sensor Device

2:05 Overcoming the problem gaps

2:58 Partnering with clinicians

5:26 The hardware and firmware

8:13 Reverse engineering the proprietary device

13:48 The Open Source Hardware Association

20:09 What's next for OpenPSD?

21:42 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 54 - Sean Carolan

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sean shares how he used CoPilot with Claude Opus to create a Pac-Man clone in CircuitPython in just one day.

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Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:32 Sean's start with computers

1:34 Choosing Pac-Man

2:30 Seeed Wio Terminal

4:04 Coding Pac-Man in CircuitPython

5:17 The game's art assets

6:51 Re-creating the sounds of Pac-Man

8:29 Pac-Man on the Fruit Jam

Port to Adafruit Fruit Jam pull request

9:51 What worked well when using Claude Opus for AI

12:50 The challenges in using AI

14:14 Recommendations for someone just starting to use AI to code

16:38 Learn more about Sean

17:01 Which board?

18:36 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 53 - John Ellis

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Paul welcomes John Ellis to the show. John shares some of his MacroPad projects, TallyCircuitPy, and more.

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Show Notes

00:00 Intro

1:18 John's start with computers

5:13 John's handle, DeckerEgo

6:28 MacroPad Hotkeys II

8:59 Sleeping the Macropad screen

10:36 MacroPad 4 Chord MIDI

12:47 TallyCircuitPy and TallyOBS

15:12 CircuitPython's role in revitalizing legacy hardware

17:20 Where to learn more: deckerego.net

18:15 Which board?

19:53 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 52 - Dan Cogliano

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Dan Cogliano joins Paul and they discuss Dan's work with the Z Machine, which allows you to play Zork and other text adventure games.

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Show Notes

00:30 Dan's start with computers

3:05 The EZ Make Oven

4:53 The Z-Machine

7:59 Challenges in creating the CP Z Machine

9:08 The game of Zork

11:00 CP Z Machine Learn Guide

11:15 Dan's next game

12:29 Challenges working with graphics

13:37 Where to learn more about Dan

14:27 Which board?

15:13 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 51 - River Wang

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

River was a STEAM teacher before becoming a full time software developer 3 years ago. He created the CircuitPython Online IDE.

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Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:29 River's start with computers and electronics

3:42 River's start with Python

4:31 Teaching

5:42 Discovering CircuitPython

9:18 Creating the CircuitPython Online IDE

13:04 How the CircuitPython Online IDE works

14:28 The challenges in building the CircuitPython Online IDE

19:02 How the CircuitPython Online IDE helps educators

20:34 Self-hosting the CircuitPython Online IDE

20:34 CircuitPython Online IDE's key features

23:13 What's next for the CircuitPython Online IDE

24:41 How to support the CircuitPython Online IDE

25:05 Where to learn more

25:23 Which board?

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 50 - John Romkey

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

John Romkey joins the show and shares his CircuitPython tool, circremote, what it does, how it works, how he used Cursor and Claude to help write it, and more.

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Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:56 John's start with computers and electronics

6:25 circremote

9:21 circremote clean and emacs support

12:22 circremote's sensor support and AI

14:23 Cursor with VS Code and Claude

19:27 Sensor and device support in circremote

21:32 Community sensor work

26:16 Which board?

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 49 - Sam Blenny

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sam Blenny joins the show and shares his work with the Fruit Jam, including USB Host, a Color Checker, a Gamepad tester, and more.

Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky.

Listen to the Show

Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:24 Sam's start with computers and electronics

5:34 Discovering CircuitPython - Pumpkins vs Skeletons game

7:06 Working with the Fruit Jam and the Gamepad tester

9:24 USB Host MIDI Tester

11:12 The Fruit Jam Color Checker

13:49 USB Host

16:42 Which board?

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 48 - Noe Ruiz

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Noe Ruiz joins the show and shares how he started learning design and 3D modeling, creating the Layer by Layer tutorials, designing CAD parts, and more.

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Listen to the Show

Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:19 Getting started with computers and electronics

1:38 Learning design

4:38 Snap-fit enclosures

6:36 3D Hangouts

8:28 Adafruit CAD Parts

12:05 Layer by Layer

13:35 Which board?

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 47 - John Fletcher

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

John shares how he ported CircuitPython to web assembly, how it works, and how using Claude Code helped.

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Listen to the Show

Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:23 John's start with computers

4:07 John's Discord nickname

5:05 CircuitPython and web assembly

6:43 How CircuitPython works in the browser

7:46 Advantages to using CircuitPython in the browser

9:25 Windows Subsystem for Linux

10:25 Using Claude Code

10:49 Managing the prompts

12:48 How to test CircuitPython in the browser

The CircuitPython web-editor with web assembly

13:33 Where to learn more

John's GitHub repositories

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 46 - Justin Myers

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Justin shares how he created the new connectionmanager library for networking in CircuitPython.

Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky for news of when the show will return.

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Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:21 Justin's start with computers

1:11 Discovering electronics

2:15 Discovering CircuitPython

3:02 ConnectionManager

4:55 How does connectionmanager work?

7:10 What were the challenges in creating connectionmanager?

8:35 Software testing framework

11:21 Which board?

13:25 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 45 - Cooper Dalrymple

Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cooper Dalrymple, who recently was a guest on the Audio Effects Panel Discussion, joins the show.

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Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:26 Cooper's start with computers and electronics

1:31 Discovering CircuitPython

5:57 Cooper's music background

8:18 Designing hardware

13:26 Advantages between CircuitPython and Arduino

19:03 What's next in audio effects?

21:41 Learn more about Cooper

23:02 Which board?

24:04 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 44 - Designing Games for CircuitPython with Tim "foamyguy" Cocks

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Tim Cocks, better known as foamyguy in the Adafruit community, shares his experiences in designing games for CircuitPython.

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Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:16 Tim's start with computers

1:48 Discovering CircuitPython

8:16 Challenges designing games for microcontrollers

13:16 1D Chomper

15:44 Blinka Says

18:58 Karel the Robot

23:24 Which microcontroller?

25:42 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.

Episode 43 - Audio Effects Panel Discussion

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cooper Dalrymple, Jeff Epler, Mark Komus, and Tod Kurt join the show to discuss the new audio effects available in CircuitPython.

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Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:19 Mark's inspiration for adding audio effects

1:46 Mark's drum gist

4:23 The new audio effects available in CircuitPython

8:02 LFOs

10:30 Synthio vs Audio Effects

11:36 MP3 Bass and Treble Control

12:48 The RP2350

17:34 RP2350 vs RP2040

18:11 Audio on Espressif

19:50 Guitar pedals

26:59 Future projects

29:59 CircuitPython Karaoke

30:42 CircuitPython Audio Effects Tricks

32:38 Wrap-up

Transcript

Transcript available here.