The Bootloader

Paul and Tod discuss tariffs, desoldering tricks, a classic arcade game, and more. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. Follow Paul on Mastodon or Bluesky. Follow Tod on Mastodon or Bluesky. For detailed show notes and transcripts, visit TheBootloader.net Show Notes 00:00 Welcome 00:17 Tarriffs are Bullshit 6:00 Desoldering Tricks 10:21 Philips Fixables 12:45 Resurrecting Sinistar 15:36 Kiwix 17:56 Euroknob 21:40 Wrap-up Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

Andy Piper joins Tod and Paul and they discuss an open source laptop, 3D printing filament detection, synths, and more. Visit Andy’s homepage Check out TheBootloader.net for detailed show notes and transcript. Follow us on social media: Andy Piper on Mastodon or Bluesky Paul Cutler on Mastodon or Bluesky Tod Kurt on Mastodon or Bluesky 00:00 Intro 00:59 Glance app 5:33 Soundfonts, General MIDI, and a ROMpler 11:55 OpenSpool and SpoolEase 15:39 MNT Pocket Reform 21:55 DIYR Design Lamps and Speaker 25:20 Podcast Later 28:22 Wrap-up Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

Paul and Tod discuss drama in the world of 3D printing, oscilloscope music, inventory management for makers, and more. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky and sign up for ad-free, spam-free, tracking-free monthly newsletter. Show Notes bamboozle: To deceive or dupe; hoodwink. synonym: deceive. 00:00 Welcome 00:14 Drama in the world of 3D printing Bambu Firmware Update Introducing New Authorization Control System The Verge coverage 8:36 Oscilloscope music Tutorials and how-to links Oscilloscope Music 13:00 ucritair 15:50 Buchla and friends 19:02 Inventory management for makers 22:14 Wrap-up Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

Tod and Paul discuss the recent Hackaday Supercon. They share some of their favorite talks, the Supercon badge, and notable add-ons for the badge. For detailed show notes, including pictures, visit TheBootloader.net. And while you’re there, sign up for our newsletter! 00:00 Welcome 00:25 What is Supercon? 3:23 The Supercon badge 5:25 Supercon badge simple add-ons 6:44 The 2024 Supercon badge 7:16 Tod’s simple add-on, the touchwheel SAO 10:03 Conference talks overview 10:35 Giving Robotic Friends a Voice (Paul #1) 12:59 CircuitGraver (Tod #1) 15:17 Solving the Last Mile with 3D Printed Packaging (Paul #2) 18:10 In Living Color: A New World of Full Color PCBs (Tod #2) 19:27 Microcontrollers are Just Radios in Disguise 24:41 Notable Simple Add-Ons 29:28 Wrap-up Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

Paul and Tod welcome their first ever guest, Liz Clark aka BlitzCityDIY. They chat about the itsaSNAP iOS app from Adafruit, the new Raspberry Pi AI camera, maker skill trees, and more. Join our newsletter! Keep up with the show and what Paul and Tod are up to. Visit The Bootloader’s newsletter page to browse the archives or subscribe. Show Notes 00:25 Adafruit itsaSNAP iOS App (Liz #1) I have to say I’m a little biased with this pick because I contract with Adafruit, but I’m mildly obsessed with the new itsaSNAP app. This is the latest iOS app from Adafruit by our iOS developer Trevor. It acts as a bridge between your iOS device and your Adafruit IO feeds. There is support for Apple Shortcuts, which means that you can log health data, home data, any data that’s on your iOS device. You can also read feeds from the device and have Adafruit IO affect tasks on your phone. I’ve worked on two guides with it so far. The first uses a Qualia board with a round display to show photos from my photos app. I’m able to encode the photo in a Shortcut, send it to an IO feed and then decode it with CircuitPython. I’ve also worked with using Matter devices in Apple HomeKit with itsaSNAP to log sensor data and also to control an RGB light strip. I’m really excited about all of the functionality and I’m looking forward to seeing what people do with it. itsaSNAP Intro Learn Guide Qualia S3 Photo Frame Health Status Board 5:09 Raspberry Pi AI Camera Module (Tod #1) There is a new camera module from Raspberry Pi. It’s an “AI” camera. What does that mean? It appears as a regular camera to the Pi, plugs into the CSI camera port. The “AI” part is that it has an RP2040 and 16MB of flash to store a pre-trained AI model you upload to it. Raspberry Pi blog post Hackster hands-on article Getting started Picamera2 repo demo videos: Pose estimation, Object detection 10:05 The Bumpin’ Sticker by Guy Dupont (Paul #1) Guy Dupont creates his take on the “Keep Honkin’ I’m Listening to…” bumper stickers. Using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, a screen from Ali Express, a Particle IoT board, and his Last.fm account, the screen dsiplays a bumper sticker with what Guy is currently listening to. Guy Dupont on The CircuitPython Show Guy Dupont MakerChat on CircuitPython Day 2024 The Bumpin’ Sticker YouTube video GitHub Repository 13:40 Nothing To See/Hear : Wireless Fuzz Pedal (Liz #2) I follow quite a few guitar pedal folks on instagram and saw the newest post from @different.noises last week. It’s a “wireless fuzz” that completes the circuit by transmitting it via an infrared LED. The circuit converts the signal from the guitar to headphone audio level and then again into light that is sent out the infrared transmitter to an infrared LED. He includes the schematic in the post as well as an explainer and a few demo videos to prove that the signal is in fact transmitting via infrared. Nothing To See/Hear : Wireless Fuzz Pedal Post different.noises on Instagram 16:10 X1Plus alternative open source Bambu X1 firmware (Tod #2) I’ve been thinking of getting a new 3d printer. My Prusa mk2.5s has seen better days. And I’m wowed at the literal 2x speed improvement I could get out of a Prusa mk4s or a Bambulab X1. So when I discovered this X1Plus alternative firmware for the X1, I was intrigued. The X1Plus firmware runs on the “application processor” (AP) board of the X1, (sort of like what Octoprint does for me currently). It doesn’t touch the motion control system. And seems like all does to the the AP firmware is patch the bootloader to also look for a firmware file on the SD card, and use that if present. So you can always go back to stock firmware quickly. And the team behind it have started a CrowdSupply campaign for an expansion board X1Plus can use for extra features light lights and cameras. I don’t think I’d want this, but I’m glad they’re finding a funding path for the keep them going. X1Plus X1Plus expansion board crowdfunding Hackster article 22:31 Maker (and more) Skill Trees (Paul #2) Steph Piper aka Maker Queen has created Maker Skill Trees as a way to track your progress across a range of skills. These include things like PCB Design, 3D Printing and Modeling, and Dev Boards to crafting skills like Crochet, Knitting and more. There are almost sixty different skill treens to pick from. Each skill tree has 73 skills or experience hexagon tiles, with basic skills at the bottom to more advanced skills at the top. There’s a web app to create your own skill tree apps designed by Shane Gadsby. There’s also a book in development with an even more expansive range of skill trees, tools to track your progress and calculate your life score across all areas. Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

In this episode of The Bootloader, Paul and Tod are joined by Debra Ansell who recaps Teardown 2024. Tod and Paul share a few interesting things including the Tulip Creative Computer, code editors, metal 3D printing, and more. Stay until the end for a special announcement about CircuitPython Day on August 16, 2024. For detailed show notes, transcripts, and to join our newsletter, visit The Bootloader.net 00:28 Interview with Debra Ansell Tod and Paul are joined by Debra Ansell (geekmomprojects on Instagram and Mastodon). Debra recaps her experience at the recent Teardown 2024 conference hosted by Crowd Supply. Building Up Excitement for Teardown 2024 Teardown 2024 14:17 The Tulip Creative Computer (Tod #1) Tod shares the Tulip Creative Computer, a MicroPython powered ESP32-S3 computer and synthesizer with a focus on music creation. Tulip homepage Build your own Tulip Floyd Steinberg’s video on Tulip AMY - Additive Music librarY 18:27 ViperIDE and Zed (Paul #1) ViperIDE is a brand new IDE in a web browser focused on MicroPython, with CircuitPython support created by Volodymyr Shymanskyy. Review from Les Pounder at Tom’s Hardware Live demo with Volodymyr Shymanskyy on Tom’s Hardware Pi Cast Zed is a fairly new code editor and IDE for macOS and Linux users who might miss Atom or Sublime Text. It’s open source, released under the Apache and GPL 3.0 licenses, and focused on speed and collaboration. Zed homepage GitHub repository pyright static type checker for Python 23:03 CeraMetal - 3D printing metal using clay (Tod #2) CeraMetal can be made using a relatively inexpensive clay 3D printer combined with a metal powder fired in a kiln. CeraMetal: A New Approach to Low-Cost Metal 3D Printing with Bronze Clay“ – Leah Buechley, Jaime Gould, Fiona Bell CeraMetal talk on ACM SIGCHI Hackaday blog post on CeraMetal Fermat’s Natural Spirals “Fermat Spirals for Layered 3D Printing” on Two Minute Papers Fun Fermat Spiral toy in Processing 27:08 CircuitMatter (Paul #2) Scott Shawcroft, CircuitPython’s lead developer, shared he is working on CircuitMatter, a pure Python implementation of some of the Matter specification that will be compatible with CircuitPython and potentially MicroPython. What is Matter? - Wired Magazine Matter and Home Assistant Sparkfun Thing Plus Matter dev board 29:47 Special Announcement about CircuitPython Day 2024 Tune in to the Adafruit YouTube channel on CircuitPython Day, August 16th for a special live stream of The Bootloader with Paul and Tod. Stay positive! Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

In episode 9, Paul and Tod chat about the M5Stack Cardputer, RadioFreeFedi, migrating to Kicad, the CircuitPython Online IDE, and more. For detailed show notes, visit TheBootloader.net. 00:00 Welcome 00:20 The M5Stack Cardputer - Tod #1 2:10 CircuitPython build for the Cardputer 2:40 Available from Electromaker.io 4:29 RadioFreeFedi.net - Paul #1 5:57 FediVision 6:20 Bandcamp Friday / Faircamp Friday 6:48 Faircamp static site generator 8:19 Moving from Eagle to Kicad - Tod #2 9:55 PlumPot YouTube channel with Kicad tutorials 11:16 What is the most challenging part of the transition to Kicad? 13:35 What was a surprise in using Kicad? 15:31 Meet the Maker: André Costa and the Pico W Air - Paul #2 MagPi story with André Costa and rpilocator 18:09 Algorithm videos by Freya Holmér - Tod #3 “Lerp smoothing in broken” “The Beauty of Bézier Curves” “Why can’t you multiply vectors?” 22: 53 Circuitpython-staroids game by todbot 23:16 CircuitPython Online IDE by River Wang - Paul #3 Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!