The Bootloader

Paul and Tod chat about an open source record player, MicroPython’s new operating system, 3D printing news, and you won’t believe who is going to Eurovision. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. We have stickers! Request a free sticker here. (US Only, sorry!) Show Notes 00:00 Welcome 00:19 The Statimatic STM-01 Automatic Turntable Hackster coverage YouTube series GitHub repository Gareth Halfacree on Mastodon 5:00 MicroPythonOS and WaveShare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2 Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2 wiki Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2 product page CircuitPython for it CircuitPython driver for touchscreen MicropythonOS MicropythonOS apps source Fruit Jam OS, a simlar idea in CircuitPython 10:16 3D Printing News Roundup Tool Trace AI is a site that allows you to upload a picture of your tools and it will create foam shadowboxes or grifinity inserts you can 3D print to hold your tools. 3D printing uses AI to fix prints in real time - using multiple LLMs, researchers have created a way for AI to monitor, correct, and fix your 3D prints in real time. Creality Filament maker - Creality has introduced a filmament shredder for your old filament and a filament maker to use from the shredded filament. It can create up to 1 kilo of filament per hour. 14:37 Teenage Engineering Ting EP-2350 Ting EP-2350 product page Ting Micropython API Customizing the Ting via config.json Online Ting Preset Editor Sound packs for Ting Riddum & Ting teardown Teradown 20:248 OpenSplit Deck and JoyPad OS The OpenSplitDeck is a home built gamepad controller inspired by Valve’s Steam Controller. It features two trackpads, joysticks, and more and can also split into two halves to make it more ergonomic. Linus Tech Tips YouTube video Joypad OS (Adafruit coverage) allows you to build a dongle to connect your game controller to other platforms. The dongle is powered by the rp2040 and you can buy a dev kit for $50 at Joypad.AI. 24:46 LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER is going to Eurovision 2026 LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER YouTUBE Page 1000 Oscillator Megadrone 45 Furby Organ Simplest DIY Audio Oscillator for $1 This Museum is Not Obsolete Example LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER live improv performance Another example LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER live improv performance Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

In this episode, Tod and Paul discuss hacking Flock cameras, the Adafruit Fruit Jam, Neural Networks in CircuitPython, some bad 3D printing legislation, and more. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. We have stickers! Request a free sticker here. (US Only, sorry!) 00:00 Intro 00:17 Flock Camera Hacking This Flock Camera Leak is like Netflix For Stalkers We Hacked Flock Safety Cameras in under 30 Seconds. 🫥 Breaking the Creepy AI in Police Cameras EFF on Flock 5:46 Naya Connect Naya Connect modular keyboard ZDNet coverage Kickstarter 8:58 ESP32 supports 5GHz Wireless https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2026/01/16/xiao-esp32-c5-5ghz-dual-band-wifi6/ https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/xiao_esp32c5_getting_started/ https://openelab.io/blogs/seeed-studio/a-deep-dive-into-seeed-studio-xiao-esp32-s3-c6-and-c5 13:19 The Adafruit Fruit Jam Adafruit Fruit Jam Hardware Fruit Jam OS Fruit Jam OS includes a number of apps and games, including Breakout, an IRC client, Minesweeper, PyPaint, and more. Retrojam Fruitris, a Tetris clone by Cooper Dalrymple Pac-Wio Zork and the Z Machine by Dan Cogliano Paul’s interview with Dan on The CircuitPython Show Moon Miner Learn Guide Fruit Jam Mac emulator Apple II emulator Intel 286 emulator 18:04 Neural Networks in CircuitPython Bringing TensorFlow & PyTorch Models to CircuitPython TensorFlow Lite for EdgeBadge 2022 github gist I wrote for someone describing CirPy native modules outdated Adafruit guide on CircuitPython native modules 21:17 Washington State’s proposed 3D printer laws Adafruit blog post HB 2320 HB 2321 Contact form for Rep. Osman Salahuddin 23:55 Wrap-up StandWithMinnesota.com Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

Paul has mic issues and Tod has a cold, but they’re here to discuss building your own Steam Machine, learning to sew, circuits and synths, and more. Want a free sticker? Order one here (US only). Show Notes Show Notes 0:00 Intro 00:20 Build your own Steam Machine Building my own Steam Machine with Bazzite Reddit Guide to turn your Steam Machine into a console Interview with Jorge Castro about Bazzite and more 4:56 Learning to sew Learn To Sew - Sewing 101 The Surprising Genius of Sewing Machines 9:06 CAD Round-up BREP.io, browser based CAD BREP.io project page GitHub repository Microcad Codeberg repo CadQuest Reddit announcement 11:03 Learn analog electronics by building synths “This drum sequencer breaks all the rules“ Moritz Klein’s “For Beginners” playlist Moritz Klein’s DIY Drum Series“ playlist Moritz Klein’s Youtube channel Erica Synths DIY kits 14:57 The Indie Beat Radio and Television Remembering RadioFreeFedi The Indie Beat Radio Ways to watch The Indie Beat Television Bandwagon.fm The Indie Beat - Fediverse Radio - GNOME Shell Extensions and GitHub repository Follow The Indie Beat Television on Mastodon: @[email protected] 17:51 act act video demo github hosted runners 22:40 Wrap-up Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

Show Notes In this episode, Tod and Paul discuss the recent Hackaday Supercon, including a talk and a workshop, Microsoft open sources Zork, the return of 80s style computer magazines, and more. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. We have stickers! Request a sticker here. 00:23 Supercon Recap Supercon 2025 YouTube playlist 2:10 Tod’s favorite Supercon talks 3:57 Arduino Uno Q Workshop (Tod #1) Jeff Geerling’s video review Using arduino-app-cli on Uno Q by Shawn Hymel Uno Q user manual Radxa X4 SBD w/ RP2040 MCU 13:21 Covert Regional Communication with Meshtastic (Paul #1) Covert Regional Communication with Meshtastic by Daryll Strauss 17:18 Supercon 2025 Badge Supercon 2025 Badge Solder Party Keebdeck 20:07 Ultrawideband (Tod #2) Makerfabs ESP32 UWB Getting started with ESP32 UWB Build UWB Position system w/ ESP32 & Qorvo DWM3000 24:30 Microsoft open sources Zork 1 - 3 (Paul #2) Microsoft announcement Andrew Blotkin’s blog: Zork is now open source GitHub repository with source code Z-Machine for CircuitPython Guide 27:18 How to buld a dev board (Tod #3) Let’s Design an RP2040 Devboard! by Kai project github repo Hackaday discussion 30:03 DocType magazine (Paul #3) DocType magazine Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

Liz Clark joins the show for a second time. Liz, Paul, and Tod each share two things they found interesting including remoting in to a Raspberry Pi, code as PCB design, an open source ereader, and more. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome 00:20 Stickers! Request a sticker 00:31 Welcome Liz Clark 00:53 Raspberry Pi Connect Raspberry Pi Connect Documentation Raspberry Pi Connect 4:24 The Open Book Touch 8:39 Atopile atopile homepage atopile package repo Vibe-coding a PCB KiCad schematic design blocks 16:32 Midi Baby Gen 4 18:44 GameTank GameTank.zone CrowdSupply campaign GitHub repository Emulator Discord Server 21:49 Tiles from Bergsonne Labs About Tiles Tile Reference Sets Tile library 25:32 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 speeding up a Raspberry Pi, parts management with Inventree, product reviews, synths, and more. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. Show Notes 00:00 Intro 00:23 Make Your Raspberry Pi Faster 5:13 Inventree 7:59 Framework 12 Laptop 15:18 Channels 19:26 Mutable Instruments ported to the Pico 23:38 3D Printable and Dissolvable Circuit Boards Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

This episode is a replay of The Bootloader’s live CircuitPython Day 2025 show from August 15th, 2025 hosted on Adafruit’s YouTube channel. The episode has been lightly edited. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. 00:00 Intro 00:26 Welcome 1:02 Thank you Anne Barela Subscribe to the Python on Hardware newsletter 1:46 CircuitPython Fonts CircuitPython fonts repository with circup instructions CircuitPython BDF & PCF font Learn Guide CircuitPython font code shown 6:57 CircuitPython v2 extension for VS Code CircuitPython VS Code extension v1 by Joe Devivo CircuitPython v2 for VS Code by Will Merkens CircuitPython v2 for VS Code source code 11:40 Fruit Jam USB Host MIDI Tester Fruit Jam USB Host MIDI Tester Fruit Jam Portable MIDI Synth Fruit Jam USB Gamepad Demo 15:52 Fruitris Cooper Dalrymple’s homepage Fruitris on Adafruit Playground Fruitris GitHub repository Fruitris blog post Fruitris demo on Show & Tell Cooper on The CircuitPython Show May 5th, 2025 19:37 CircuitPython Workflows https://docs.circuitpython.org/en/latest/docs/workflows.html https://code.circuitpython.org/ Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!

In this episode, Tod and Paul welcome John Park to the show. They discuss a floppy disk MIDI boombox, live-coding music, RP2350 as a mini-computer, and more. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. Show Notes 00:00 Intro Joséphine Wolf Oberholtzer, creator and maintainer of Supriya 00:54 Floppy Disk Midi Boomboxes (John #1) Vintage: Roland MT-80S Roland MT-300S Yamaha MDP-10 DIY: MIDI Blaster by Luke.the.maker and build instructions and pre-built MT-420 by Jonas Bengtson 9:04 AlgoRave (Tod #1) DJ_Dave: Instagram reels: https://www.instagram.com/p/DL0P-2WusOO/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DIKC6D6SpQM/ TikTok YouTube livestreams Strudel Originally mentioned in Bootloader Episode 2 back in Oct 2022 Awesome livecoding list 14:00 The RP2350 Mini-Computers are here Adafruit Fruit Jam Olimex RP2350pc 18:39 CyberBricks 24:28 KiCad cli and diff viewer kicad-cli Tod’s visual diff shell script 28:56 Commodore 64 Ultimate 31:48 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 a MIDI chip, an epic rant, a love letter, and more. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. 00:00 Welcome 00:17 SAM2695 General MIDI chip Seeed XIAO MIDI M5stack w/ speaker M5stack w/ MIDI in/out DIYElectroMusic articles SAM2695 datahsheet Tod demo on Adafruit Show-n-Tell 3:51 Supercollider and Supriya Supercollider synth engine Supriya Python API Supriya subreddit 5:47 The STM32 rant 12:18 A love letter to embedded engineering Prof. V. Hunter Adams’ November 2023 lecture, “Why I love building things with microcontrollers.” 16:10 Alternate music keyboard layouts 20:09 Spintronics 22:47 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 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!

Welcome to a new episode! Tod and Paul chat about woodworking, MP3 players, a CircuitPython synthio tutorial, and more. Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. 00:00 Intro 00:12 Hyperwood 2:34 Synology NAS devices 7:27 TRMNL WiFi ePaper display 11:29 Rockbox 4.0 Paul incorrectly stated 2022 as the year of the first Rockbox release. It’s 2002 and we regret the error. 13:02 CircuitPython synthio tutorial 16:05 mobygratis 18:13 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!

Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky and join our newsletter Check out TheBootlader.net for detailed show notes, links, and transcript. Brent Rubell of Adafruit Industries joins Tod and Paul. They discuss the Wippersnapper IoT firmware, Arduino libraries, microcontrollers as mini-computers, and more. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome 00:27 Wippersnapper’s new offline mode Wippersnapper Learn Guide 5:36 rp2040 speed update Hackster coverage 9:19 Microcontrollers as mini-computers [SlimeDeck[(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnwPmoWMGqk) *Adafruit Fruit Jam 14:14 Obsidian note taking app 17:44 Arduino library bots fosstodon.org/@arduinoLibs @ArduinoLibs.bsky.social Maintaner: @tobozo 20:48 3D Printed records Instructables page Amanda Ghassaei’s home page 26:01 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!

Happy New Year! Tod and Paul are back, each with three things to share. They discuss sunsetting a popular IDE, Tod’s favorite synth (which does so much more), 3D printing, pinball, and more. We’re now on Bluesky! Follow us on Bluesky or subscribe to our newsletter. Visit The Bootloader.net for detailed show notes, links, transcripts, and more. 00:00 Welcome 00:19 Sunsetting Mu 3:23 The Synthstrom Deluge 9:11 Home Assistant Voice (Preview Edition) 12:13 The Sound of Logic: Klangorium 15:50 3D Printing News Round-up A 4D axis printer, where the nozzle can rotate. MobiPrint, a mobile 3D printer, without a bed. Hackaday YouTube Make a working PCB using a SLA printer’s UV light. The Lemontron 3D printer costs just over $400 to make yourself and is small enough to transport in an empty filament box. Hackaday and Tom’s Hardware PolyDye adds an ink jet toner cartridge to your 3D printer to allow printing in color. Hackaday PETFusion 2.0 launched a Kickstarter that fully funded in 3 hours to create a bottle recycler and custom 3D printer filament maker. It includes the STL files and bill of materials you need to build your own. STLs start at $39 up to $109 for a commercial license version. 19:18 Pinball! Pacific Pinball Museum Find machines near you with Pinballmap.com 23:01 Good-bye RadioFreeFedi.net 23:15 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!

Welcome to the show For detailed show notes and a transcript, visit TheBootloader.net 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. Welcome to our second guest, Kevin Santo Cappuccio, the creator of Jumperless. 6:20 The UNO Plus+ (Kevin #1) The UNO Plus+ from John Loeffler is what the Arduino UNO should’ve been all along. It’s the same shape and hardware as the Arduino UNO, with the added bonus of LEDs on every pin to show you the state. 10:36 Manyfold (Paul #1) Manyfold is a self-hosted solution to organize and share your files for 3D printing. It’s also connected to the Fediverse, allowing you to follow instances (aka server) or creators. You can run it in single-user mode or multi-user. You can also make files public or private, which is great for saving models you might have paid for but don’t or can’t share publicly. Suported file formats include 3MF, Blender, FreeCAD, OpenSCAD, STEP, STL, OBJ, GCode, BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, SVG, and even video files in MP4 or MPEG. It also support Markdown, PDF, and text files. Demo instance Public instances GitHub repository FLOSS Weekly podcast episode with James Smith 13:52 Quake on a SparkFun Thing Plus Matter board (Tod #1) next-hack.com got Quake running on a Feather-sized board The folks at nexxt-hack.com have Quake running on a SparkFun Thing Plus Matter board. This board is in the Feather format (0.9“ x 2“) and sports a MGM240P wireless module for doing Bluetooth and Matter wireless protocols. This module also sports a EFR32MG24 chip, which is a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M33 processor at 39 MHz, 1.5MB flash and 256 kB of RAM. (This is essentially the same specs as the new RP2350 from RasPi, so maybe we’ll see Quake on an Adafruit Feather soon?) After proving the idea using the SparkFun board, they designed a complete Quake-playing gamepad with built-in screen, joysticks, sound, and battery. This time using the Arduino Nano Matter board (which has a similar MGM240-series module on it) Oh also: you can do BLE-based multiplayer and it runs at 35 fps at 320 x 240. SparkFun Thing Plus Matter board Writeup on the Silabs.com tech blog Next-hack gamepad using Arduino Nano Matter board Next-hack gamepad design files 18:00 Evolvable Hardware (Kevin #2) Evolvable Hardware Been around since 1990 Developed at the University of Sussex by Adrian Thompson Used a XE6200 FPGA (100 gates - 10x10 FPGA) Project IceStorm is reverse engineering a modern FPGA 23:18 FlexiPi Kickstarter (Paul #2) The FlexiPi is a new Raspberry Pi Pico with a few tricks up its sleeve. First - it’s flexible, hence the name and wafer thin. It also includes a few upgrades from the original Raspberry Pi Pico, including using USB-C instead of Micro-USB and a programmable Neopixel built-in. Otherwise, the pinout stays the same as the popular Pico. Kickstarter campaign Tom’s Hardware coverage Update Since recording, the FlexiPi Kickstarter project was suspended by Kickstarter and the reasons why are unknown. To stay updated on the project, you can sign up for their newsletter here. 25:11 EMMG MIDI Synth (Tod #2) A hacker in our community, Johnathan Bisson / @bjonnh, created the EMMG Midi Synth as a teaching tool for a Workshop on MIDI and music synthesis at the Pumping Station One hackerspace in Chicago The workshop taught what MIDI is, from down at the signalling level to how it’s used by performers. The board each student got was custom-designed. It has 8 pots, 12 captouch pads, an OLED display and stereo audio out, all driven with a USB-C 16MB Pico clone. The workshop also talks about how GPIOs work and how capsense works. Looks like it was pretty great! EMMG MIDI Synth homepage Workshop notes Workshop slides Pra32-u synth engine pico-test-synth – my test platform for playing with synths on a Pico picoslidertoy eight_by – my yet-to-used take of adding 8-pots to a single analog in using analog mux chip Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!