If you missed this week’s Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter, here is the ICYMI (in case you missed it) version.
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From the Editor:
Welcome to the latest Python on Microcontrollers newsletter! It’s been a tough week for many folks, with security issues found in PHP, security certificates and more. The sysadmins have had a rough time. In looking for news, I report the issues most affecting the Python on hardware world.
The biggest news is the scope of the updates to CircuitPython. 11.0.0-alpha.2. This release contains a large number of changes, likely the most for a “minor” release. The capabilities are growing at a healthy rate and worth looking at if you would like some speed improvements or fancy new features. Of course, there is the cornucopia of other items in this issue worth looking at, too. I wish all who celebrate a happy Halloween. – Anne Barela, Editor
We’re on Discord, Twitter/X, BlueSky and for past newsletters – view them all here. If you’re reading this on the web, please subscribe here. Here’s the news this week:
CircuitPython 11.0.0-alpha.2 is Released
CircuitPython 11.0.0-alpha.2, an alpha release for 11.0.0, has been released. Further features, changes, and bug fixes will be added before the final release of 11.0.0 – Adafruit Blog and release notes GitHub.
Highlights of changes since 11.0.0-alpha.1
storage.map_file allows directly reading a file from mapped flash.
usb_host_audio.USBIn to support USB microphones.
RGBMatrix supports ABC row addressing.
USB Host Bulk IN support.
Many speedups, especially in displayio.
Many firmware size reductions.
Espressif ESP32-S31 and ESP32-P4 support.
Zephyr additions: analogio, bitbangio, neopixel_write, pwmio, rtc, and watchdog. Dynamic allocation of board buses.
Security Updates Required For Python Utilities
A security incident affecting eMudhra intermediate certificates has required removing the emSign root CA certificate from CA bundles such as “certifi”. It’s important to immediately upgrade the software packages below to at least the versions specified and rebuild container images with layer caching disabled to fetch the latest system certificates. Failure to do so could result in monster-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks against TLS clients, including python.org and pypi.org – Python Discussion Board and Cloudflare Blog.
certifi 2026.10.19
pip 26.2.2
uv 0.13.4
sigstore 4.5.1
conda 26.9.4
pixi 0.82.1
iCircuit 1.16 Adds Full RP2350 Emulation, booting CircuitPython or MicroPython
The iCircuit 1.16 emulator now offers full RP2350 emulation, PIO included, which boots stock MicroPython, wired into a live analog circuit simulator. Slide a potentiometer and Python reads voltage changes – iCircuit. Via X.
The GitHub Universe 2026 Badge Runs MicroPython
The GitHub Universe 2026 badge is a custom derivative of Pimoroni’s Tufty 2350, part of the Badger, Tufty, and Blinky digital badge crew. It retains Tufty’s RP2350B, 320×240 color LCD, 8 MB PSRAM, 16 MB flash, wireless module, battery, case lighting, light sensor, and Qw/ST expansion connector. The GitHub Universe version extends that platform with hardware designed for interactive games and badge-to-badge experiences: an onboard LSM6DS3TR-C accelerometer and gyroscope, IR transmit and receive hardware, eight capacitive touch pads (a directional pad plus Select, Back, Menu, and Home, and five physical front controls that work with the touch pads through the firmware’s orientation-aware logical input API – GitHub and Kyle Daigle’s review with video – BlueSky.
New Book: The Raspberry Pi Guide to Retro Gaming
Raspberry Pi and retro games go hand in hand, with people emulating classic consoles and computers on Raspberry Pi devices since the release of the original Raspberry Pi. A new book looks to highlight how to build retro gaming hardware and software – Raspberry Pi Press.
The Best IDE for Python: 4 Editors, From $0 to $200
The short answer for the best IDE for Python in October 2026: pick VS Code if you want one free tool that handles almost every Python job, PyCharm if you maintain a large Django, data or machine-learning codebase, Cursor if you work through AI agents all day and can live with plans that changed ten days ago, and Zed if raw responsiveness matters more than a deep plugin catalog – Shattered.
This Week’s Python Streams
Python on Hardware is all about building a cooperative ecosphere which allows contributions to be valued and to grow knowledge. Below are the streams within the last week focusing on the community.
CircuitPython Deep Dive Stream
Last Friday, Tim fills in for Scott, receives SSTV photos from space and worked on a new CircuitPython Map Tiles library.
You can see the latest video and past videos on the Adafruit YouTube channel under the Deep Dive playlist – YouTube.
Deep Dive with Tim
Last week, Tim streamed work on the CircuitPython audiotap module, FT8 receiver, and Fruit Jam Web Workflow.
You can see the latest video and past videos on the Adafruit YouTube channel under the Deep Dive playlist – YouTube.
CircuitPython Weekly Meeting
CircuitPython Weekly Meeting for October 19, 2026 (notes) on YouTube.
Project of the Week: A universal game controller firmware for CircuitPython
UniversalGC is a universal game controller firmware for CircuitPython, in the spirit of FreeJoy. Pedals, button boxes, steering wheels, flight sim panels, arcade sticks – what is wired to which pin is specified in device.json and is configured in the browser, over a WiFi access point on the device. No compiler, no flashing tool, no PC software. It runs on Raspberry Pi Pico W / Pico 2 W and ESP32-S3 (with Bluetooth LE) – GitHub.
Popular Last Week
What was the most popular, most clicked link, in last week’s newsletter? Microbe, a fast, lightweight IDE for MicroPython.
Did you know you can read past issues of this newsletter in the Adafruit Daily Archive? Check it out.
Notes from Adafruit Playground
Adafruit Playground is a place for the community to post their projects and other making tips/tricks/techniques. Ad-free, it’s an easy way to publish your work in a safe space for free.
CircuitPython drivers for the DFRobot SEN0140 10-DOF IMU – Adafruit Playground.
From Rabbit Holes to Catacombs – Programming with AI – Adafruit Playground.
News From Around the Web
picostellar by Vladimír Smitka is a planetarium for CircuitPython 11, showing 8,400 stars, constellations, the Sun, the Moon and the planets for any place and time. It runs on RP2040-class boards and up, made for the PicoPad and the Adafruit Fruit Jam (RP2350), using the picogame engine, turbo (viper) functions and flash-mapped files – GitHub.
PyMCU, which compiles Python into bare-metal firmware with no interpreter or VM, has reached its first beta. Some unmodified Adafruit CircuitPython libraries, installed straight from PyPI, now run on a real Arduino Uno: adafruit_ssd1306, with framebuf and bus_device, drives Conway’s Game of Life on a 128×64 OLED – Guide and PyPI.
Coffee Edition is a two-page newspaper that a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W prints every morning. A Claude Code routine writes the issue overnight and GitHub Actions checks every page; the Pico, running MicroPython, pulls the job from GitHub over HTTPS, holds it until its print time and streams it to a network printer over IPP. MIT License – GitHub and write-up.
The EMF Explorer Badge Soldering Kit is a fun kit, useful for learning how to solder and exploring the hidden world of electromagnetic fields. This article shows how to add a Raspberry Pi Pico and some Adafruit sequins to animate the lit tractor beam with a CircuitPython program using the analogbufio library to trigger the animation when a magnetic field is detected – Instructables.
Python 3.15.1, 3.14.9 and 3.13.17 are out. They all upgrade the bundled pip to version 26.2.2, which includes certifi 2026.10.19 to address the eMudhra / emSign CA certificate security incident – Python Insider Blog.
Wikis: Relaunched! – PSF News.
Mark your calendars! PSF Board office hours for the year ahead – PSF News.
Ariadne is a rover built by a four-person University of Southampton team that spots gates made of printed marker cards with a camera, drives through them and counts each one. A Raspberry Pi 4 does the vision in Python with OpenCV, with no neural network, and sends steering letters over UART to a Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040) running C++ motor firmware – GitHub and YouTube.
Student Aadhiswar Saravanan built a four-wheel Mecanum robot for IITM School Connect that can drive sideways, diagonally and spin in place without turning its chassis. A Raspberry Pi Pico WH running MicroPython drives the wheels through two L298N motor drivers – YouTube.
Michael Kennedy and a panel of Calvin Hendryx-Parker, Pat Decker, Reuven Lerner and Sydney Runkle compare the Python tools they would still pick in 2026, from editors and terminals to databases and hosting, and how AI has changed those choices – Talk Python To Me.
John Gallaugher follows up on his October 12 post in last week’s issue, where a MAX98357 DAC and amplifier combo board looked like the simplest audio setup for his CircuitPython class on ESP32-S3 boards. After more testing, an Adafruit PCM5102 DAC with a PAM8302 amp on 3.3 V sounded good through a 3 W, 4 ohm speaker, while two MAX98357A boards sounded poor with the same speaker and code, and he is asking for single-board combos that work better – Mastodon and last week’s post.
An ESP32-S3 running MicroPython joins an Android phone’s hotspot, reads the screen through the Mobilerun Portal app, asks a DeepSeek model what to do, and then taps and types on the phone. No PC, no ADB host, no root. The whole agent loop runs on the microcontroller in MicroPython – GitHub.
A local LoRa moisture sensor with a MicroPython client – GitHub.
An e-ink business card which can use CircuitPython – YouTube.
coXXect drives two 128 x 64 SSD1306 OLED displays from a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 (RP2350) in MicroPython, each on its own I2C bus. The exercises update the displays first one after the other, then at the same time, with one handled in the main thread and the other in a background thread – coXXect.
An STM32F746G-DISCO board using MicroPython and a Korean GUI (LVGL) – YouTube. (Korean MicroPython과 한글 GUI(LVGL)을 사용한 STM32F746G-DISCO 보드)
A live UK train departure board with Pimoroni Presto and MicroPython – YouTube.
Anthropic used Claude to review 25 open source projects written in C, C++, Java, PHP and Python, more than five million lines of code, and reported nearly 500 security issues, including code reachable before login, setting switch security controls off when combined, and one flaw that went unnoticed for 21 years. Anthropic argues that defenders should shrink the code exposed by default rather than chase bugs one at a time – TechRadar.
Instructables user KarimTamerSalama designs a titanium capsule for recovering data and telemetry from the deep sea. An ESP32 running MicroPython watches a pressure sensor and opens a solenoid valve to start the rescue once it passes a set depth. Instructables shares the schematic, the MicroPython code, a research paper and 3D CAD files for the housing – Instructables.
The M5Stack Firmware Simulation and Review Platform runs 14 M5Stack devices, mostly ESP32-S3 models plus ESP32-C6, Core2 and Tab5, in QEMU on a PC, so firmware can be flashed, booted, viewed and tested without the hardware. The simulator is written in Python, and UIFlow2, M5Stack’s MicroPython-based firmware, is the best tested, with ESP-IDF, Arduino and other MicroPython images also supported. It is an unofficial project with documentation in Chinese – GitHub.
Stefan Rohringer’s Magnetic-Fin-Gripper gives Seeed’s reBot DevArm soft TPU Fin-Ray fingers with a magnet in each lamella and adds an Adafruit MLX90393 magnetometer so the gripper can feel when it touches something, gently enough to hold a grape or a tiny SMD part. A Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040) running MicroPython reads the four sensors and detects contact, and Python tools on the PC show the readings live – GitHub.
Carlos Tangerino’s msgpackc is a MessagePack serializer for MicroPython written in C as a user module, a drop-in replacement for Peter Hinch’s pure-Python umsgpack with the same API and the same bytes on the wire. In his benchmarks it packs data 76 to 123 times faster and unpacks 20 to 25 times faster on ESP32 boards while allocating far less memory, and it is tested on the ESP32, S3, C3, C6 and P4 with MicroPython 1.29 – GitHub and MicroPython discussion.
ROBO STEAM ACADEMY, an EU Erasmus+ education project, posted ready-to-run MicroPython competition programs for its PicoBot, a robot built on the Raspberry Pi Pico W or Pico 2 W. In the line-following event the robot tracks the line with five sensors, counts laps at a marker line and stops after the number of laps the competition server sends it over Wi-Fi. Sibling repositories cover object manipulation, joystick control and robot registration – GitHub and Teachers’ Toolkit.
TurboPython is a high-performance dialect of Python, compiled through C++ to a native binary. It combines Python’s syntax with an ownership model that gives memory safety and predictable performance: no garbage collector, no automatic reference counting and no GIL – tpy-lang.org. Via X.
New
A rotary encoder with a 1.8-inch touch display gets an upgrade to the ESP32-S31 SoC – CNX.
LILYGO’s T-Halow P4 is an 80 x 22 mm M.2 card that pairs an Espressif ESP32-P4 with an ESP32-C6 for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5, and a Taixin Wi-Fi HaLow module that reaches up to 1.2 km, plus MIPI camera and display connectors. LILYGO’s examples use ESP-IDF; MicroPython has ESP32-P4 builds, but support for this board isn’t stated. It sells for $26.57 to $36.98 – CNX.
New Boards Supported by CircuitPython
The number of supported microcontrollers and Single Board Computers (SBC) grows every week. This section outlines which boards have been included in CircuitPython or added to CircuitPython.org.
This week there were three new boards added:
ESP32-C5 1.47inch Display Development Board – Waveshare
ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.69 – Waveshare
Generic ESP32S3 SuperMini – Generic
Note: For non-Adafruit boards, please use the support forums of the board manufacturer for assistance, as Adafruit does not have the hardware to assist in troubleshooting.
Looking to add a new board to CircuitPython? It’s highly encouraged! Adafruit has four guides to help you do so:
How to Add a New Board to CircuitPython
How to add a New Board to the circuitpython.org website
Adding a Single Board Computer to PlatformDetect for Blinka
Adding a Single Board Computer to Blinka
New Adafruit Learning System Guides
The Adafruit Learning System has over 3,200 free guides for learning skills and building projects including using Python.
Crankfruit from John Park
Fruit Jam SSTV Receiver from Tim C
CircuitPython Text to Speech from Mikey Sklar and Anne Barela
Supernova POV Pixel Poi V2 with Wireless Controller from Erin St Blaine
CircuitPython Libraries
The CircuitPython library numbers are continually increasing, while existing ones continue to be updated. Here we provide library numbers and updates!
To get the latest Adafruit libraries, download the Adafruit CircuitPython Library Bundle. To get the latest community contributed libraries, download the CircuitPython Community Bundle.
If you’d like to contribute to the CircuitPython project on the Python side of things, the libraries are a great place to start. Check out the CircuitPython.org Contributing page. If you’re interested in reviewing, check out Open Pull Requests. If you’d like to contribute code or documentation, check out Open Issues. We have a guide on contributing to CircuitPython with Git and GitHub, and you can find us in the #help-with-circuitpython and #circuitpython-dev channels on the Adafruit Discord.
You can check out this list of all the Adafruit
https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/10/27/icymi-circuitpython-11-0-0-alpha-2-is-a-huge-update-internet-security-issues-abound-and-more/
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