circuitpython VS ArduinoCore-avr

As another point for those interested, it (to my knowledge) is currently the ONLY implementation of a scoring machine that the firmware for the device is written in Circuit Python. which gives this unit an advantage when it comes to any and all multi tasking that the unit may need to do.

The barrier to entry has never been lower. Last night I prototyped some code in Python on my Mac to talk to a Bluetooth peripheral, and then had ChatGPT translate it to Arduino C++ code for a $5 ESP32 which mostly worked on the first go.

You can even run Python on microcontrollers these days. See Adafruit's https://circuitpython.org for which they publish modules for many (almost all?) of the sensors they sell. The modern microcontroller frameworks hide much of the complexity of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, filesystems, etc. so you can do complicated things with minimal effort. You can really cobble something together in an afternoon.

The Pico runs CircuitPython and uses Adafruit's HID library to emulate a keyboard. It's also possible to emulate a mouse and a gamepad (there are some experiments for gamepad emulation in experiments).

Asked your question in the adafruit discord and they said there's no HT1632c library for circuit python yet. There is a library for micropython. You can request to have it ported from the Micropython library I linked to by opening a feature request in the Circuit Python Github. That would be your best option for now or attempt to port the library yourself.

Microcontrollers can run Python now https://circuitpython.org/

I'm aware of two versions of Python for microcontrollers. Micro Python and Circuit Python

I tried to look in https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/tree/main/shared-bindings at audiocore, audioio, an audiomixer looking for a way to access the sample counter manually but I have no clue what I'm looking at :(

Try CircuitPython 8.0.3. The commit log has a couple networking changes for the Pico. My MQTT client seems to have fewer connection issues though they could be a fluke https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/compare/8.0.2...8.0.3

Gotta pick some project that matters to you and do it. Putting Python code into production with multi-person teams is outright maddening, but for the individual who wants to put their skills on wheels, Python is a great place to start.

Another fun thing to try is

https://www.arduino.cc/

I got started with that buying an Arduino and a breadboard and a handful of 74xx logic chips and I started writing Arduino programs that would generate inputs to the 74xx chips and verify the expected outputs and thus taught myself C coding for the Arduino and how to make circuits with discrete logic at the same time.

Check out existing implementations like Arduino: https://github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-avr/blob/master/libraries/SPI/src/SPI.h

4. https://github.com/arduino/ArduinoCore-avr/blob/eabd762a1edcf076877b7bec28b7f99099141473/cores/arduino/main.cpp#L46

you can always just use an ide but i use this one on my old chrome book https://www.arduino.cc/

You'll also need the avr C library and the Arduino library, and possibly a Makefile or similar to corral the compilation process

Ya for $25 you either want 4-5 clones, or support the official Italian Arduino makers as thanks for making the entire ecosystem possible by buying one of their own boards from https://www.arduino.cc/

It depends what exactly is she into. For electronics you can check out arduino. They sell full kits with everything you need - some components like leds, breadboard so you can create circuits without soldering and a small 8bit computer to control everything with. AFAIK they also sell kits specifically for education starting with middle school.

They are in via Arduino. ;-)