The Bootloader

Help I'm Alive

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Tod and Paul share a secondary display for your Bambu Labs 3D printer, a small eink eReader, an open source microcontroller, and more.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:15 BambuHelper

BambuHelper is a tiny ESP32-powered desk friend to tell you how your 3d printer is doing!

5:56 OpenScan

OpenScan is a low-cost and high quality 3D scanner that you build yourself that is open source and modular.

8:53 Xteink X4 eReader

The Xteink X4 eReader is small 4” eink eReader that can read ebooks and can also be an ESP32 dev board.

12:58 Project Aura

Project Aura is a crowd-funded air quality monitor that costs $30 for the 3D print design and firmware.

17:06 The Baochip

The Baochip-1x by Bunnie Huang is another microcontroller platform like the RP2040 or the ESP32, but unlike those chips, everything about the Baochip is open source.

21:51 OpenCode

OpenCode is a 100% open source AI coding agent licensed under the liberal MIT license. It’s built for privacy and does not store any of your data.

26:16 Wrap-up

Spin the Black Circle

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

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.

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Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:19 The Statimatic STM-01 Automatic Turntable

5:00 MicroPythonOS and WaveShare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-2

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

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

Kick Out the Jams

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 10:00:00 +0000

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.

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00:00 Intro

00:17 Flock Camera Hacking

5:46 Naya Connect

8:58 ESP32 supports 5GHz Wireless

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
Fruit Jam Mac emulator
Apple II emulator
Intel 286 emulator

18:04 Neural Networks in CircuitPython

21:17 Washington State’s proposed 3D printer laws

23:55 Wrap-up

StandWithMinnesota.com

Games Without Frontiers

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 10:00:00 +0000

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

0:00 Intro

00:20 Build your own Steam Machine

4:56 Learning to sew

9:06 CAD Round-up

11:03 Learn analog electronics by building synths

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: @TIBtv@tv.theindiebeat.fm

17:51 act

22:40 Wrap-up

Don't call it a comeback

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 10:00:00 +0000

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.

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00:23 Supercon Recap

2:10 Tod’s favorite Supercon talks

3:57 Arduino Uno Q Workshop (Tod #1)

13:21 Covert Regional Communication with Meshtastic (Paul #1)

Covert Regional Communication with Meshtastic by Daryll Strauss

17:18 Supercon 2025 Badge

20:07 Ultrawideband (Tod #2)

24:30 Microsoft open sources Zork 1 - 3 (Paul #2)

27:18 How to buld a dev board (Tod #3)

30:03 DocType magazine (Paul #3)

DocType magazine

Super Smooth - with Liz Clark

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 10:00:00 +0000

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.

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Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:20 Stickers!

Request a sticker

00:31 Welcome Liz Clark

00:53 Raspberry Pi Connect

4:24 The Open Book Touch

8:39 Atopile

16:32 Midi Baby Gen 4

18:44 GameTank

21:49 Tiles from Bergsonne Labs

25:32 Wrap-up

I Feel the Need for Speed

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Paul and Tod discuss speeding up a Raspberry Pi, parts management with Inventree, product reviews, synths, and more.

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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

CircuitPython Day 2025

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 13:40:13 +0000

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.

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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

15:52 Fruitris

19:37 CircuitPython Workflows

Drop the beat - with guest John Park

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 09:00:00 +0000

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.

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Show Notes

00:00 Intro

Joséphine Wolf Oberholtzer, creator and maintainer of Supriya

00:54 Floppy Disk Midi Boomboxes (John #1)

Vintage:
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

18:39 CyberBricks

24:28 KiCad cli and diff viewer

28:56 Commodore 64 Ultimate

31:48 Wrap-up

The rant and the love letter

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Tod and Paul discuss a MIDI chip, an epic rant, a love letter, and more.

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00:00 Welcome

00:17 SAM2695 General MIDI chip

3:51 Supercollider and Supriya

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

Rated PG for Language

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 09:00:00 +0000

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

I'm Afraid it's TRMNL

Mon, 05 May 2025 09:00:00 +0000

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

Welcome Andy Piper

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 09:00:00 +0000

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.

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

Welcome Brent Rubell

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 10:00:00 +0000

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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

20:48 3D Printed records

Instructables page Amanda Ghassaei’s home page

26:01 Wrap-up

Bamboozled

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Paul and Tod discuss drama in the world of 3D printing, oscilloscope music, inventory management for makers, and more.

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Show Notes

bamboozle: To deceive or dupe; hoodwink. synonym: deceive.

00:00 Welcome

00:14 Drama in the world of 3D printing

8:36 Oscilloscope music

13:00 ucritair

15:50 Buchla and friends

19:02 Inventory management for makers

22:14 Wrap-up

Sunsets, Synths, and Pinball!

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 10:00:00 +0000

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!

23:01 Good-bye RadioFreeFedi.net

23:15 Wrap-up

Supercon 2024

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 09:00:00 +0000

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

Welcome Kevin Santo Cappuccio

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 10:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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

Welcome Liz Clark

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 08:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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.

From Arcade to Synth

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Welcome to a new episode of The Bootloader. For detailed show notes and transcripts, check out TheBootloader.net. Join our new newsletter or check out the archives.

00:00 Welcome

00:26 Recap: The Bootloader live on CircuitPython Day

3:00 MICRORACK (Tod #1)

08:16: Pimoroni’s Picade Max (Paul #1)

Paradise Arcade Shop

13:17 A bug in the Raspberry Pi RP2350 (Tod #2)

Hackster article

18:36 Stratasys sues Bambu Lab (Paul #2)

22:18 Wrap-up

Teardown 2024 with Debra Ansell

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Four Topics and an Interview

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Paul and Tod chat about Professor Gallaugher’s CircuitPython tutorial videos, Embedded Swift, a special interview with Justin Myers, the author of the new CircuitPython ConnectionManager library, and more.

For detailed show notes and transcripts visit The Bootloader.net

Show Notes:

00:21 CircuitPython videos by Professor John Gallaugher

Professor Gallaugher interview on The CircuitPython Show
Professor Gallaugher’s YouTube channel
CircuitPython playlist
Raspberry Pi Pico tutorials using CircuitPython
Bluefruit School - using a CircuitPython Bluefruit and tutorials
Use PyCharm with CircuitPython on macOS video
Easily install or upgrade CircuitPython Libraries with Circup video

4:58 Embedded Swift

8:53 Accessibility Matters

11:55 CadQuery

https://cadquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/intro.html – good intro
https://github.com/CadQuery/cadquery – the main repo
https://github.com/CadQuery/CQ-editor – GUI editor, like OpenSCAD, one of the many ways to use CQ
https://github.com/Wren6991/CQCAD – Luke Wren (ASIC designer at RasPi)’s collection of CQCAD parts
Also simliar: OpenJSCAD but also cannot export STEP
And the original: OpenSCAD

16:47 Interview with Justin Myers, author of CircuitPython’s ConnectionManager library

ConnectionManager

Beautiful Bezier Curves

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 08:00:00 +0000

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

22: 53 Circuitpython-staroids game by todbot

23:16 CircuitPython Online IDE by River Wang - Paul #3

Built from the ground up

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Paul and Tod each share three interesting things from learn to solder kits to programming ARM in assembly and more. Visit TheBootloader.net for more information including detailed show notes and transcripts.

00:22 Meet the Maker: Carrie Sundra of Alpenglow Industries. (Paul #1)

1:29 SMT Garden - surface mount soldering kit

3:51 Building a synthesizer with the Daisy Seed from Electrosmith (Tod #1)

5:56 synthUX Academy classes on YouTube

8:08 Microdot web framework for MicroPython (Paul #2)

9:08 Programming for both CPython and CircuitPython or MicroPython

10:25 ARM Assembly Deep-dives by Carlynorama (Tod #2)

16:52 ARM Simulator in the browser

18:50 gcc and Clang compilers for ARM

19:20 Bambu Labs 3D printer follow-up from Episode 1 (Paul #3)

20:35 Bambu extends firmware support until 2027 and security updates until 2029

23:08 Let’s talk about Capacitive Touch Sensors and Sliders (Tod #3)

29:00 Tod’s Tindie Store

29:31 Wrap-up and visit TheBootloader.net for detailed show notes and transcripts

The CircuitPython 9 Release Show

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 20:16:04 +0000

00:00 Welcome to The Bootloader

00:22 What are we excited about in CircuitPython 9?

00:56 jpegio and the Memento Camera

AdaBox 21 Unboxing Video

2:12 The one downside of JPEG vs. BMP or PNG

3:03 How Adafruit is innovating around the hardware and software

3:57 bitmapfilter image effects

4:28 USB Host

5:07 Keyboards on USB Host

Scott’s CircuitPython2024 blog post

7:12 MicroPython and merging its changes into CircuitPython

Split heap memory management

9:55 paralleldisplaybus

LilyGO microcontrollers
8x faster display using paralleldisplaybus for ESP32

12:13 CIRCUITPY on Android

13:28 ESP-IDF software development kit for Espressif microcontrollers

CircuitPython 9.0 moves from IDF v4.x to IDF v5
Potential for Bluetooth for ESP32-S3 chips

15:52 ConnectionManager and the CircuitPython community

18:04 Breaking changes in CircuitPython

display.show() deprecated
Mounting a filesystem requires an existing directory
CircuitPython now requires explicit socket port re-use. Use socket.setsockopt(pool.SOL_SOCKET, pool.SO_REUSEADDR, 1), as in CPython.

20:10 Thank you to everyone in the CircuitPython community who contributed to CircuitPython 9.0

20:43 The CircuitPython Community Weekly Meeting every Monday at 2pm EST in the Adafruit Discord

21:33 Thanks for listening!

Memento photo used under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license

Supersized for Supercon

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Tod shares some of his favorite talks from the recent Supercon conference in Pasadena, CA. Paul and Tod each share one thing they found interesting.

Follow Tod on Mastodon: @todbot@mastodon.social

Follow Paul on Mastodon: @prcutler@fosstodon.org

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the Supersize Supercon episode

3:17 The Supercon badge

8:02 DIY Vacuum Tubes by Nick Pool

10:31 Personal Electric Vehicles by Bradley Gawthrop

13:00 Samy Kamkar’s Random Walk Exploration

15:45 How to Hang and Sell Your Blinky Goodness as Art byChris Combs

18:15 Back in person

19:40 Python in the browser

22:00 Tod’s PicoStepSeq

Pandas and Breadboards

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 09:00:00 +0000

Tod and Paul share a few interesting things including virtual breadboards, Hey Github, and creating virtual synthesizers.

00:00 Welcome

00:26 MicroPython by Arduino Labs

6:15 Home Assistant

9:50 WithDiode.com and virtual breadboards

14:09 Hey, Github

17:40 Virtual Synthesizers - Turn Max patches into VST

22:48 Mastodon

For detailed show notes, transcripts, and to support the show, visit TheBootloader.net.

What's the Matter?

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 09:00:00 +0000

In episode 4, Tod and Paul discuss macOS Ventura, the Matter smart home specification, video synths and more.

Show Notes:

00:22 macOS Ventura cannot copy UF2 files

2:37 Matter smart home specification

7:00 3D printing for good causes

10:00 Video Synthesizers

13:10 IO Rodeo’s Open Colorimeter

15:40 ffmpeg.guide

Thank you for listening! For show notes, transcripts, and to support the show, visit thebootloader.net.

The Middle is a Pumpkin

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 08:00:00 +0000

In episode 3, Paul and Tod share news about boards, code editors, sensors, and something fun at the end.

0:15 RISC-V Arduino Chip

04:28 Code editors and JetBrains Fleet

09:35 Person Sensor by Useful Sensors

13:38 GitHubCopilotInvestigation.com

19:18 CircuitPython’s ulab

23:57 MakerDeck

If you like what you hear, one of the best things you can do to help the show is tell a friend or write a review.

Consider supporting the show financially - your support helps with the cost of hosting, recording and transcripts. Thank you for your support!

M is for Makers, Music, and Machine Learning

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 08:00:00 +0000

In episode 2, Paul and Tod talk about some makers and their cool projects, including the Lux Lavalier and Pikon; creating music in a web browser, and more.

PixelBlaze expression language (Tod #1) 1:45

Lux Lavalier
Created by the team of Jason Coon, Debra Ansell, Ben Hencke

Whisper OpenAI (Paul #1) 5:50

Blog post, paper and Google Colab example linked from their GitHub repository
From OpenAI, who developed Dall-E
Machine learning to transcribe and / or translate audio files

Music generation in the browser (Tod #2) 11:03

Tone.js in-browser synthesis (https://tonejs.github.io/), and examples using it, like:
Acid Hit
Strudel

PolyKeyboard (Paul #2) 16:41 (Paul #2)

Samplebrain by Aphex Twin & Dave Griffiths 21:27 (Tod #3)

Kevin McAleer and the Pikon 23:48 (Paul #3)

Pikon story on DigitalCameraWorld.com
Kevin's Homepage Kevin's YouTube Channel
So many cool projects!Robots and more robots!
Pomodoro Pico W Desk Robot
Kevin's Pikon video Blog post
Raspberry Pi News Story

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Rock Stars Are Just Like Us

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 08:00:00 +0000

In this first episode, Paul and Tod each share a few things they found interesting. They discuss open source projects including tio and Belay, 3D printing, and a rock star's Python project.

Follow the show on Twitter or visit The Bootloader for full show notes and transcripts.

00:23: Fullcontrol.xyz
02:11: tio
04:14: Belay
06:36: Rivers Cuomo
08:57: CircuitPython Camera Support
11:36: Bambu Labs X1 Carbon 3D printer review

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Trailer #2

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Paul and Tod preview The Bootloader and share a fun fact. The Bootloader is coming September 26th.

Visit our homepage at thebootloader.net

The Bootloader Trailer

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 00:20:01 +0000

Welcome to The Bootloader with Tod Kurt and Paul Cutler. Each episode we'll bring you news, project updates, and more from the maker and tech scenes.