Michael “T-Rex” Kadie joins the show and discusses the T-Rex Talk family of assistive devices built with CircuitPython.

1:25 Michael’s start with computers

1:56 How Michael started building communication devices in the 90s

4:46 The T-Rex Talk 3.0

8:55 Using AI to help

9:58 Using the Fruit Jam as an assistive device

13:27 The training game

13:56 The Sip-N-Puff [https://www.tssfaa.com/sip-n-puff.html]

16:38 The CircuitPython reading light

17:07 Jay Leno’s antique electric car - with CircuitPython

21:21 Wrap-up

 * Michael’s website [https://www.tssfaa.com]
 * GitHub repository [https://github.com/mkadie/NeedsBoard]
 * YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@but_Idigress]

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Michael "T-Rex" Kadie

Tom Fox joins the show and shares his creation, the SPOKE board.

Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:36 Tom’s start with computers and electornics

1:25 Discovering CircuitPython

2:31 The SPOKE board

 * SPOKE [https://www.spokeboard.com]

4:11 Whom is the SPOKE for?

5:38 The SPOKE Mini

7:25 What students have made with the SPOKE

9:15 What were the challenges bringing the SPOKE to life?

10:33 The SPOKE online editor

13:53 What’s next for SPOKE?

14:59 Where to learn more?

 * YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@Spokeboard]
 * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/spokeboard]
 * Tom’s home page [https://vulpeslabs.org]

15:26 How much does the SPOKE cost?

15:38 Which board?

16:22 Wrap-up

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Tom Fox

Paul is joined by three former guests: Tim Cocks, Dan Cogliano, and Cooper Dalrymple who share their experience developing apps, games, and screensavers for the Adafruit Fruit Jam and Fruit Jam OS.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:38 FruitJamOS

 * Cooper’s best practices [https://relic-se.github.io/Fruit_Jam_Pong/]
 * Fruitris [https://adafruit-playground.com/u/relic_se/pages/fruit-jam-fruitris-tetris]

3:44 Cooper’s excitement for the Fruit Jam

7:24 Dan’s interest in the Fruit Jam

 * Z Machine [https://learn.adafruit.com/zork-and-the-z-machine]
 * Moon Miner [https://danthegeek.com/moon-miner/]

8:52 Dan’s screensavers for the Fruit Jam

 * Screensaver bundle [https://danthegeek.com/2026/02/23/screensaver-bundle-for-the-fruit-jam-os-released/]

10:48 Coding for othe Fruit Jam

12:20 The Fruit Jam app library

 * Fruit Jam Library [https://github.com/relic-se/Fruit_Jam_Library]

18:02 GPIO and expansion

19:44 Display support

 * Using DVI Video Learn Guide [https://learn.adafruit.com/using-dvi-video-in-circuitpython]

24:07 Challenges to look out for when developing for the Fruit Jam

 * Mice Learn Guide [https://learn.adafruit.com/using-a-mouse-with-usb-host]
 * Keyboard Learn Guide [https://learn.adafruit.com/using-a-keyboard-with-usb-host]
 * Cooper’s Mystify screensaver [https://github.com/relic-se/Fruit_Jam_Screensaver_Mystify]

31:01 What advice for someone creating a game or app for the Fruit Jam?

 * Cooper’s Fruit Jam / Pong tutorial [https://relic-se.github.io/Fruit_Jam_Pong/]

36:48 Wrap-up

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Developing for the Fruit Jam

Paul is joined by Abby Bergman and Esha Patel who both recently completed the Physical Computing - Interactive Art, Robotics, & Tech for Good course taught by Professor John Gallaugher at Boston College.

Abby and Esha share their experiences and projects taking the course.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome

00:56 Professor Gallaugher’s Physical Computing - Interactive Art, Robotics, & Tech for Good course

1:42 Abby’s motivation for taking the class

 * Early Childhood Maker Literacies – DevTech Research Group [https://sites.bc.edu/devtech/research/early-childhood-maker-literacies/]

2:38 Esha’s motivation for taking the class

3:32 What was a surprise about the class?

5:20 Esha’s Interactive Hopscotch project

 * Interactive Hopscotch [https://www.instructables.com/Interactive-Hopscotch/]
 * Adaptive Tic Tac Toe [https://www.instructables.com/Adaptive-Tic-Tac-Toe/]

7:38 Abby’s Very Hungry Caterpillar

 * Interactive Very Hungry Caterpillar With RFID and Button Input - Assistive Tech [https://www.instructables.com/Interactive-Very-Hungry-Caterpillar-With-RFID-and-/]

10:29 Soldernig challenges

11:36 The Festival of Lights

12:26 What advice would you share to someone thinking of taking the course?

14:29 Wrap-up

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Physical Computing - Interactive Art, Robotics, & Tech for Good

John Park joins the show and shares how he started hosting shows, his pre-show preparation, some of his favorite memories and projects, and more.

00:00 Welcome

00:36 JP’s start with computers and electronics

3:59 MAKE: Television

 * Make: Television - Complete Series : Make : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/maketelevision]

10:47 Preparing for a show

 * JP’s Workshop YouTube Playlist [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVvPjQU_KXsLPVB0pG_kdxW]

16:54 Favorite CircuitPython memories

20:09 Favorite projects over the years

25:55 Favorite synthesizer

 * Mutable Instruments: a (Brief) Retrospective [https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/mutable-instruments-retrospective]
 * MicroFreak [https://www.arturia.com/products/hardware-synths/microfreak/overview]

29:20 Which board?

30:36 Wrap-up

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John Park

Paul welcomes Michelle Hui and Reitwiec Shandilya, master’s students at Cornell Tech. They discuss their project, an open source medical device that helps mastectomy patients, that runs CircuitPython.

00:00 Intro

00:46 The Open Pressure Sensor Device

2:05 Overcoming the problem gaps

2:58 Partnering with clinicians

5:26 The hardware and firmware

8:13 Reverse engineering the proprietary device

13:48 The Open Source Hardware Association

20:09 What’s next for OpenPSD?

21:42 Wrap-up

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The Open Pressure Sensor Device

In this episode, Paul is joined by Sean Carolan. Sean shares how he used CoPilot with Claude Opus to create a Pac-Man clone in CircuitPython in just one day.

Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:32 Sean’s start with computers

1:34 Choosing Pac-Man

2:30 Seeed Wio Terminal [https://www.seeedstudio.com/Wio-Terminal-p-4509.html]

4:04 Coding Pac-Man in CircuitPython

5:17 The game’s art assets

 * The Spriters Resource [https://www.spriters-resource.com]
 * Assets · Kenney [https://kenney.nl/assets]

6:51 Re-creating the sounds of Pac-Man

8:29 Pac-Man on the Fruit Jam

 * Port to Adafruit Fruit jam by relic-se · Pull Request #1 · scarolan/pac-wio [https://github.com/scarolan/pac-wio/pull/1]

9:51 What worked well when using Claude Opus for Ai

12:50 The challenges in using AI

14:14 Recommendations for someone just starting to use AI to code

16:38 Learn more about Sean

 * Sean Carolan’s Github Site [https://scarolan.github.io]
 * Sean on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/seancarolan108/]

17:01 Which board?

18:36 Wrap-up

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Sean Carolan

Paul welcomes John Ellis to the show. John shares some of his MacroPad projects, TallyCircuitPy, and more.

00:00 Intro

1:18 John’s start with computers

5:13 John’s handle, DeckerEgo

6:28 MacroPad Hotkeys II

 * deckerego/Macropad_Hotkeys GitHub repository: An extensible hotkey macropad inspired by the Macropad Hotkeys example from the Adafruit Learning System Guide [https://github.com/deckerego/Macropad_Hotkeys]
 * prcutler/awesome-macropad: A curated list of awesome applications, macros, 3D printed cases, guides, and more for the Adafruit rp2040 MacroPad. [https://github.com/prcutler/awesome-macropad]

8:59 Sleeping the Macropad screen

10:36 MacroPad 4 Chord MIDI

 * Macropad 4chord MIDI [https://hackaday.io/project/181967-macropad-4chord-midi]

12:47 TallyCircuitPy and TallyOBS

 * TallyOBS [https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/tallyobs-push-scene-changes-to-wifi-enabled-tally-lights.1082/]

15:12 The role CircuitPython can play in saving older hardware

17:20 Where to learn more about John

 * https://www.deckerego.net [Deckego.net]

18:15 Which board?

19:53 Wrap-up

Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com [https://www.circuitpythonshow.com/pages/sponsors]. Thank you for your support!

John Ellis

Dan Cogliano joins Paul and they discuss Dan’s work with the Z Machine, which allows you to play Zork and other text adventure games.

Follow the show on Mastodon [https://www.circuitpythonshow.com/@circuitpythonshow/follow] or Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/circuitpythonshow.com].

Show Notes

00:30 Dan’s start with computers

3:05 The EZ Make Oven [https://learn.adafruit.com/ez-make-oven]

4:53 The Z-Machine

7:59 Challenges in creating the CP Z Machine

9:08 The game of Zork

11:00 CP Z Machine Learn Guide [https://learn.adafruit.com/zork-and-the-z-machine]

11:15 Dan’s next game

12:29 Challenges working with graphics

13:37 Where to learn more about Dan

 * BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/cogliano.bsky.social]
 * Dan’s Learn Guides [https://learn.adafruit.com/u/cogliano]
 * Danthegeek.com
 * Cleveland Museum of Art [https://learn.adafruit.com/cleveland-museum-of-art-pyportal-frame]

14:27 Which board?

15:13 Wrap-up

Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com [https://www.circuitpythonshow.com/pages/sponsors]. Thank you for your support!

Dan Cogliano

Paul welcomes River Wang to the show. River was a STEAM teacher before becoming a full time software developer 3 years ago. He created the CircuitPython Online IDE, a browser based platform that allows users to work on a CircuitPython project on the web or as a self-hosted website.

Follow the show on Mastodon [https://www.circuitpythonshow.com/@circuitpythonshow/follow] or Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/circuitpythonshow.com].

Show Notes

00:00 Intro

00:29 River’s start with computers and electronics

3:42 River’s start with Python

4:31 Teaching

5:42 Discovering CircuitPython

9:18 Creating the CircuitPython Online IDE [https://urfdvw.github.io/circuitpython-online-ide-2/]

13:04 How the CircuitPython Online IDE works

14:28 The challenges in building the CircuitPython Online IDE

20:34 Self-hosting the CircuitPython Online IDE

19:02 How the CircuitPython Online IDE helps educators

20:34 CircuitPython Online IDE’s key features

23:13 What’s next for the CircuitPython Online IDE

24:41 How to support the CircuitPython Online IDE

25:05 Where to learn more

 * The CircuitPython Online IDE [https://urfdvw.github.io/circuitpython-online-ide-2/]
 * GitHub Repository [https://github.com/urfdvw/circuitpython-online-ide-2]
 * YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@riverwang]
 * Twitter [https://x.com/River___Wang]
 * Fosstodon [https://fosstodon.org/@Riverwang]

25:23 Which board?

Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com [https://www.circuitpythonshow.com/pages/sponsors]. Thank you for your support!

River Wang

An independent podcast with the people in and around CircuitPython. Created and hosted by Paul Cutler.

The CircuitPython Show