Ask an Engineer
ASK AN ENGINEER 7/16/2025 LIVE!
Episode summary
ASK AN ENGINEER 7/16/2025 LIVE!
Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com
Thursday July 17
ASK AN ENGINEER 7/16/2025 LIVE!
Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com
This week @adafruit we’re prototyping new projects, first up from Pedro is a new 3D printed multicolor sign using LED noodles powered by the Adafruit Current Boost Breakout. From Noe, a new MIDI controller dubbed the MIDI Keyset. Our shop talk segment highlights some CAD apps on the iPad, Shap3r and Nomad. Time lapse this week is in preparation for Halloween, a skull themed doorknocker.
Pi Thermal Camera Video https://youtu.be/rG0JHzKA_fA
TSP61169 Current Boost https://www.adafruit.com/product/6354
Skull Door Knocker By Spennolio https://makerworld.com/en/models/1535611-pirate-skull-halloween-door-knocker https://youtu.be/24l1jxWi4rI
BlitzCityDIY YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbAUKL7V6OOGumQEeDMYQvQ
Timelapse Tuesday
Fidget Gear Ring By DrJones https://www.printables.com/model/1312158-fidget-gear-ring-v3 https://youtu.be/g_Qu6Nfg8oo
Community Makes
https://www.printables.com/model/1352000-adafruit-heat-insert-press-without-need-for-heat-i https://www.printables.com/model/1353225-foot-switch-raspberry-pi-picocherry-mx https://www.printables.com/model/1352843-severance-inspired-home-assistant-voice-assistant
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To show and share a project at 7:30pm Eastern today, view the chat or in discord https://adafru.it/discord and look for the JOIN link to join. For best results, be on a wired network connection and use a headset and microphone.
Build a thermal camera using Raspberry Pi, an MLX90640 and the Pi camera V2. This fuses the Pi’s camera feed with a thermal graphic overlay. A Python script features a graphical interface that allows you to control the overlay’s opacity and temperature range, and even take screenshots. Code, CAD and assembly instructions: https://learn.adafruit.com/raspberry-pi-thermal-camera
Raspberry Pi 4 - 4GB: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4296
MLX90640 IR Thermal Camera: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4469
Raspberry Pi Camera V3 https://www.adafruit.com/product/5657
EYESPI Pi Beret: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5783
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0:00 Housekeeping 3:56 Community News 8:06 State of CircuitPython, Libraries & Blinka 17:57 Hug Reports 20:19 Status Updates 24:41 In the Weeds 27:04 Wrap-up
Notes document is available here, with timecodes: https://github.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/blob/main/2025/2025-07-14.md
Join here for the chat all week: http://adafru.it/discord
The CircuitPython Weekly normally is held at 2pm US ET/11am us PT on Mondays. Check the #circuitpython-dev channel on Discord for notices of change in time and links to past meetings. Meeting times are also available in iCal format using the following link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical or view it in your browser: https://open-web-calendar.herokuapp.com/calendar.html?url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical
CircuitPython development is sponsored by Adafruit. Please support them by purchasing hardware from https://adafruit.com.
Reminders: Podcast available on most services. Let us know if we’re missing some.
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This week at the desk, we tackled a huge stack of E-Ink displays. A couple of weeks ago, we focused on restocking the tricolor and grayscale 2.13” and 1.54” models. This time, we worked on the 2.9” version for the MagTag and explored some larger, very cool display options: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_EPD/pull/86.
We got most of them working! A few were tricky—some had hot-bar connectors (so we designed an adapter), and one had a flipped connector with some lingering code issues. It’ll get sorted out, just wasn’t as plug-and-play as the rest.
We also started a new project to showcase the SynthIO library in CircuitPython—more on that soon!
John Park’s Workshop Live 7/10/25 Knobby Seq Final JPPPoW recap Projects and more!
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microSD and SD Card Holder (0:11) https://www.adafruit.com/product/6341
microSD Card Holder (0:11) https://www.adafruit.com/product/6342
Skill Seeker: Maker Edition - By Steph Piper (2:00) https://www.adafruit.com/product/6364
Adafruit Pi Stemma QT Breakout for Raspberry Pi and Compatibles (4:21) https://www.adafruit.com/product/6365
Adafruit PiCowBell HSTX DVI Output for Pico - Works with HDMI Displays (5:42) https://www.adafruit.com/product/6363
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New nEw NEWs New Products, News, and more: https://www.adafruit.com/newsletter #newnewnew
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The wonderful world of Python on hardware! Episode 310 (May 7, 2025). This is our weekly Python video highlights! Ladyada and PT review the Python on hardware news of the week.
The news comes from the Python community, Discord, Adafruit communities and more. It’s part of the comprehensive newsletter we do each week.
The video playlist of episodes is here: http://adafru.it/pohepisodes
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Read the newsletters past and present at https://www.adafruitdaily.com/category/circuitpython/
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You can build a tap-to-play video player using a Raspberry Pi 5, Adafruit’s NFC Breakout and NFC cards. Full Tutorial: https://learn.adafruit.com/nfc-raspberry-pi-media-player
To play a movie, just tap an NFC card over the 3D printed case. A python script runs code that launches movies in the VLC media player.
The NFC cards are fitted inside a 3D printed case inspired by VHS cassette tapes.
This project aims to make the movie watching experience more special by creating a physical experience. No streaming networks or wifi necessary!
Raspberry Pi 5 8GB: https://www.adafruit.com/product/5813
NFC Breakout: https://www.adafruit.com/product/364
M.2 HAT+ https://www.adafruit.com/product/5902
Active Cooling Fan https://www.adafruit.com/product/5815
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Full tutorial: https://learn.adafruit.com/chinese-dragon-puppet-with-motion-reactive-flame-effect/overview
Make a Chinese Dragon puppet with a dramatic flame LED effect. The lights are motion-reactive so he lights up when you shake him. This project uses an Adafruit Circuit Playground Express with a built-in motion sensor and NeoPixel LED lights. The code is written in Microsoft MakeCode, an easy-to-use drag and drop code editor. (Or maybe in this case, a dragon-drop code editor.)
This is an easy beginner-level project that involves a little bit of soldering. You can download our code sample, or learn to make your own flame effects. This is a fantastic project to do with kids.
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Collin gives Alexa a new persona courtesy of the classic 2-XL trivia bot. Check out the full tutorial available here: https://learn.adafruit.com/echo-2-xl
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New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/
Tonight on Pseudorandom, special guest Phil Burgess speaks on the joys & meticulous details of prop recreation, miniature MAME arcades, and more.
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Watch our latest project videos: http://adafru.it/latest
New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/