adafruit/circuitpython 8.0.0-beta.2

CircuitPython 8.0.0 Beta 2

on GitHub

This is CircuitPython 8.0.0-beta.2, a beta release for 8.0.0. It is relatively stable, but there will be further additions and fixes before final release.

Warning: The flash partitioning for the Raspberry Pi Pico W has changed since 8.0.0-beta.1. When you load 8.0.0-beta.2 over beta.1 (or vice versa), on the Pico W only, CIRCUITPY will be erased and reformatted.

Notable changes to 8.0.0 since 7.3.0

Functionality additions

• Added WiFi workflow with browser-based device discovery, filesystem browsing, upload, download, file editing, serial/REPL connection.
• Added a one-line status bar, which displays connection status, last exception, and version on a terminal window title or on the top line of an attached display. Support for status bar display is also being added to the Mu and Thonny editors.
• .env file in CIRCUITPY specifies WiFI connection parameters, BLE name, and other startup values.
• dotenv support: os.getenv() values are set by values in .env file. Values can be fetched from other dotenv-format files.
• WiFi functionality implemented on the Pi Pico W.
• Revised Espressif camera support, now available on ESP32, ESP32-S2, and ESP32-S3.
• Bulk analog input: analogbufio (available only on RP2040 for now).
• Pin state can be preserved during deep sleep (available only on Espressif for now).
• Allow setting USB VID, PID, manufacturer, and product ids at runtime.
• Enabled collections.deque on most builds.
• MP3Decoder and WaveFile can now take a filename instead of an open file.
• AnalogIn values are full range from 0 to 65535, instead of having zeros on low-order bits.
• In-place firmware update (dualbank) capability may be disabled in favor of a larger CIRCUITPY drive.
• Added TileGrid.contains().
• Added os.utime().

Compatibility changes

• PulseOut no longer accepts a PWMOut. Use a Pin instead.
• Auto-brightness support in displayio and framebufferio has been removed. It was never implemented completely.
• OneWire is only in onewireio, and is no longer in busio or bitbangio.
• gamepadshift has been removed: use keypad.ShiftRegisterKeys instead.
• Print out whole-number floats exactly and correctly.
• Restored rainbowio and onewireio to a number of boards. Some boards still have rainbowio turned
  off for space reasons.
• i2ctarget.I2CTarget is the new name for i2cperipheral.I2CPeripheral. Accept both for now. I2CPeripheral will be removed in 9.0.0.
• The property supervisor.runtime.ble_workflow replaces supervisor.disable_ble_workflow().
• The property supervisor.runtime.next_stack_limit replaces supervisor.set_next_stack_limit().
• The property supervisor.runtime.rgb_status_brightness replaces supervisor.set_rgb_status_brightness().

Download from circuitpython.org

Firmware downloads are available from the downloads page on circuitpython.org. The site makes it easy to select the correct file and language for your board.

Installation

To install follow the instructions in the Welcome to CircuitPython! guide. To install the latest libraries, see this page in that guide.

Try the latest version of the Mu editor for creating and editing your CircuitPython programs and for easy access to the CircuitPython serial connection (the REPL).

Documentation

Documentation is available in readthedocs.io.

Port status

CircuitPython has a number of "ports" that are the core implementations for different microcontroller families. Stability varies on a per-port basis. As of this release, these ports are consider stable:

• atmel-samd: Microchip SAMD21, SAMx5x
• cxd56: Sony Spresense
• espressif: Espressif ESP32-S2
• nrf: Nordic nRF52840, nRF52833
• raspberrypi: Raspberry Pi RP2040
• stm: ST STM32F4 chip family

These ports are considered alpha and will have bugs and missing functionality:

• broadcom: Raspberry Pi boards such as RPi 4, RPi Zero 2W
• espressif: ESP32, ESP32-S3, ESP32-C3
• litex: fomu
• mimxrt10xx: NXP i.MX RT10xxx
• stm: ST non-STM32F4 chip families

Changes since 8.0.0-beta.1

Fixes and enhancements

• Fix parsing long dotenv values. #7049. Thanks @jepler.
• Improve traceback functionality. #7046. Thanks @jepler.
• Delay very first serial write to allow host connection setup time; especially needed on Linux. #7041. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Restore nvm as an importable module. #7014. Thanks @jepler.
• Add Unicode support to dotenv. #7003. Thanks @jepler.
• Improve dotenv file parsing to be more like the CPython library. #7001, #6987. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Allow choosing between dualbank capability (in-place firmware update) and a larger CIRCUITPY drive. #7000. Thanks @MicroDev1.
• Fix I2CTarget timeout check and documentation. #6985. Thanks @PaulskPt.
• Fix web workflow file-modified-time minutes value. #6982. Thanks @electronerdian.
• Replace some supervisor functions with supervisor.runtime properties. #6980. Thanks @MicroDev1.
• Add os.utime(). #7048. Thanks @isacben.
• Do not allow renaming a directory inside itself. #6883. Thanks @makermelissa.

Port and board-specific changes

Broadcom

Espressif

• Update ESP-IDF to latest release/v4.4 commit to fix WiFi scanning and other issues. #7023. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Clean up mpconfigboard.mk on multiple boards. #7008. Thanks @MicroDev1.

i.MX

nRF

RP2040

• Fix socket errno return value. #7048. Thanks @georgboe.
• SSL support and additional fixes. #7043, #6999. Thanks @jepler.
• Fix cyw43.CywPin. #7019. Thanks @Neradoc.
• Disable cyw43 power-saving mode by default to improve WiFi reliability. #6976. Thanks @jepler.

SAMx

• Improve code size for microcontroller.cpu.temperature, with some loss of accuracy. Extra reductions on very small builds. #7045. Thanks @jepler.

STM

• Remove redundant header files in build (no change in code). #7024. Thanks @flom84.

Individual boards

• AITHinker ESP32-C3S_Kit: fix creation id. #6986. Thanks @dhalbert.
• AITHinker ESP32-C3S_Kit_2M: fix creation id. #6986. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Raspberry Pi Pico W: fix pin definitions. #7021. Thanks @jepler.
• Raspberry Pi Pico W: increase size of CIRCUITPY. #7011. Thanks @jepler.

Documentation changes

• Fixed README.rst formatting. #7022. Thanks @tekktrik.
• Add _asyncio, array, builtins, collections, io, select, and sys to the Module Support Matrix. #6995. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Add ESP32 to README.rst. #6974. Thanks @MicroDev1.

Build and infrastructure changes

• Update how to set build outputs. #7044. Thanks @jepler.
• Update to newer CI actions. #7035. Thanks @MicroDev1.
• Shrink builds by about 112 bytes. #7026. Thanks @dhalbert.
• Remove multiterminal, which is obsolete and was not used anywhere. #7016. Thanks @jepler.
• Refactor dotenv to allow testing on host. #6991. Thanks @jepler.
• Remove redundant .gitignore files. #6974. Thanks @MicroDev1.
• Save about 124 bytes in gc.c and string0.c. #6397. Thanks @jepler.

Translation additions and improvements

Thanks for translations:

• @bill88t (Greek)
• @boranroni (Turkish)

New boards since 8.0.0-beta.1

• BananaPi BPI-PicoW-S3. #7031. Thanks @BPI-STEAM.
• Espressif ESP32-S2-DevKitC-1-N8R2. #6989. Thanks @kylefmohr.
• VCC-GND Studio YD RP2040. #7039, #6410. Thanks @fabaff, @evildave66, @DerBroader71, and @dhalbert.

Known issues

• See https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/issues for other issues, including issues still to be addressed for:
  • 8.0.0
  • 8.x.x
  • long term

Thanks

Thank you to all who used, tested, and contributed since 8.0.0-beta.1, including the contributors above, and many others on GitHub and Discord. Join us on the Discord chat to collaborate.