Hello #MakerMonday, it's time for #micropython. I built a giant colorful #legoeducation #RaspberryPi4 robot powered by the official @rpimag Build HAT. The battery pack is hidden under the platform. I am such a genius
!
#maker #programming #STEM #robotics
For those not following #m68kMicroPython development, a lot has been happening rather quickly in the last couple of weeks!
There's enough support for the Toolbox now that I've been able to re-create the #Macstodon splash/loading screen with it - see below.
Big thanks to @stylus for all his hard work developing the port and making this possible!
#RetroComputing #RetroProgramming #VintageMac #Apple #Mac #MacOS #ClassicMac #68k #Python #MicroPython https://oldbytes.space/@smallsco/114889267494614758
I made a new release of m68k-micropython: https://github.com/m68k-micropython/micropython/releases/tag/20250720
This adds the following groups of mac APIs (which I didn't actually test):
#m68kMicroPython happenings: The "struct-types" branch is coming along. There are now autogenerated bindings for the following parts of the API: modmactypes.c
modqd.c
modtoolboxevent.c
modtoolboxutil.c
modwindowmgr.c
there's probably broken stuff but for instance you can now splat directly onto the screen
>>> scrn = qd.qdGlobals().screenBits
>>> n = scrn.bounds.bottom * scrn.rowBytes
>>> for i in range(n): scrn.baseAddr[i] = i
and types are checked:
>>> qd.FillRect(7, "blue")
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: Expected int, got Rect
um well except the error message is backwards 
and in upstream #micropython land my exploration found that there were problems with the uctypes module and "REPR_B", so I'm working on fixing that and ensuring it stays fixed via the CI system: https://github.com/micropython/micropython/pull/17688
right at the moment, the micropython PR is failing for some reason that will probably be more obvious to me once I've had another night to recover from jet lag.
I am a sucker for opto-electronics, so got this discarded kit (ex CNN's London studio?)
Each button has a 36x24 LCD display and red+green LEDS.
Well-designed hardware: ColdFire (=68k) CPU, plenty of RAM, plenty of FLASH, serial port, ethernet etc.
Firmware ? Not so impressive, but very easy to get rid of:
Anybody can flash new firmware from ethernet: No userid, no password, all you need to know is the IP# and how they botched their CRC-16 implementation.
Now it runs #MicroPython :-)
My latest blog post: Metronalmost
https://mikecoats.com/metronalmost/
This metronome, by design, will never, ever, tick exactly once per second. This infuriating object is designed to thwart the goals of @hackaday's One Hertz Challenge contest.
I went ahead and created a github organization for a fresh fork of micropython, and then made a release. You can get a fresh dsk of this micropython mac port from https://github.com/m68k-micropython/micropython/releases and as @smallsco noted it works on infinitemac.org
Doing a little iterative code development in micropython on an emulated m68k mac... I might not be so happy with the loading time if a real floppy was involved, but in an emulator it's heckin' snappy.
Clearly I need to tackle the issue that you can't REALLY draw to the same window as the terminal....
Now you can witness one of the first quickdraw calls from MicroPython on mac... 
I found a nice way to interact with the S0 counting bus of my three energy meters. Every single used GPIO pin gets it's own interrupt for measuring the time in between last 1->0 change. Every 15 seconds a mqtt broadcast is done to report the average consumption. In addition a one hour and 24 hour sum array is filled too. So no need for PIO operations any more.
#Tinkering #Raspberry #PiPico2W #MicroPython
Is there anyone in the room with knowledge about #ESP32 microcontrollers?
I am playing with a #Waveshare development board that has an #AMOLED and a touchscreen, and it says it has built-in #SH8601 display driver and #FT3168 capacitive touch chip, using #QSPI and #I2C communication respectively.
https://www.waveshare.com/product/arduino/boards-kits/esp32-s3-touch-amoled-1.8.htm
It directly works in #Arduino with #C, but I am trying to make it work with #MicroPython.
Before I spend effort trying to compile it with #LVGL, I want to know if I could print a "Hello World" to the screen as is, and while my mind tells me that I need a driver, the sentence "built-in display driver using QSPI" makes me think that I could eventually use the display without code drivers, but I don't know how.
I'd love to see an example, if it's possible, or to be pointed to any resources that I can read in this regard. I am complete newbie.
Re-posts are appreciated.
Thank in advance 
asyncio is working on mac micropython!
also (not shown here) the "sys.stdin" object is pollable, and you can double-click a python file to run it as the main code file.
Are there any folks with vintage Mac programming experience who'd like to collaborate on figuring out what's next with Micropython on Mac?
I think that might be: What's the minimal set of APIs to do a fun graphical demo.
Pointers to "how to"-ish documentation in Pascal and C would be great as well, I have failed at finding this kind of stuff. (I do have Inside Macintosh but it is not a great tutorial)
oh my yay, it now works well enough to save and edit a file, then import and run that file.
you could basically use an old m68k mac as a python3 (well, micropython) development system now.
don't mind the debug messages, they're as scared of you as you are of them.
Whee! Now we can import files from the filesystem, as well as reading and writing files. Still haven't wrapped my head around how folders work, still can't enumerate files ..
as usual, work pushed to my micropython fork on github (which is called circuitpython, because you can't have two different forks of the "same" original project, argh).
yay, successfully wrote & read back file contents with micropython on macos 6. #micropython #retrocomputing #retro68 #macintosh #m68k
Darn, I think all the easy parts of the micropython mac m68k port are done.
unfortunately, vfs_posix doesn't seem to be a good fit. I did manage to create a "file" but couldn't actually write data to it.
And while it was working in system6 I just tried it again with system7 and it's failing to start at all. boo.
https://github.com/jepler/circuitpython/blob/ports-m68kmac/ports/m68kmac/README.md#key-todos
Build updated at https://emergent.unpythonic.net/files/sandbox/micropython.dsk
Almost all of the "full features" support level of micropython are enabled, "mpz" for long integers and "float" for floating point numbers.
Backspace works in the repl. arrow keys don't.
A TODO section in the new README lists key items to work on:
Micropython on m68k mac? why not! It's reached the point of sorta working.
ESP32 Dashboard is a Great Way to Stay Informed - The original ESP32 may be a little long in the tooth by now, but it remains a pote... - https://hackaday.com/2025/06/18/esp32-dashboard-is-a-great-way-to-stay-informed/ #microcontrollers #micropython #epaper #esp32
