How cool is this: for the last few years Adafruit asks their community to share their individual goals for the CircuitPython community on the internet. From blogs posts to Twitter to YouTube videos (and more!), community members are encouraged to share their thoughts on what they want to build, features, or around the ecosystem.

I’m still fairly new to the community and my goals are much more modest than some of the others, such as the core developers. But I’ve found the community to be so welcoming and patient I thought I’d share a few thoughts.

So here goes.

A look back at 2021

2021 was the year I got into microcontrollers, CircuitPython, and hardware in general. After having bought a Circuit Playground Express in 2020 and it just sitting in a drawer, I went got into it in a big way in 2021. I purchased a rp2040 Feather, MatrixPortal M4, and an AdaBox subscription, starting with the rp2040 MacroPad. More importantly, I used them!

I learned to solder and bought a 3D printer, which makes playing with microcontrollers even more fun.

I built my MacroPad and started the MacroPad Awesome List - because MacroPads are cool. I love seeing what macros the community has come up with and then borrowing those ideas for my own MacroPad. I also created macros for my CAD program of choice, OnShape. (I’d rather learn and use FreeCad, but I really need a color blind mode).

I tackled my biggest project to date with the Sound Reactive NeoPixels Speaker Stand. This was pretty challenging and I wasted dozens of hours trying to port some sound reactive code from a digital microphone to an analog mic before breaking down and buying a digital microphone, which I just should have done in the first place! I’m very proud of the project and it so cool to look at.

2022 Goals

I have two major goals for 2022 centered around hardware and community.

Hardware

I want to finish my Album Art project. I love that I combine my love of the physical (my record collection) with software (CircuitPython, FastAPI), and hardware (LED matrices with a MatrixPortal). I’ve made significant progress in 2022 already and the next step is integrating MQTT into the project. This is a great way to continue building on my novice Python skills as I learn FastAPI for the website that powers this (and asyncio!) as well as CircuitPython.

I’m looking forward to whatever AdaBox brings. This was my Christmas gift from my partner and I’m excited to see whatever ships next and I’m going to commit to building it right away.

Community

The Adafruit community is wonderful, especially the Discord channel. They’re welcoming to everyone and I get most of my (dumb) questions answered. I want to stay engaged and help out others where I can, if possible.

I have a goal of going on Show & Tell again once my Album Art project is done.

Lastly, reading through some of the other folks posting their 2022 thoughts, I want to reach out to Jeff Epler who shared that there might be room for further improvement to _”* Continue to help people grow into the roles of reviewer and contributor*_. Maybe I can put my former experience in writing both documentation and articles for GNOME to use.

That’s it! A lot to look forward to in 2022. I think it’s so cool that Adafruit invites community members to share their goals for the year.