MicroPython Cookbook

Learn how you can control LEDs, make music, and read sensor data using popular microcontrollers such as Adafruit Circuit Playground, ESP8266, and the BBC micro:bit

Key Features

• Load and execute your first program with MicroPython
• Program an IoT device to retrieve weather data using a RESTful API
• Get to grips with integrating hardware, programming, and networking concepts with MicroPython

Book Description

MicroPython is an open source implementation of Python 3 that runs in embedded environments. With MicroPython, you can write clean and simple Python code to control hardware instead of using complex low-level languages like C and C++. This book guides you through all the major applications of the MicroPython platform to build and program projects that use microcontrollers.

The MicroPython book covers recipes that’ll help you experiment with the programming environment and hardware programmed in MicroPython. You’ll find tips and techniques for building a variety of objects and prototypes that can sense and respond to touch, sound, position, heat, and light. This book will take you through the uses of MicroPython with a variety of popular input devices and sensors. You’ll learn techniques for handling time delays and sensor readings, and apply advanced coding techniques to create complex projects. As you advance, you’ll get to deal with Internet of Things (IoT) devices and integration with other online web services. Furthermore, you'll also use MicroPython to make music with bananas and create portable multiplayer video games that incorporate sound and light animations into the game play.

By the end of the book, you'll have mastered tips and tricks to troubleshoot your development problems and push your MicroPython project to the next level!

What you will learn

• Execute code without any need for compiling or uploading using REPL (read-evaluate-print-loop)
• Program and control LED matrix and NeoPixel drivers to display patterns and colors
• Build projects that make use of light, temperature, and touch sensors
• Configure devices to create Wi-Fi access points and use network modules to scan and connect to existing networks
• Use Pulse Width Modulation to control DC motors and servos
• Build an IoT device to display live weather data from the Internet at the touch of a button

Who this book is for

If you want to build and program projects that use microcontrollers, this book will offer you dozens of recipes to guide you through all the major applications of the MicroPython platform. Although no knowledge of MicroPython or microcontrollers is expected, a general understanding of Python is necessary to get started with this book.

Table of Contents

1. Getting started with MicroPython
2. Controlling LEDs
3. Creating sound and music
4. Interacting with buttons
5. Reading sensor data
6. Button Bash Game
7. Fruity Tunes
8. Let’s move it move it
9. Coding on the micro:bit
10. Controlling the ESP8266
11. Interacting with the Filesystem
12. Networking
13. Interacting with the Adafruit FeatherWing OLED
14. Building an IoT Weather Machine
15. Coding on the Adafruit HalloWing

Marwan Alsabbagh has been coding in some form or other since before the web existed and has continued to develop software, with a particular passion for Python, his preferred programming language, for over a decade. He has been a speaker at a number of global Python conferences, where he has been known to present microcontroller projects with a healthy dose of humor and stage theatrics. The snow globe intruder alert system, which he created with his creative and curious daughters, was one of his favorite MicroPython projects. His research interests include software engineering, microcontrollers, and 3D printing.