Alsabbagh - MicroPython cookbook: over 110 practical recipes for programming embedded systems and microcontrollers with Python

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First published: May 2019

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ISBN 978-1-83864-995-1

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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.

Arunkumar NT is 43 years of age, has completed his M.Sc. (Phy) and MBA (Finance), and is currently pursuing his CMA and CS qualifications. He has over 20 years' corporate experience and 2 years' experience of teaching MBA students. He is an entrepreneur and has previously worked for Airtel, Citi Finance, and ICICI Bank. He has also worked on the Python for Finance book.

Bhaumik Vaidya is an experienced computer vision engineer and mentor. He has worked extensively on OpenCV and the TensorFlow library to solve computer vision problems. He is a University gold medalist at the master's level, and is now doing his PhD on the acceleration of computer vision algorithms built using OpenCV and deep learning libraries, such as TensorFlow and Keras, on GPUs. He, along with his PhD mentor, has also received an NVIDIA Jetson TX1, which is an embedded development platform, as a research grant from NVIDIA. He has previously worked in the VLSI domain as an ASIC verification engineer. He has published numerous research papers in reputable journals, has filed two provisional patents, and has written one book on computer vision and GPU programming.

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MicroPython is a lean implementation of the Python 3 programming language that is capable of running on a wide range of microcontrollers. It provides the majority of features in the Python programming language, such as functions, classes, lists, dictionaries, strings, reading and writing files, list comprehensions, and exception handling to these microcontrollers.

Microcontrollers are tiny computers that usually include a CPU, memory, and input/output peripherals. Even though they will have more limited resources compared to a PC, they can be made to a much smaller dimension, with less power consumption and at a lower cost. These strengths make it possible to use them in a wide range of new applications that werent possible before.

This book will cover a number of different features in the MicroPython language, as well as a number of different microcontroller boards. The initial chapters will provide simple and easy to understand recipes to get these boards to interact with people and their environment. Topics ranging from reading temperature, light, and motion data from sensors to interacting with push buttons, slide switches, and touchpads will also be covered. Producing output on these boards with audio playback and LED animations will also be covered in the early chapters. Once this foundation is in place, we will build more involved projects, such as interactive two-player games, electronic musical instruments, and an