PyPortal New New New Product Viewer

2019-05-28 | By Adafruit Industries

License: See Original Project Circuit Playground

Courtesy of Adafruit

Guide by John Park

Overview

Keep an eye on the latest New New New stuff from Adafruit on your PyPortal display!

This image viewer project for PyPortal uses CircuitPython and the ESP32 WiFi co-processor to grab the latest images, names, and short URLs of the New New New-est products from Adafruit so you always know about the latest, coolest stuff available in the store.

Parts

• AdaBox011 - PyPortal - Discontinued
• Adafruit PyPortal - CircuitPython Powered Internet Display
• Adafruit PyPortal Desktop Stand Enclosure Kit
• Pink and Purple Braided USB A to Micro B Cable - 2 meter long

Install CircuitPython

CircuitPython is a derivative of MicroPython designed to simplify experimentation and education on low-cost microcontrollers. It makes it easier than ever to get prototyping by requiring no upfront desktop software downloads. Simply copy and edit files on the CIRCUITPY "flash" drive to iterate.

The following instructions will show you how to install CircuitPython. If you've already installed CircuitPython but are looking to update it or reinstall it, the same steps work for that as well!

Set up CircuitPython Quick Start!

Follow this quick step-by-step for super-fast Python power :)

Latest version of CircuitPython for PyPortal

Click the link above to download the latest version of CircuitPython for the PyPortal.

Download and save it to your desktop (or wherever is handy).

Plug your PyPortal into your computer using a known-good USB cable.

A lot of people end up using charge-only USB cables and it is very frustrating! So make sure you have a USB cable you know is good for data sync.

Double-click the Reset button on the top in the middle (magenta arrow) on your board, and you will see the NeoPixel RGB LED (green arrow) turn green. If it turns red, check the USB cable, try another USB port, etc. Note: The little red LED next to the USB connector will pulse red. That's ok!

If double-clicking doesn't work the first time, try again. Sometimes it can take a few tries to get the rhythm right!

You will see a new disk drive appear called PORTALBOOT.

Drag the adafruit-circuitpython-pyportal-<whatever>.uf2 file to PORTALBOOT.

The LED will flash. Then, the PORTALBOOT drive will disappear and a new disk drive called CIRCUITPY will appear.

If you haven't added any code to your board, the only file that will be present is boot_out.txt. This is absolutely normal! It's time for you to add your code.py and get started!

That's it, you're done! :)

PyPortal Default Files

Click below to download a zip of the files that shipped on the PyPortal.

PyPortal Default Files

PyPortal CircuitPython Setup

To use all the amazing features of your PyPortal with CircuitPython, you must first install a number of libraries. This page covers that process.

Adafruit CircuitPython Bundle

Download the Adafruit CircuitPython Library Bundle. You can find the latest release here:

Latest Adafruit CircuitPython Library Bundle

Download the adafruit-circuitpython-bundle-4.x-mpy-*.zip bundle zip file, and unzip a folder of the same name. Inside you'll find a lib folder. You have two options:

• You can add the lib folder to your CIRCUITPY drive. This will ensure you have all the drivers. But it will take a bunch of space on the 8 MB disk
• Add each library as you need it, this will reduce the space usage but you'll need to put in a little more effort.

At a minimum we recommend the following libraries, in fact we more than recommend. They're basically required. So grab them and install them into CIRCUITPY/lib now!

• adafruit_esp32spi - This is the library that gives you internet access via the ESP32 using (you guessed it!) SPI transport. You need this for anything Internet.
• adafruit_pyportal - This is our friendly wrapper library that does a lot of our projects, displays graphics and text, fetches data from the internet. Nearly all of our projects depend on it!
• adafruit_touchscreen - a library for reading touches from the resistive touchscreen. Handles all the analog noodling,rotation and calibration for you.
• adafruit_imageload - an image display helper, required for any graphics!
• adafruit_display_text - not surprisingly, it displays text on the screen
• adafruit_bitmap_font - we have fancy font support, and its easy to make new fonts. This library reads and parses font files.
• adafruit_slideshow - for making image slideshows - handy for quick display of graphics and sound
• neopixel - for controlling the onboard neopixel
• adafruit_adt7410 - library to read the temperature from the on-board Analog Devices ADT7410 precision temperature sensor
• adafruit_sdcard - support for reading/writing data from the onboard SD card slot.
• adafruit_bus_device - low level support for I2C/SPI

Internet Connect!

Once you have CircuitPython setup and libraries installed we can get your project connected to the Internet. Note that access to enterprise level secured WiFi networks is not currently supported, only WiFi networks that require SSID and password.

To get connected, you will need to start by creating a secrets file.

What's a secrets file?

We expect people to share tons of projects as they build CircuitPython WiFi widgets. What we want to avoid is people accidentally sharing their passwords or secret tokens and API keys. So, we designed all our examples to use a secrets.py file, that is in your CIRCUITPY drive, to hold secret/private/custom data. That way you can share your main project without worrying about accidentally sharing private stuff.

Your secrets.py file should look like this:

Download: file

# This file is where you keep secret settings, passwords, and tokens!
# If you put them in the code you risk committing that info or sharing it

secrets = {
    'ssid' : 'home ssid',
    'password' : 'my password',
    'timezone' : "America/New_York", # http://worldtimeapi.org/timezones
    'github_token' : 'fawfj23rakjnfawiefa',
    'hackaday_token' : 'h4xx0rs3kret',
    }

Inside is a python dictionary named secrets with a line for each entry. Each entry has an entry name (say 'ssid') and then a colon to separate it from the entry key 'home ssid' and finally a comma ,

At a minimum you'll need the ssid and password for your local WiFi setup. As you make projects you may need more tokens and keys, just add them one line at a time. See for example, other tokens such as one for accessing github or the hackaday API. Other non-secret data like your timezone can also go here, just cause its called secrets doesn't mean you can't have general customization data in there!

For the correct time zone string, look at http://worldtimeapi.org/timezones and remember that if your city is not listed, look for a city in the same time zone, for example Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Miami are all on the same time as New York.

Of course, don't share your secrets.py - keep that out of GitHub, Discord or other project-sharing sites.

Connect to WiFi

OK now you have your secrets setup - you can connect to the Internet. Lets use the ESP32SPI library - you'll need to visit the CircuitPython bundle and install:

• adafruit_bus_device
• adafruit_esp32spi
• neopixel

Into your lib folder. Once that's done, load up the following example using Mu or your favorite editor:

Download: Project Zip or esp32spi_simpletest.py | View on Github

import board
import busio
from digitalio import DigitalInOut

from adafruit_esp32spi import adafruit_esp32spi
import adafruit_esp32spi.adafruit_esp32spi_requests as requests

print("ESP32 SPI webclient test")

TEXT_URL = "http://wifitest.adafruit.com/testwifi/index.html"
JSON_URL = "http://api.coindesk.com/v1/bpi/currentprice/USD.json"


# If you are using a board with pre-defined ESP32 Pins:
esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_CS)
esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_BUSY)
esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_RESET)

# If you have an externally connected ESP32:
# esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D9)
# esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D10)
# esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D5)

spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK, board.MOSI, board.MISO)
esp = adafruit_esp32spi.ESP_SPIcontrol(spi, esp32_cs, esp32_ready, esp32_reset)

requests.set_interface(esp)

if esp.status == adafruit_esp32spi.WL_IDLE_STATUS:
    print("ESP32 found and in idle mode")
print("Firmware vers.", esp.firmware_version)
print("MAC addr:", [hex(i) for i in esp.MAC_address])

for ap in esp.scan_networks():
    print("\t%s\t\tRSSI: %d" % (str(ap['ssid'], 'utf-8'), ap['rssi']))

print("Connecting to AP...")
while not esp.is_connected:
    try:
        esp.connect_AP(b'MY_SSID_NAME', b'MY_SSID_PASSWORD')
    except RuntimeError as e:
        print("could not connect to AP, retrying: ",e)
        continue
print("Connected to", str(esp.ssid, 'utf-8'), "\tRSSI:", esp.rssi)
print("My IP address is", esp.pretty_ip(esp.ip_address))
print("IP lookup adafruit.com: %s" % esp.pretty_ip(esp.get_host_by_name("adafruit.com")))
print("Ping google.com: %d ms" % esp.ping("google.com"))

#esp._debug = True
print("Fetching text from", TEXT_URL)
r = requests.get(TEXT_URL)
print('-'*40)
print(r.text)
print('-'*40)
r.close()

print()
print("Fetching json from", JSON_URL)
r = requests.get(JSON_URL)
print('-'*40)
print(r.json())
print('-'*40)
r.close()

print("Done!")

And save it to your board, with the name code.py.

This first connection example doesn't use a secrets file - you'll hand-enter your SSID/password to verify connectivity first!

Then go down to this line

esp.connect_AP(b'MY_SSID_NAME', b'MY_SSID_PASSWORD')

and change MY_SSID_NAME and MY_SSID_PASSWORD to your access point name and password, keeping them within the '' quotes. (This example doesn't use the secrets' file, but its also very stand-alone so if other things seem to not work you can always re-load this. You should get something like the following:

In order, the example code...

Initializes the ESP32 over SPI using the SPI port and 3 control pins:

Download: file

esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_CS)
esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_BUSY)
esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_RESET)

spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK, board.MOSI, board.MISO)
esp = adafruit_esp32spi.ESP_SPIcontrol(spi, esp32_cs, esp32_ready, esp32_reset)

Tells our requests mimic library the name of the WiFi interface object (this is a little bit of a hack but lets us use requests like CPython does)

Download: file

requests.set_interface(esp)

Verifies an ESP32 is found, checks the firmware and MAC address

Download: file

if esp.status == adafruit_esp32spi.WL_IDLE_STATUS:
    print("ESP32 found and in idle mode")
print("Firmware vers.", esp.firmware_version)
print("MAC addr:", [hex(i) for i in esp.MAC_address])

Performs a scan of all access points it can see and prints out the name and signal strength:

Download: file

for ap in esp.scan_networks():
    print("\t%s\t\tRSSI: %d" % (str(ap['ssid'], 'utf-8'), ap['rssi']))

Connects to the AP we've defined here, then prints out the local IP address, attempts to do a domain name lookup and ping google.com to check network connectivity (note sometimes the ping fails or takes a while, this isn't a big deal)

Download: file

    print("Connecting to AP...")
esp.connect_AP(b'MY_SSID_NAME', b'MY_SSID_PASSWORD')
print("Connected to", str(esp.ssid, 'utf-8'), "\tRSSI:", esp.rssi)
print("My IP address is", esp.pretty_ip(esp.ip_address))
print("IP lookup adafruit.com: %s" % esp.pretty_ip(esp.get_host_by_name("adafruit.com")))
print("Ping google.com: %d ms" % esp.ping("google.com"))
  

OK now we're getting to the really interesting part. With a SAMD51 or other large-RAM (well, over 32 KB) device, we can do a lot of neat tricks. Like for example, we can implement an interface a lot like requests - which makes getting data really really easy.

To read in all the text from a web URL call requests.get - you can pass in https URLs for SSL connectivity

Download: file

TEXT_URL = "http://wifitest.adafruit.com/testwifi/index.html"
print("Fetching text from", TEXT_URL)
r = requests.get(TEXT_URL)
print('-'*40)
print(r.text)
print('-'*40)
r.close()

Or, if the data is in structured JSON, you can get the json pre-parsed into a Python dictionary that can be easily queried or traversed. (Again, only for nRF52840, M4 and other high-RAM boards)

Download: file

JSON_URL = "http://api.coindesk.com/v1/bpi/currentprice/USD.json"
print("Fetching json from", JSON_URL)
r = requests.get(JSON_URL)
print('-'*40)
print(r.json())
print('-'*40)
r.close()

WiFi Manager

That simpletest example works but its a little finicky - you need to constantly check WiFi status and have many loops to manage connections and disconnections. For more advanced uses, we recommend using the WiFiManager object. It will wrap the connection/status/requests loop for you - reconnecting if WiFi drops, resetting the ESP32 if it gets into a bad state, etc.

Here's a more advanced example that shows the WiFi manager and also how to POST data with some extra headers:

Download: Project Zip or esp32spi_aio_post.py | View on Github

import time
import board
import busio
from digitalio import DigitalInOut
import neopixel
from adafruit_esp32spi import adafruit_esp32spi
from adafruit_esp32spi import adafruit_esp32spi_wifimanager

print("ESP32 SPI webclient test")

# Get wifi details and more from a secrets.py file
try:
    from secrets import secrets
except ImportError:
    print("WiFi secrets are kept in secrets.py, please add them there!")
    raise

# If you are using a board with pre-defined ESP32 Pins:
esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_CS)
esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_BUSY)
esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.ESP_RESET)

# If you have an externally connected ESP32:
# esp32_cs = DigitalInOut(board.D9)
# esp32_ready = DigitalInOut(board.D10)
# esp32_reset = DigitalInOut(board.D5)

spi = busio.SPI(board.SCK, board.MOSI, board.MISO)
esp = adafruit_esp32spi.ESP_SPIcontrol(spi, esp32_cs, esp32_ready, esp32_reset)
"""Use below for Most Boards"""
status_light = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.NEOPIXEL, 1, brightness=0.2) # Uncomment for Most Boards
"""Uncomment below for ItsyBitsy M4"""
#status_light = dotstar.DotStar(board.APA102_SCK, board.APA102_MOSI, 1, brightness=0.2)
wifi = adafruit_esp32spi_wifimanager.ESPSPI_WiFiManager(esp, secrets, status_light)

counter = 0

while True:
    try:
        print("Posting data...", end='')
        data = counter
        feed = 'test'
        payload = {'value':data}
        response = wifi.post(
            "https://io.adafruit.com/api/v2/"+secrets['aio_username']+"/feeds/"+feed+"/data",
            json=payload,
            headers={"X-AIO-KEY":secrets['aio_key']})
        print(response.json())
        response.close()
        counter = counter + 1
        print("OK")
    except (ValueError, RuntimeError) as e:
        print("Failed to get data, retrying\n", e)
        wifi.reset()
        continue
    response = None
    time.sleep(15)

You'll note here we use a secrets.py file to manage our SSID info. The wifimanager is given the ESP32 object, secrets and a neopixel for status indication.

Note, you'll need to add a some additional information to your secrets file so that the code can query the Adafruit IO API:

• aio_username
• aio_key

You can go to your adafruit.io View AIO Key link to get those two values and add them to the secrets file, which will now look something like this:

Download: file

# This file is where you keep secret settings, passwords, and tokens!
# If you put them in the code you risk committing that info or sharing it

secrets = {
    'ssid' : '_your_ssid_',
    'password' : '_your_wifi_password_',
    'timezone' : "America/Los_Angeles", # http://worldtimeapi.org/timezones
    'aio_username' : '_your_aio_username_',
    'aio_key' : '_your_aio_key_',
    }

Next, set up an Adafruit IO feed named test

• If you do not know how to set up a feed, follow this page and come back when you've set up a feed named test.

We can then have a simple loop for posting data to Adafruit IO without having to deal with connecting or initializing the hardware!

Take a look at your test feed on Adafruit.io and you'll see the value increase each time the CircuitPython board posts data to it!

Code the New New New Viewer in CircuitPython

Adafruit Product API

As with most IoT projects on the PyPortal, we are able to do our dynamic data and image gathering through the wonderful magic of a REST Application Programming Interface (API) request, that returns a JSON file.

The Adafruit Products API makes it easy for us to request essential info about a product, including its name, product URL, and product image.

Adafruit IO Image Converter Server

In order to use the Adafruit image converter, this project will require you to have an Adafruit IO username and key. Adafruit IO is absolutely free to use, but you'll need to log in with your Adafruit account to use it. If you don't already have an Adafruit login, create one here.

If you haven't used Adafruit IO before, check out this guide for more info.

Once you have logged into your account, there are two pieces of information you'll need to place in your secrets.py file: Adafruit IO username, and Adafruit IO key. Head to io.adafruit.com and simply click the View AIO Key link on the left hand side of the Adafruit IO page to get this information.

Then, add them to the secrets.py file like this:

Download: file

secrets = {
	'ssid' : 'your_wifi_ssid',
	'password : 'your_wifi_password',
	'aio_username' : 'your_aio_username',
	'aio_key' : 'your_big_huge_super_long_aio_key'
}

At this point make sure your WiFi SSID and password are also in secrets.py. You only have to do this once when you set it up. If you move the PyPortal to a different WiFi served location, use a text editor to enter the new values in this file.

Add CircuitPython Code and Assets

In the embedded code element below, click on the Download: Project Zip link, and save the .zip archive file to your computer.

Then, uncompress the .zip file, it will unpack to a folder named PyPortal_NewNewNew.

Copy the contents of the PyPortal_NewNewNew directory to your PyPortal's CIRCUITPY drive, and then be sure to rename the newnewnew.py file to code.py so it will automatically run when the PyPortal restarts.

Editing the Code

You can edit the code.py file with any text editor you like. Adafruit suggests installing the free Mu Python editor as it's super handy, recognizes Adafruit boards, and has a built in serial monitor/REPL to interact with the board. Find out more about Mu here.

boot.py

We're using a special file to ensure the .bmp cache writes to the flash properly. This is the unsafe_boot.py file you copied to the drive. Rename it to boot.py now. Then, press the reset button on the PyPortal.

Note that you'll see this scary looking text appear during restart, don't worry, it's supposed to say that!

**************** WARNING ******************

Using the filesystem as a write-able cache!This is risky behavior, backup your files!

**************** WARNING ******************

This is what the final contents of the CIRCUITPY drive will look like:

Download: Project Zip or newnewnew.py | View on Github

import time
import board
import adafruit_pyportal

# We can cycle through the latest featured products
#PRODUCTS_TYPE = "featured"
#or we can view the latest new products
PRODUCTS_TYPE = "new"

# Set up where we'll be fetching data from
DATA_SOURCE = "https://www.adafruit.com/api/products?format=micro&"+PRODUCTS_TYPE+"=1&random=1"
# What data we'll be viewing
IMAGE_LOCATION = [0, "image"]
NAME_LOCATION = [0, "name"]
URL_LOCATION = [0, "url"]

# determine the current working directory needed so we know where to find files
cwd = ("/"+__file__).rsplit('/', 1)[0]
pyportal = adafruit_pyportal.PyPortal(url=DATA_SOURCE,
                                      json_path=(NAME_LOCATION, URL_LOCATION),
                                      status_neopixel=board.NEOPIXEL,
                                      default_bg=cwd+"/new_background.bmp",
                                      text_font=cwd+"/fonts/Arial-Bold-12.bdf",
                                      text_position=((5, 35), (5, 225)),
                                      text_color=(0xFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFF),
                                      text_wrap=(35, 35), # characters to wrap
                                      image_json_path=IMAGE_LOCATION,
                                      image_resize=(320, 240),
                                      image_position=(0, 0))
pyportal.preload_font()

while True:
    response = None
    try:
        response = pyportal.fetch()
        print("Response is", response)
    except (IndexError, RuntimeError, ValueError) as e:
        print("Some error occured, retrying! -", e)

    time.sleep(60)

How It Works

The New New New Product Viewer works like this: first, when it starts up it connects to your Wifi access point as specified (and authenticated) in the secrets.py file.

Background Splash Screen

Next, it displays the new_background.bmp image file splash screen. This is a 320x240 pixel RGB 16-bit raster graphic in .bmp format.

JSON

In order to retrieve images, we'll be making a query to the Adafruit products API.

When you make a request of the server, you'll get a JSON file returned as the response.

In fact, you can run the same query as the PyPortal does to see the result. Copy and paste this link https://www.adafruit.com/api/products?format=micro&NEW=1&random=1 into your browser.

When you enter this in your web browser, you'll see a result returned like this (the product returned is randomized, so you will probably see a different one than this):

Download: file

[
  {
    "id": 3315,
    "name": "TFT FeatherWing - 2.4\" 320x240 Touchscreen For All Feathers",
    "description": "A Feather board without ambition is a Feather board without FeatherWings! Spice up your Feather project with a beautiful 2.4\" touchscreen display shield with built in microSD card socket. This TFT display is 2.4\" diagonal with a bright 4 white-LED backlight. You get  240x320 pixels with individual 16-bit color pixel control. It has way more resolution than a black and white 128x64 display. As a bonus, this display comes with a resistive touchscreen attached to it already, so you can detect f...",
    "url": "http://adafru.it/3315",
    "image": "https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/640x480/3315-03.jpg"
  }
]

That result is a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) array. It is comprised of a single element with five key:value pairs. For example, there is one key called name which has a value of "TFT FeatherWing - 2.4\" 320x240 Touchscreen For All Feathers"

which is expressed this way:

"name":""TFT FeatherWing - 2.4\" 320x240 Touchscreen For All Feathers""

Since this JSON object array has a consistent way to return the results to us, the code we're running on the PyPortal can easily parse the data and display it!

The image key leads to this value: "https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/640x480/3315-03.jpg"

Here's the image at that url:

We also get the url key, which is the short URL that will be displayed at the bottom of the screen, in this case, "http://adafru.it/3315"

You can see how it's done in this part of code.py:

Download: file

DATA_SOURCE = "https://www.adafruit.com/api/products?format=micro&"+PRODUCTS_TYPE+"=1&random=1"
# What data we'll be viewing
IMAGE_LOCATION = [0, "image"]
NAME_LOCATION = [0, "name"]
URL_LOCATION = [0, "url"]

Then, in the pyportal query we ask for the image name from that URL to get the path to the .jpeg image file, as well as the name and url values.

Download: file

pyportal = adafruit_pyportal.PyPortal(url=DATA_SOURCE,
                                      json_path=(NAME_LOCATION, URL_LOCATION),
                                      status_neopixel=board.NEOPIXEL,
                                      default_bg=cwd+"/new_background.bmp",
                                      text_font=cwd+"/fonts/Arial-Bold-12.bdf",
                                      text_position=((5, 35), (5, 225)),
                                      text_color=(0xFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFF),
                                      text_wrap=(35, 35), # characters to wrap
                                      image_json_path=IMAGE_LOCATION,
                                      image_resize=(320, 240),
                                      image_position=(0, 0))

With all of this prepared, during the main loop of while True: the code will query the page for the JSON data.

When it gets the path of the .jpeg file, the pyportal library passes it along to an Adafruit IO image converter server where the file is converted into the format the PyPortal can display, a 320x240 pixel RGB 16-bit .bmp.

This image is then cached onto the PyPortal's storage and displayed on the PyPortal TFT screen.

Then, the text for both the name and url values are drawn on top of the image background, using the specified font, color, and position in the PyPortal constructor.

Note, we're also specifying the text_wrap amount so that lines of text won't get cut off.

This updates every minute, so your New New New stays New New New!

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