Gifts for a Python and Electronics Enthusiast

December 2, 2019 9:04 PM

My son loves Arduino, he loves electronics, but most of all he loves Python 3. He's not a beginner; he writes Python for a living -- and he loves it passionately. You should have seen his face light up when he discovered a shortfall in the 3.8 documentation last night. You kitted him out a few years ago -- what's good now? Tell me about MicroPython kits, "advanced" programming books, what? Thanks for any suggestions!
posted by pH Indicating Socks to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

If his interests as of few years ago haven't changed much, consider getting him a Software-Defined Ratio (SDR) kit. He'll figure out where Python comes in. If he's moved on in his interests, and doesn't have a Raspberry Pi, those are table stakes for a lot of fun stuff. They're very Python-friendly.
posted by dws at 9:42 PM on December 2, 2019

TinyML comes out this month and seems like a great fit. It's not about python per se, but it uses python throughout, and machine learning on embedded devices such as Arduino is a very exciting new field.
posted by caek at 9:55 PM on December 2, 2019

Tickets and travel expenses for a Python conference or Hackathon? (Assuming he's not already going.)
posted by Umami Dearest at 10:42 PM on December 2, 2019 [3 favorites]

Without any more information, I am going to strongly second the Raspberry Pi. It's a great little computer for electronics projects -- like an Arduino, it makes it easy to interface with general purpose input/output pins, but unlike an Arduino, it has an actual OS and you can run moderately complicated code on it.

You got some fantastic suggestions the last time you asked this -- can you say what he used the most from last time, and how his interests have changed? Has he done any recent electronics projects that you can describe?
posted by Metasyntactic at 10:51 PM on December 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

If he enjoys assembling electronics kits, Boldport designed some really beautiful ones; I've found them to be educational and inspiring.
posted by Metasyntactic at 10:54 PM on December 2, 2019

Response by poster: He loved the multimeter, soldering iron and Arduinos from last time, and in fact took them all to work because they were better than what he had there. He thought the Salae was cool but he never used it. He was hired as an R&D electronics test technician, but now does more programming (Python and LabView) than soldering. All of his recent electronics projects have dealt with testing and programming underwater lamps -- his day job. I know he would enjoy something just for fun though, a kit maybe? Maybe a Adafruit PyPortal - CircuitPython Powered Internet Display?

He really is lost in the ineffable beauty of Python 3.8 these days though, more than electronics, so some combination of the two would really win Christmas.
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 11:37 PM on December 2, 2019

Maybe a kit's worth of stuff to build a RaspberryPi-powered "magic mirror"? (It's not a super difficult project but it would require a bit of effort and commitment so think carefully about whether you think he'd be into it..)
posted by Nerd of the North at 11:58 PM on December 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

I am a huge fan of the Teensy line of microcontollers

They are arduino compatible but *much* more full featured that most arduino boards, smaller than many arduinos, and probably even cheaper than most of them. They are really incredible.

I've never done micropython on them, but it's something people do I think.

The new teensy 4.0 is out, it's extremely capable. 600Mhz, a megabyte of RAM storage, 32 bit ARM architecture. I've been using the 3.x ones for a while which are 1/10th of the capability and doing pretty cool stuff with them.
posted by RustyBrooks at 7:22 AM on December 3, 2019

Sign him up for ADABOX? It's fruit of the month club for microcontroller fans. Basically everything you get runs circuit python. You can still get the december one if you order today. The pyportal is super cool by itself. I got one in an ADABOX and was able to quickly set it up to make a sign for my office door that I can text to update to tell my colleagues where I am.
posted by ulotrichous at 8:03 AM on December 3, 2019

The Adafruit Circuit Playground Express is a pretty neat Arduino-alike that supports MicroPython (it just shows up as a USB drive and you drop Python code in there). Lots of sensors and lights built in, and you can easily wire it up with alligator clips.

(Adafruit is definitely the place to go for this stuff. Sparkfun does some too but Adafruit is way more invested in the Python-on-circuits thing.)
posted by neckro23 at 8:10 AM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Adafruit has a whole mess of CircuitPython products now apart from the PyPortal, including some really fun colorful button matrices that can be used as musical instruments or whatever else your kid wants. There are some very Arduino-like things, too, but they're all programmable with Python.
posted by qbject at 8:12 AM on December 3, 2019

I'm getting interested in Home Assistant, which is rapidly becoming the consensus software for DIY management of smart switches, lightbulbs, sensors, cameras, etc. Aaron Parecki had a good post and video on his home setup recently with lots of specific recommendations for stuff to buy to automate your house. Maybe some intro to that? A couple of Zigbee or Z-Wave devices and a USB dongle to talk to them would be a good starting point for some hackery.
posted by Nelson at 9:48 AM on December 3, 2019

dws typed Ratio, but it's actually a radio receiver! So cool!
posted by amtho at 9:58 AM on December 3, 2019

I am a little biased, but my uncle (Simon Monk) has done a lot of books involving python and the raspberry pi, which I have had fun tinkering with.
posted by evilmonk at 10:55 AM on December 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Seconding the MicroPython things, especially the Circuit Playground Express. Note that CircuitPython is Adafruit's fork of MicroPython: it's more focused on supporting Adafruit's newest and blinkiest hardware than on stability or contributing back to the main MicroPython codebase
posted by scruss at 7:03 PM on December 3, 2019