The Bootloader

By Paul Cutler and Tod Kurt

A monthly podcast loading you up with news, project updates and product talk from the CircuitPython and maker communities. Hosted by Tod Kurt and Paul Cutler.

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· Technology

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FAQs about The Bootloader:

How many episodes does The Bootloader have?

The podcast currently has 31 episodes available.

The Bootloader episodes:

February 02, 2026Kick Out the Jams
In this episode, Tod and Paul discuss hacking Flock cameras, the Adafruit Fruit Jam, Neural Networks in CircuitPython, some bad 3D printing legislation, and more.
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We have stickers! Request a free sticker here. (US Only, sorry!)
00:00 Intro
00:17 Flock Camera Hacking
This Flock Camera Leak is like Netflix For Stalkers
We Hacked Flock Safety Cameras in under 30 Seconds. 🫥
Breaking the Creepy AI in Police Cameras
EFF on Flock
5:46 Naya Connect
Naya Connect modular keyboard
ZDNet coverage
Kickstarter
8:58 ESP32 supports 5GHz Wireless
https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2026/01/16/xiao-esp32-c5-5ghz-dual-band-wifi6/
https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/xiao_esp32c5_getting_started/
https://openelab.io/blogs/seeed-studio/a-deep-dive-into-seeed-studio-xiao-esp32-s3-c6-and-c5
13:19 The Adafruit Fruit Jam
Adafruit Fruit Jam Hardware
Fruit Jam OS
Fruit Jam OS includes a number of apps and games, including Breakout, an IRC client, Minesweeper, PyPaint, and more.
Retrojam
Fruitris, a Tetris clone by Cooper Dalrymple
Pac-Wio
Zork and the Z Machine by Dan Cogliano
Paul’s interview with Dan on The CircuitPython Show
Moon Miner Learn Guide
Fruit Jam Mac emulator
Apple II emulator
Intel 286 emulator
18:04 Neural Networks in CircuitPython
Bringing TensorFlow & PyTorch Models to CircuitPython
TensorFlow Lite for EdgeBadge
2022 github gist I wrote for someone describing CirPy native modules
outdated Adafruit guide on CircuitPython native modules
21:17 Washington State’s proposed 3D printer laws
Adafruit blog post
HB 2320
HB 2321
Contact form for Rep. Osman Salahuddin
23:55 Wrap-up
StandWithMinnesota.com
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
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25min
January 05, 2026Games Without Frontiers
Paul has mic issues and Tod has a cold, but they’re here to discuss building your own Steam Machine, learning to sew, circuits and synths, and more.
Want a free sticker? Order one here (US only).
Show Notes
Show Notes
0:00 Intro
00:20 Build your own Steam Machine
Building my own Steam Machine with Bazzite
Reddit Guide to turn your Steam Machine into a console
Interview with Jorge Castro about Bazzite and more
4:56 Learning to sew
Learn To Sew - Sewing 101
The Surprising Genius of Sewing Machines
9:06 CAD Round-up
BREP.io, browser based CAD
BREP.io project page
GitHub repository
Microcad
Codeberg repo
CadQuest
Reddit announcement
11:03 Learn analog electronics by building synths
“This drum sequencer breaks all the rules“
Moritz Klein’s “For Beginners” playlist
Moritz Klein’s DIY Drum Series“ playlist
Moritz Klein’s Youtube channel
Erica Synths DIY kits
14:57 The Indie Beat Radio and Television
Remembering RadioFreeFedi
The Indie Beat Radio
Ways to watch The Indie Beat Television
Bandwagon.fm
The Indie Beat - Fediverse Radio - GNOME Shell Extensions and GitHub repository
Follow The Indie Beat Television on Mastodon: @[email protected]
17:51 act
act
video demo
github hosted runners
22:40 Wrap-up
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
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24min
December 01, 2025Don't call it a comeback
Show Notes
In this episode, Tod and Paul discuss the recent Hackaday Supercon, including a talk and a workshop, Microsoft open sources Zork, the return of 80s style computer magazines, and more.
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We have stickers! Request a sticker here.
00:23 Supercon Recap
Supercon 2025
YouTube playlist
2:10 Tod’s favorite Supercon talks
3:57 Arduino Uno Q Workshop (Tod #1)
Jeff Geerling’s video review
Using arduino-app-cli on Uno Q by Shawn Hymel
Uno Q user manual
Radxa X4 SBD w/ RP2040 MCU
13:21 Covert Regional Communication with Meshtastic (Paul #1)
Covert Regional Communication with Meshtastic by Daryll Strauss
17:18 Supercon 2025 Badge
Supercon 2025 Badge
Solder Party Keebdeck
20:07 Ultrawideband (Tod #2)
Makerfabs ESP32 UWB
Getting started with ESP32 UWB
Build UWB Position system w/ ESP32 & Qorvo DWM3000
24:30 Microsoft open sources Zork 1 - 3 (Paul #2)
Microsoft announcement
Andrew Blotkin’s blog: Zork is now open source
GitHub repository with source code
Z-Machine for CircuitPython Guide
27:18 How to buld a dev board (Tod #3)
Let’s Design an RP2040 Devboard! by Kai
project github repo
Hackaday discussion
30:03 DocType magazine (Paul #3)
DocType magazine
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
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34min
November 03, 2025Super Smooth - with Liz Clark
Liz Clark joins the show for a second time. Liz, Paul, and Tod each share two things they found interesting including remoting in to a Raspberry Pi, code as PCB design, an open source ereader, and more.
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Show Notes
00:00 Welcome
00:20 Stickers!
Request a sticker
00:31 Welcome Liz Clark
00:53 Raspberry Pi Connect
Raspberry Pi Connect Documentation
Raspberry Pi Connect
4:24 The Open Book Touch
8:39 Atopile
atopile homepage
atopile package repo
Vibe-coding a PCB
KiCad schematic design blocks
16:32 Midi Baby Gen 4
18:44 GameTank
GameTank.zone
CrowdSupply campaign
GitHub repository
Emulator
Discord Server
21:49 Tiles from Bergsonne Labs
About Tiles
Tile Reference Sets
Tile library
25:32 Wrap-up
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
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26min
October 06, 2025 I Feel the Need for Speed
Paul and Tod discuss speeding up a Raspberry Pi, parts management with Inventree, product reviews, synths, and more.
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Show Notes
00:00 Intro
00:23 Make Your Raspberry Pi Faster
5:13 Inventree
7:59 Framework 12 Laptop
15:18 Channels
19:26 Mutable Instruments ported to the Pico
23:38 3D Printable and Dissolvable Circuit Boards
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
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27min
August 22, 2025CircuitPython Day 2025
This episode is a replay of The Bootloader’s live CircuitPython Day 2025 show from August 15th, 2025 hosted on Adafruit’s YouTube channel. The episode has been lightly edited.
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00:00 Intro
00:26 Welcome
1:02 Thank you Anne Barela
Subscribe to the Python on Hardware newsletter
1:46 CircuitPython Fonts
CircuitPython fonts repository with circup instructions
CircuitPython BDF & PCF font Learn Guide
CircuitPython font code shown
6:57 CircuitPython v2 extension for VS Code
CircuitPython VS Code extension v1 by Joe Devivo
CircuitPython v2 for VS Code by Will Merkens
CircuitPython v2 for VS Code source code
11:40 Fruit Jam USB Host MIDI Tester
Fruit Jam USB Host MIDI Tester
Fruit Jam Portable MIDI Synth
Fruit Jam USB Gamepad Demo
15:52 Fruitris
Cooper Dalrymple’s homepage
Fruitris on Adafruit Playground
Fruitris GitHub repository
Fruitris blog post
Fruitris demo on Show & Tell
Cooper on The CircuitPython Show May 5th, 2025
19:37 CircuitPython Workflows
https://docs.circuitpython.org/en/latest/docs/workflows.html
https://code.circuitpython.org/
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
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25min
August 04, 2025Drop the beat - with guest John Park
In this episode, Tod and Paul welcome John Park to the show. They discuss a floppy disk MIDI boombox, live-coding music, RP2350 as a mini-computer, and more.
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Show Notes
00:00 Intro
Joséphine Wolf Oberholtzer, creator and maintainer of Supriya
00:54 Floppy Disk Midi Boomboxes (John #1)
Vintage:
Roland MT-80S
Roland MT-300S
Yamaha MDP-10
DIY:
MIDI Blaster by Luke.the.maker and build instructions and pre-built
MT-420 by Jonas Bengtson
9:04 AlgoRave (Tod #1)
DJ_Dave:
Instagram reels:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DL0P-2WusOO/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DIKC6D6SpQM/
TikTok
YouTube livestreams
Strudel
Originally mentioned in Bootloader Episode 2 back in Oct 2022
Awesome livecoding list
14:00 The RP2350 Mini-Computers are here
Adafruit Fruit Jam
Olimex RP2350pc
18:39 CyberBricks
24:28 KiCad cli and diff viewer
kicad-cli
Tod’s visual diff shell script
28:56 Commodore 64 Ultimate
31:48 Wrap-up
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
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33min
July 07, 2025The rant and the love letter
Tod and Paul discuss a MIDI chip, an epic rant, a love letter, and more.
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00:00 Welcome
00:17 SAM2695 General MIDI chip
Seeed XIAO MIDI
M5stack w/ speaker
M5stack w/ MIDI in/out
DIYElectroMusic articles
SAM2695 datahsheet
Tod demo on Adafruit Show-n-Tell
3:51 Supercollider and Supriya
Supercollider synth engine
Supriya Python API
Supriya subreddit
5:47 The STM32 rant
12:18 A love letter to embedded engineering
Prof. V. Hunter Adams’ November 2023 lecture, “Why I love building things with microcontrollers.”
16:10 Alternate music keyboard layouts
20:09 Spintronics
22:47 Wrap-up
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
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23min
June 02, 2025 Rated PG for Language
Paul and Tod discuss tariffs, desoldering tricks, a classic arcade game, and more.
Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky. Follow Paul on Mastodon or Bluesky. Follow Tod on Mastodon or Bluesky.
For detailed show notes and transcripts, visit TheBootloader.net
Show Notes
00:00 Welcome
00:17 Tarriffs are Bullshit
6:00 Desoldering Tricks
10:21 Philips Fixables
12:45 Resurrecting Sinistar
15:36 Kiwix
17:56 Euroknob
21:40 Wrap-up
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
...more
22min
May 05, 2025I'm Afraid it's TRMNL
Welcome to a new episode! Tod and Paul chat about woodworking, MP3 players, a CircuitPython synthio tutorial, and more.
Follow the show on Mastodon or Bluesky.
00:00 Intro
00:12 Hyperwood
2:34 Synology NAS devices
7:27 TRMNL WiFi ePaper display
11:29 Rockbox 4.0
Paul incorrectly stated 2022 as the year of the first Rockbox release. It’s 2002 and we regret the error.
13:02 CircuitPython synthio tutorial
16:05 mobygratis
18:13 Wrap-up
Enjoying the show? You can now sponsor the show, learn more at www.circuitpythonshow.com. Thank you for your support!
...more
19min

FAQs about The Bootloader:

How many episodes does The Bootloader have?

The podcast currently has 31 episodes available.

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