Replace the single beat-dot row with a full pad grid: each lane is a row of step
pads coloured by dynamics (mute/normal/accent/ghost), with the playhead lit as it
plays (per-lane, so polymeter shows). Header (title/BPM/RUN/item) is compacted above
it; transport stays below. Pads are vectorio rects sharing one 8-colour palette and
recolour in place via color_index (cheap, tear-free); the grid only rebuilds on track
change. Caps at MAXLANES=5 rows (extra lanes still play). Verified by rendering the whole
displayio scene graph headless (layout + playhead lighting correct).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
From on-board feedback (memory + colours now good):
- LED: drive the WS2812 via the core neopixel_write module (no neopixel library to
install) — a tiny RGB class. Self-contained: it works straight from the bundle.
- Tearing: switch displayio to auto_refresh=False and push a complete frame only when
the scene changed (dirty flag, capped at the panel's refresh rate) so updates are
never shown mid-paint. Beat dots now recolour in place (vectorio color_index) instead
of being rebuilt every beat, shrinking the dirty region.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
On hardware the app rendered, beeped and took input, then died with MemoryError at
the text Bitmap alloc — the two ~37KB base64 font strings stayed pinned in RAM. Move
the fonts to small binary files read at boot (font_m.bin / font_l.bin), drop the
base64 + binascii, and gc.collect() before each text bitmap. code.py 56KB -> 20KB and
RAM use drops ~37KB+. Also: cyan rendered as yellow (R/B swapped) -> MADCTL 0x40 -> 0x48.
Bundle + README updated to include the font blobs. (LED still needs the neopixel lib.)
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
New pico-cp/ — a CircuitPython port of the PM_K-1 firmware so the Pico mounts as a
CIRCUITPY drive carrying its code + tracks (the MicroPython pico/main.py stays the
simple fallback):
- pico-cp/code.py: displayio BusDisplay driving ST7796 via a custom init_sequence;
smooth anti-aliased text via displayio Bitmap+Palette (reuses the baked font blobs);
vectorio rects for dots/buttons; DIY GT911 touch (16-bit regs, edge-detected);
pwmio buzzer, analogio joystick, digitalio buttons, optional neopixel RGB; the
polymeter engine on a time.monotonic_ns scheduler. Reads /programs.json (falls back
to baked defaults); CircuitPython auto-reloads on file change.
- pico-cp/programs.json: the 23 default grooves. pico-cp/README.md: flash + calibrate.
- build.sh/deploy.sh: bundle + serve /pm_k1_circuitpy.zip. info-kit.html: experimental
'CircuitPython edition — USB drive' section.
Verified in CPython (stubbed displayio): init sequence well-formed, parser handles the
grooves incl. (3,8) euclid + @-4 gain, and code.py's actual make_text renders identical
smooth AA text. Hardware bits (panel/touch/MIDI) await on-board testing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>