vscode-circuitpython V2 README

This extension aspires to bring your entire CircuitPython workflow into a single place in VSCode.

Inspired by Scott Hanselman's blog post and the VSCode Arduino extension.

I have forked the original extension in order to apply fixes

Note: If updating and opening an existing CIRCUITPY folder, please re-select the board from the list. Please let me know if a board needs to be included. The metadata.json file contains 550 boards, 8 of which have yet to be released or have unknown manufacturers.

Getting Started

The extension will currently activate when any of the following occurs:

• workspace contains
  • /code.py
  • /code.txt
  • /main.py
  • /main.txt
  • /boot_out.txt
• command run
  • circuitpython.openSerialMonitor
  • circuitpython.selectSerialPort
  • circuitpython.closeSerialMonitor

Upon activation, the extension will check for the latest Adafruit_CircuitPython_Bundle and download it if needed. It'll then load that library metadata into the workspace's state. You can also trigger this manually with CircuitPython: Check for latest bundle.

After that, you should be ready to use the following features.

Features

Library Management

v0.0.2 introduced a Circup inspired library manager with an emphasis on VSCode integration. It downloads new bundles automatically.

You can use it with the following commands:

• CircuitPython: Show Available Libraries This is every library in the Adafruit Bundle. Alphabetical but installed libraries are grouped at the top. Click an out-of-date library to update, click an uninstalled library to install it.
• CircuitPython: List Project Libraries Lists what's in your project's lib. If anything needs to be updated, click it to update.
• CircuitPython: Reload Project Libraries In case it's reporting incorrectly. This can happen if you modify the filesystem outside of vscode.
• CircuitPython: Update All Libraries The equivalent of circup update --all
• CircuitPython: Check for the latest bundle. Compares the bundle on disk to the latest github release, downloads the release if it's newer.

Serial Console

Circuit Python: Open Serial Console will prompt you for a serial port to connect to, and then it will display the serial output from the board attached to that port. The port can be changed by clicking on its path in the status bar.

Hit Ctrl-C and any key to enter the Circuit Python REPL, and Ctrl-D to reload.

Note: There are Linux permissions issues with the serial console, but if you're on Linux, you're probably used to that.

It will also change your workspace's default board.pyi file for autocomplete to the one that matches the USB Vendor ID & Product ID.

If you want to choose a different board manually, a list is available with the command CircuitPython: Choose CircuitPython Board, and also by clicking on the board name in the status bar.

NOTE FOR WINDOWS USERS: I have seen trouble with the serial console displaying anything at all. If that happens, try launching VSCode as an administrator and see if it works. I have even gotten it to work as a non-administrator after this, so perhaps running it as an admin stole the serial port from whatever was using it, and then whatever it was didn't grab it again.

Auto Complete

Automatically adds stubs for your specific board, the circuitpython standard library and all py source files in the adafruit bundle to your completion path.

Demo

Requirements

Extension Settings

Board Settings

Board-specific settings can be stored in a project's .vscode/settings.json file, which will default to this board. This is great for when opening up the CIRCUITPY drive as a vscode workspace will be automatically set whenever you choose a board.

You can also use this for projects you're working from on disk with the intent of running on a specific board.

You can also set these at a user level, although that's not the primary intent. If you do this, it will get overridden at the workspace level if you ever touch the choose board dropdown or open a serial monitor.

I would have restricted the scope to workspace if that was an option.

circuitpython.board.vid: Vendor ID for the project's board circuitpython.board.pid: Product ID for the project's board circuitpython.board.version: Persisted in choosing the correct mpy binaries

Known Issues

Library Manager has a issue with unpacking the bundle, this affects the two commands

Update All Librearies and Show Available Libraries

Use circup at the CLI to do library updates.

Release Notes

See the Changelog