Project History

This project began shortly after I started working with CircuitPython in March 2025.
I wanted to integrate support for various TerrainTronics  Castle “shields” attached to an ESP32 S2 Mini , which I already supported in my (still unreleased) C++ effects firmware.

Getting the TerrainTronics hardware working under CircuitPython - at level to a level similar to most CircuitPython support - was fairly straightforward. However it quickly became apparent that while - as expected - Python made some things much easier than C++, there were still challenges. Nothing a developer with serious async & real-time(ish) experience can’t handle, but that still leaves a daunting task even for many “professional” developers, and effectively disqualifies non-programmers altogether.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle is that most interesting effects have significant temporal aspects - things change over time. Conceptually, this is something most people can understand quite intuitively, but to break it down into code in a programming language can be surprisingly challenging. ¹ Programming reactive systems which support complex temporal behaviors isn’t a common task, and it isn’t easy.

There are techniques such as event-driven and async/promise/future frameworks, but those aren’t exactly beginner friendly. The LCPF seeks to use an alternate approach which - hopefully - will avoid these issues and let just about anyone use complex effects.