Book Image

BBC Micro:bit in Practice

By : Ashwin Pajankar, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Saini
Book Image

BBC Micro:bit in Practice

By: Ashwin Pajankar, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Saini

Overview of this book

This book is a one-stop guide for learning BBC Micro:bit with MicroPython, exploring many hardware components and programming techniques to provide detailed insights into developing practical applications with the Micro:bit. It will also show you how hardware components can be manipulated using a combination of Micro:bit and MicroPython for developing practical projects. BBC Micro:bit in Practice will help you gain a holistic understanding of the BBC Micro:bit platform and MicroPython programming, guiding you through mini projects aimed at developing practical knowledge of circuit design and writing programs. You’ll learn how to write programs for working with built-in LEDs and buttons, interfacing external LEDs, buttons, motors, buzzers, and much more. You’ll also work with built-in radio, speakers, accelerometer, and a compass. You’ll dive into concepts related to the Micro:bit filesystem, interfacing external displays, and working with libraries in detail before exploring sewable circuits and wearable technology. After reading this Micro:bit book, you’ll understand how to apply principles in electronics and MicroPython to create interesting real-life projects from scratch.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Part 1: Getting Started with the BBC Micro:bit
6
Part 2: Programming Hardware with MicroPython
10
Part 3: Filesystems and Programming Analog I/O
13
Part 4: Advanced Hardware Interfacing and Applications

Working with MicroFS

MicroFS is a simple command-line tool to interact from your computer with the filesystem of Micro:bit. It works with the command line interpreter program of your computer’s operating system (MS Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS). We must download it first from https://www.python.org/downloads/ and then install it. While installing, check all the options, as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 8.5 – Installing Python, pip, and IDLE

You also need to check all the options on the next screen of the installation wizard, as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 8.6 – Advanced Options

This will install Python, pip (pip installs Python; it’s a recursive acronym, a technical pun), and Integrated Development and Learning Environment (IDLE). pip is a package manager for Python. It will also add Python and pip to the list of environment variables, enabling us to launch it directly from...