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

BBC Micro:bit versus Raspberry Pi

Most of us have at least heard of, if not worked with, Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi is a family of single-board computers and microcontrollers developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation (https://www.raspberrypi.com/). It was founded and headed by Eben Upton. The most recent single-board computer in the Raspberry Pi family, at the time of writing of this book (July 2022), is Raspberry PI 4 Model B and the latest microcontroller board is Raspberry Pi Pico W.

Raspberry PI 4 Model B is a full-fledged computer capable of running operating systems (OSes) such as Windows IoT, various Linux flavors, and FreeBSD. Raspberry Pi Pico W is a low-cost microcontroller board that can be programmed with similar tools that we use to program BBC Micro:bit. Since BBC Micro:bit is not a full-fledged computer like Raspberry Pi 4B, it makes very little sense to compare it with Raspberry Pi 4B and other single-board computers. However, the comparison between BBC Micro:bit...