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Jaycar
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Microbit Playground

Microbit Playground

Difficulty
Young Makers

Summary

Play around with the basics of Microbit

Materials Required

1Micro:Bit Go Development Board BundleXC4320
110 Piece Jumper Lead Set - Alligator Clip to PinWC6032
1Standard Jumper Test Lead KitWC6010
1Solderless Breadboard with Power and I/O Breakout BoardPB8819
1Arduino Compatible 9G Micro Servo MotorYM2758
1Mini Communications SpeakerAS3185
110k Ohm Logarithmic (A) Single Gang 16mm PotentiometerRP7610

The online microbit python editor is our editor of choice. Go to https://python.microbit.org/v/1.1 to open up the editor then copy and paste the python code from this project's resources.

You should be able to download the hex file and copy that onto your microbit drive. For any changes you do to the code you will have to download the hex file and copy it over again.

Game 1 is a type of getting game where you must keep in beat of the music; While playing between each beat of music, we'll point left and right to signify the A and B buttons; then when there is a break in the music, the player must then press the button that was supposed to be played.

We start with some melodies, stored in a list of lists:

tunes = [    ["C4:4", 'C', 'D', 'D', 'E', 'E', 'x', 'G', 'G', 'E', 'E', 'A', 'A', 'x'],    ["C4:4", "D", "E", "C", "C", "D", "E", 'x', "C", "E", "F", "G:8", "E:4", "F", 'x', "G:8"],    ["C2:2"] + [letter for letter in "ABCDExFGFEDCBABxCDEFxGFEDCxBA"]]

Connect the speaker between pin 0 and ground using some aligator clips.

def game1():    # Guess the tone    lives = 3    for level, tune in enumerate(tunes):        for pos, tone in enumerate(tune):            if pos % 2 == 0:                display.show(Image.ARROW_W)            else:                display.show(Image.ARROW_E)            if tone != 'x':                music.play([tone])            else:                correctGuess = game1Guess(level, pos)                if correctGuess:                    music.play(music.POWER_UP)                    display.show(Image.HAPPY)                else:                    lives -= 1                    music.play(music.POWER_DOWN)                    display.show(Image.SAD)                sleep(1000)            if lives == 0:                gameOver = True                return    # success! onwards to game 2    game2()

Now to use a potentiometer, you can use pin1.read_analog() to read a value from the potentiometer.

Connect the center pin of the potentimeter to pin 1, the left pin to 3v, and the right pin to ground.

In this game, you are trying to find the point via sound; keep turning the potentiometer and if the sound gets faster, you're on the right track.

def game2():    lives = 3    for level in range(5):        point = random.randint(0, 1023)        reading = 0        timing = time.ticks_ms()        while reading != point:            reading = pin1.read_analog()            difference = abs(point - reading)            # play tone indicating; faster tone => closer            music.pitch(440, difference)            # if time is too large; then we lose a life.            if time.ticks_diff(time.ticks_ms(), timing) > ((5-level) * 1000):                lives -= 1                music.play(music.POWER_DOWN)                display.show(Image.SAD)                sleep(1000)                break        if lives == 0:            gameOver = True            return    game3()

Now we will use the accelometer and Servo for the next game; connect the Servo to pin 2.

Here we will read the on-board accelometer values then show that effect on the servo; The aim is to get the servo to 90 degrees for 3 seconds.

There's actually no game-over in this game.

def game3():    # Balance the skateboard    #      ship = Servo(pin2)  # what pin is the servo on?    timer = time.ticks_ms()    while True:        point = random.randint(1023)        value = accelerometer.get_x()        difference = point - value        if difference > 20:            display.show("R")        elif difference < -20:            display.show("L")        else:            display.show("-")        ship.write_angle(90 + (difference/1023)*90)        if difference < 20:            #must hold it for more than 3 seconds            if time.ticks_ms() - timer > 3000:                #success! return                return        else:            timer = time.ticks_ms()

Future Improvements

Further reading

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