MICRO:BIT TOYS

Toy #1: Music Box

This toy uses the accelerometer embedd in the micro:bit to produce different notes based on how it is moved. In addition, LED arrows light up on the screen when it is tilted. Each of the buttons plays a musical melody.

Link to code

Toy #2: Love letters

For this toy, I experimented with the radio functions. With Priyanka’s help, I programmed the micro:bit to send a “message” from mine to hers. First we sent a duck icon back and forth (because of the lighting it’s hard to make out the actual icon, but I promise it’s a duck). The code I used is pretty simple. I also added a sound when you send the message to the other person.

Link to code

Then I changed the icon to be a heart and we tested out the range of the radio waves. I got all the way from one end of the floor to the other and it still was transitting the heart back and forth. I found that when I stepped behind a wall, it stopped working. I think this could be a great educational tool for showing how radio waves send, and what kinds of materials hinder those waves being accessed. Here’s us testing it:

Toy #3: Spinning Target

For this toy I used the red cup and popsicle sticks. I was able to start the motor just by connecting it to power, but I didn’t have any way to control the movement without getting some more components. I was able to build this toy without any code, just power from my laptop. I made a little rig for the motor to sit in and hot glued popsicle sticks on top, and then glued the cup on top of the popsicle sticks, so it spun in a circle once it was connected to power & ground. The goal of the game is to throw the popsicle sticks into the cup.