The BBC micro:bit:
The BBC micro:bit is a powerful handheld, fully programmable, computer designed by the BBC and a number of partners. It was designed to encourage children to get actively involved in technical activities, like coding and electronics. It features a 5×5 LED Matrix, two integrated push buttons, a compass, Accelerometer, and Bluetooth. These features make it a great introduction to the world of programmable components and the wider internet of things.
Write your code using one of the easy to use editors provided on the micro:bit Foundation website. Then, connect your BBC micro:bit to your computer via USB and press the compile button in the editor. Finally, drop the downloaded file directly onto your BBC microbit and run your program. There are also Apps for Android and iOS devices for coding and for control over Bluetooth, such as our free Move Android App.
Wirelessly connect and interact with the world around you. Use Bluetooth to connect to mobile phones and tablets, take a selfie or drive the music in your playlists. You can also code the microbit to interact with other micro:bit’s using the radio blocks in the Microsoft MakeCode Editor. All of this in a device only 5cm wide!
We have seven different BBC microbit buying options available to order. Everything from single boards to Classroom packs, and to a BBC micro:bit bundled with a Kitronik Inventors Kit. To help you get the most from your microbit we have produced an extensive list of learning resources. You can find these resources on our BBC micro:bit – Kitronik University. You can also find lots of great project resources on microbit website.
Official & Branded micro:bit Products:
Kitronik is an official micro:bit channel partner, and as such we get to work closely with the micro:bit Educational Foundation to help children, at home and around the world, to achieve their digital learning potential. Kitronik has been a staunch champion of the micro:bit since the beginning and we are set to continue well into the future.
As a Partner, we are given access to a small number of official lines to stock. These are the only products that are fully endorsed by the micro:bit Educational Foundation, and you can get them right here at Kitronik. You can also find a number of our in house designed micro:bit products listed on the Foundation website.
BBC microbit In The Classroom:
The microbit has always been for education, and the classroom is it’s natural habitat. It was always imagined that the micro:bit would grow much farther past the million given away by the BBC. It was designed to be used by schools to prepare children for the world that they would inherit. A world filled with machinery, artificially intelligent systems, and billions of connected devices, smart and otherwise. The microbit was designed as an answer to the question; ‘how do you get young people ready for all of that?’
As great as the micro:bit is, it was always going to need help to meet the needs of an ever changing educational landscape. It would need resources, things to connect to, and assets to assist Teachers as they prepare children take on the world. As one of the original 29 BBC partners, Kitronik has been there every step of the way. We’ve created 100’s of free guides and resources, loads of devices and accessories, and self contained educational kits, as well as detailed lesson plans and schemes of work for teachers. Examples of some of these can be found in the list below.
- :GAME ZIP 64 for microbit Lesson Plans.
- :MOVE mini for microbit Lesson Plans By .
- Free Lesson Plans For ZIP Halo for microbit.
- Teachers Lesson Plans For STOP:bit For microbit.
- Free Teachers Lesson Plan For LAMP:bit For microbit.
- Teachers Lesson Plans For ACCESS:bit For microbit.
Who knows educational requirements better than Teachers? That’s simple, no one! That’s why we’ve also worked with award winning Teachers to devise complete lesson plans that can be taken straight to the classroom. Written by Teachers and road tested in real classrooms with real students. We have kits and resources designed specifically to help Teachers deliver the Curriculum, across a range of challenging subjects. From Science to Design, we’ve put together lesson materials that can be taken straight to the classroom.
All of these things ensure that the micro:bit can scale up from primary and all the way through to the end of secondary education. You can create simple programs to display an emoji, more complex physical computing systems, and everything in between. It can be used for teaching electronics, code, science, design and technology and more.
Light It Up:
Most consumer electronics heavily rely on LEDs, as LEDs are a great way of providing instant visual feedback for the user. As useful as adding LEDs to projects can be, adding strings of individually addressable LEDs that can be controlled by a single serial bus is infinitely more so. With traditional LEDs, if you want to alter what they do, you usually have to redesign the entire circuit. With our ZIP LEDs it can be done with a quick code edit.
Kitronik ZIP LEDs are individually addressable RGB LEDs. The name is a nod to the ZIP postal codes used in the US. Each LED can be controlled independently and all LEDs are connected using the same three wire bus. Each LED can produce a full spectrum of colours, independently of other LEDs on the same bus. Our ZIP LED range contains; Arcs, sticks, circles, and of course the ZIP Halo.
ZIP LEDs are based on the WS2812B part. They are often referred to as NeoPixels (which is an Adafruit trademark) and are compatible with Adafruit NeoPixel and other WS2812B driver code. They can be coded for the microbit in both MakeCode Blocks and Python.
Robotics:
The onboard sensors, programmability, and connectivity options (Direct, Bluetooth, and Radio) of the microbit make it ideal for your Robotics projects. There are several other viable options but the microbit, and the coding editors that support it have a much shallower learning curve than any other option. This all puts robotics projects easily within reach of the novice.
The microbit can be used to control everything from servos and motors to sensors and lighting, and much more besides. Create robot arms, buggies, and all sorts of automated robotic systems. The code them to be fully autonomous or to be controlled remotely via Bluetooth/Radio. We have recently developed a number of robotics applications for the microbit and we have much more still in development. We also have a new robotics category that contains all of our micro:bit robotics products and also a growing list of supplementary lines. You will find everything from wheels to motor/servo control boards and buggy chassis kits.
As we developed more robotics products that could be controlled remotely, having an in-house made Bluetooth App made sense. Thanks to the diversity of design and development talents we have at Kitronik we were able to do just that. It offers a standard D-Pad style interface, making it a perfect way of controlling your microbit-powered robots and buggies over Bluetooth. Learn more here.
Gaming With It:
Almost the instant the first home computers became available to buy, the gaming industry also sprang into being. Computers and games have gone hand in hand ever since. If it can run code, process input, and display the result you can bet that someone has written a game to play on it. So, it’s no surprise that the same is true for the BBC microbit.
At Kitronik we’re also partial to some gaming, especially when we have to code them first! Since the micro:bit was released, we’ve been coding games and designing and sourcing products to make gaming more enjoyable. More recently, we have designed a handheld gaming platform for the micro:bit that is loaded with cool features, including an onboard 8 x 8 LED display.
At Kitronik we don’t just enjoy developing the products, we also enjoy designing and building cool and functional enclosures for them too. Whenever we do, we almost always turn them into learning resources and include our designs as free downloads. The same is true for our :GAME ZIP 64 handheld gaming console. We’ve spent quite a few enjoyable hours designing, making, and playing with a number of different designs. Some of which we’ll produce learning resources for.
If you want to get more involved in the making aspect of producing a gaming solution for the micro:bit, we have plenty of options to choose from. We’re always on the lookout for new additions to our range to help you realise your own designs.
Connect It:
The main I/O rings can be used as outputs to control LEDs, motors and much more. Also, as inputs to connect external sensors and switches. The main rings are large enough that young people can easily connect to them with crocodile clips.
With our Inventors Kit, you will learn how to build circuits to perform useful functions. You will also learn how to code the microbit to control and process input from those circuits. When we released the Inventors Kit it shipped with 10 great practical experiments included that introduce you key electronics and coding concepts. Since release, we’ve created two new experiments and created online resources that contain videos and code examples.
Whilst the main five rings enable you to connect the microbit to external devices and components using crocodile clips, accessing the rest of the pins requires something a little more precise than a clip. An edge connector breakout board allows you to conveniently access every pin on the BBC micro:bit. Just slot the microbit into place and you can use either M/F or M/M jumper wires to connect the breakout board to your circuit/breadboard.
Although the microbit has been designed with connectivity in mind, the amount of current that can be drawn from it is quite limited. In order to connect the microbit to things like motors, a motor driver board is required. This will allow you to drive two motors with full forward and backwards control. Additions such as Motor Driver Boards and Servo Driver Boards expand the possibilities of the microbit’s connectivity, paving the way to such things as Robotics.
Wearing IT:
As the micro:bit measures less than 5cm x 5cm it lends itself perfectly to any application where discretion is key. E-textiles is one such application where a small microcontroller can allow you create more imaginative wearable electronics. Plus, with the microbit, you also have the 5 x 5 LED matrix and its buttons that you can incorporate into your designs.
We stock an extensive range of sewable electronics and conductive threads. This includes many components exclusive to Kitronik that we have released under our own Electro-Fashion brand. These can allow you to bring your clothing and accessories to life with much more than just LEDs. We also have the E-Textiles Kit for the BBC microbit which contains all the components you need to get started immediately with e-textiles.
Users can code the microbit to fully interact with sewed circuits. You can easily create code that processes changes in light, sound, movement or temperature. You can then convert that to an action within your circuit and/or the microbit LED matrix.
Out And About With It:
The small size of the microbit lends itself to mobile projects that are away from the classroom/workshop. Once you leave the safety of indoors, powering and protecting the microbit become important considerations.
We stock a number of products specifically designed for your mobile projects. The MI:power board for the BBC micro:bit fits directly to the BBC micro:bit and provides power via a coin cell battery and sound via a piezoelectric buzzer. All this fits onto a board the same size as the microbit.
Whenever you leave the classroom/workshop with the microbit the risk of damage increases significantly. No matter what the project, we have a case option to keep your microbit safe and sound. The MI:pro protector case allows access to the microbit buttons and edge connector and the 2xAAA Battery Cage can be fixed to the rear of the case. There is also a mountable version, the MI:power case, that allows you to fix the microbit to your project. We also have a case that will protect a microbit that is powered by a MI:power board for the BBC micro:bit.
Third Party:
The micro:bit is now a few years old and the list of projects and products that are available for it is continually growing. We are far from the only ones working to produce new and exciting products and projects for the micro:bit. The micro:bit has spread across the world and as such, new things are popping up daily.
We like to check out as many of these new things as we can and sometimes we like things so much that we want to stock them too. Our aim is to make Kitronik a one-stop shop for all things microbit, and with a little help from our friends, we are getting closer and closer.
