My robot based on a micro:bit and a MiniBit.
- Get a micro:bit: https://microbit.org.
- Get a MiniBit: https://4tronix.co.uk/blog/?p=2068.
- Get a type A male to micro type B male USB cable.
- Get 3 AA Alkaline batteries. The micro:bit cannot power the MiniBit's wheels or LEDs.
- Pair the micro:bit with your computer via Bluetooth:
- Hold down the A, B, and reset buttons simultaneously.
- Release the reset button but still hold the A and B buttons.
- The LED matrix should fill and you should see the Bluetooth logo.
- Go into your computer's Bluetooth settings and pair your computer with your micro:bit.
- In a MakeCode editor (https://makecode.microbit.org/):
- Copy-paste the content of this repository's
main.ts/. - In settings, turn on "No Pairing Required: Anyone can connect via Bluetooth".
- Flash the
.hexfile.
If you want to be able to control the robot from your phone, get the app microbitBLE by ayama: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microbitble/id1635024315. It's one of the few apps that I was consistently able to connect to my micro:bit with.
- Follow https://support.microbit.org/support/solutions/articles/19000105428-webusb-troubleshooting for your platform if there is no disk drive called MICROBIT showing up when you connect the micro:bit to your computer via USB.
- If you're getting error code 504 (timeout), just keep trying and reconnecting the micro:bit to your computer.
- Update the micro:bit's firmware: https://microbit.org/get-started/user-guide/firmware/.
Nope, this time in this project I'm saving myself from all this headache and just doing it the easy way and having fun by doing it like everyone else: Microsoft MakeCode with blocks, JavaScript/TypeScript, or Python (TypeScript for this project).
The micro:bit runtime (https://lancaster-university.github.io/microbit-docs/) similarly comes with its own difficulties.