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In love with the BBC micro:bit

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Re: In love with the BBC micro:bit

#41

Post by pjmlp »

ntoll wrote: post #39

Yay... great to see MicroPython on the micro:bit getting some love. In case you're interested, here are the docs for MicroPython on the board -- you can do a remarkable amount on such a small device: https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ (Caveat - I was involved in the MicroPython side of things. So good to see the other dev environments represented in the comments here.) Hurrah! :-)

Thanks to MicroPython adoption rate, I see it as the BASIC of IoT. :)

Nice work.

Re: In love with the BBC micro:bit

#42

Post by LeoPanthera »

ntoll wrote: post #39

Yay... great to see MicroPython on the micro:bit getting some love. In case you're interested, here are the docs for MicroPython on the board -- you can do a remarkable amount on such a small device: https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ (Caveat - I was involved in the MicroPython side of things. So good to see the other dev environments represented in the comments here.) Hurrah! :-)

I wonder whether it would be possible to make MicroPython functional on an original 1980s BBC Micro, which has a 6502 and a whole 32K of RAM. The "beeb" stores interpreters on pluggable 32K ROMs.

Re: In love with the BBC micro:bit

#43

Post by tyingq »

primitivesuave wrote: post #23

My organization is working with the BBC Microbit Foundation to make these devices more popular in the US education system. I find the Microbit to be far less intimidating than the Arduino, since the IDE is entirely web based and students can copy a program onto it just as they would copy a file onto an external USB drive. One feature that kills it in the classroom is the Microbit's built-in 5 x 5 LED matrix, which me…

I agree...that little 5x5 matrix provides a way to introduce real concepts in a way that is still fun.

Easy ways to demonstrate bitwise ops, double buffering, 2d arrays, ring buffers, pwm, etc.

Re: In love with the BBC micro:bit

#45

Post by jacquesm »

mietek wrote: post #5

16 KB of memory? The “64” in “Commodore 64”, the name of a computer introduced in 1982, stands for 64 KB of memory. (A 128 KB version followed 3 years later.) It is now 35 years since 1982…

In 1982, when I bought my BBC micro it was 2000 guilders + another 1650 for the disk drives and yet another 1000 or so for a solidisk RAM expansion. Back then that was about half the price of a small brand new car. I had to save like Scrooge in order to be able to afford that machine and the first year was spent mostly waiting for my cassettes to load or save because once I bought the machine I could not afford the drives.

Compare that to the price of this beauty and you see what 35 years of progress can bring you.

Re: In love with the BBC micro:bit

#46

Post by Sanddancer »

mietek wrote: post #5

16 KB of memory? The “64” in “Commodore 64”, the name of a computer introduced in 1982, stands for 64 KB of memory. (A 128 KB version followed 3 years later.) It is now 35 years since 1982…

The Commodore 64 was also $595 when it was introduced, which, adjusted for inflation, is about $1500. The microbit, on the other hand, is about $20. The microbit also has 256k of flash memory -- in comparison, the 170k 1541 floppy drive cost $400, or $1000 in today's dollars. One also needs to keep in mind that programs can run directly from that flash memory, so that 16k is only really a limitation if you're using python, which won't run on the c64. Furthermore, the microbit has features, like bluetooth and a pair of sensors for movement, that you could only dream of when the c64 was introduced. So yes, the c64 had more volatile ram. The microbit has more of pretty much everything else.

Re: In love with the BBC micro:bit

#47

Post by darpa_escapee »

mietek wrote: post #5

16 KB of memory? The “64” in “Commodore 64”, the name of a computer introduced in 1982, stands for 64 KB of memory. (A 128 KB version followed 3 years later.) It is now 35 years since 1982…

16KB is plenty for most tasks handled by a low power microcontroller.

Re: In love with the BBC micro:bit

#49

Post by chrismartin »

askvictor wrote: post #35
zitterbewegung wrote: post #3

I helped test the microbit and I wrote a small program for pedagogical purposes. The hardware was very neat and I liked the leds on the back. Originally there was going to be a coin cell battery but they removed it because children might eat it. Also there is a Bluetooth radio on the microbit but the runtime was 12k and there wasn't enough space to load micropython and Bluetooth at the same time . A link to the examp…

There is a radio module for Micropython that allows devices to communicate with each other without the full Bluetooth stack

...and you can use it to build multiplayer games!

https://github.com/c-mart/microbit/blob/master/space_shoot_m...

Re: In love with the BBC micro:bit

#50

Post by askvictor »

toyg wrote: post #44
askvictor wrote: post #37

Having trialled these at my school, I think they have the potential to be the new turtle. I only hope that the botched rollout in the UK hasn't damaged the project's reputation to much.

Botched...?

The delay in shipping meant they didn't arrive until well into the school semester, meaning teachers didn't get sufficient time to play and incorporate them into the curriculum. I have also heard that due to insufficient teacher training (and play time) that a lot of them are sitting unused. Certainly some teachers are doing awesome things, and the resources and community building behind the project are great, but the realities of teaching on the ground have meant that a lot of the potential is unrealised. I say this based on hearsay and second hand information; I'm not in the UK so don't have any direct knowledge.
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