SimpleSi Posted July 7, 2015 Posted July 7, 2015 They "launched" it again today with what is said to be the final design/spec BBC Micro Bit computer's final design revealed - BBC News Coming to all you big boys and girls in September whether you want it or not Simon
IrritableTech Posted July 8, 2015 Posted July 8, 2015 Is it as easy as that - is a box literally going to turn up at reception in October? No need for schools to apply or account for how many they require? I'm still waiting for my codebugs to turn up. :-/
southhamster Posted July 8, 2015 Posted July 8, 2015 Hopefully will be used more than Mr. Gove's bibles....
MMPS Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 Does anyone know if these will be made available for schools to purchase? We're a primary school and I'm looking at Codebug or crumble controllers for our coding club (and maybe some upper ks2 lessons) I think the built in sensors and microbit website based on TouchDevelop would make these a better option.
IrritableTech Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 Does anyone know if these will be made available for schools to purchase? We're a primary school and I'm looking at Codebug or crumble controllers for our coding club (and maybe some upper ks2 lessons) I think the built in sensors and microbit website based on TouchDevelop would make these a better option. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4hVG2Br1W1LKCmw8nSm9WnQ/introducing-the-bbc-micro-bit At the very bottom of this BBC article it says the hardware will be open sourced and they will create a not-for-profit company, so signs are good. If manufacturers feel there is an big enough interest in the product, I'm sure they'll be selling them commercially. You can buy Arduino Nano clones from Chinese manufacturers for about £1.30 delivered - Given a few months I bet we'll see micro-bit clones available for little money.
SimpleSi Posted July 14, 2015 Author Posted July 14, 2015 (edited) I think the built in sensors and microbit website based on TouchDevelop would make these a better option. Crumble is my goto controller board of choice for primaries. It has been around for over 6 months and it fully works and you can actually buy them (as opposed to Codebug - KS early backers only and microbit ????) Also, the GUI is very Scratch like so minimal learning curve for teachers (and I'm developing an interface to Scratch itself) So if you want to be rolling in september it either it or Arduino (i want to get a CodeBug/Crumble connector type shield made for Arduinos so that they can be used with all the available Crumble add-ons) Simon Edited July 14, 2015 by SimpleSi
Sheridan Posted November 19, 2015 Posted November 19, 2015 Anyone planning on using these microbits in school? The only issue I have is that we need to change our security policies to allow full access to usb storage - thanks for that bbc!
ITGuyNW Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 Got the teacher packs today. Easy to work with. Just compile on their website and drag the hex file to the microbit via usb.
Trojan Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 Teacher pack also arrived here today - had a brief play, made the rock paper scissors game from the book - very simple. Looks like it could be easy to work with, we'll see what the teachers make of them.
Valyyn Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 Our teacher pack arrived today too (with three inside, plus three usb connectors). I can't get the PINS 0 1 or 2 to work though - every tutorial I've seen (and tried!) on line with them all use a battery pack... do they not work with just a USB for power, does anyone know? Has anyone got their Pins working?
psycho98 Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 Our teacher pack arrived today too (with three inside, plus three usb connectors). I can't get the PINS 0 1 or 2 to work though - every tutorial I've seen (and tried!) on line with them all use a battery pack... do they not work with just a USB for power, does anyone know? Has anyone got their Pins working? does anybody know where we can get the battery packs and pins from as i only got the micro bits and usb cables in box today
ITGuyNW Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 does anybody know where we can get the battery packs and pins from as i only got the micro bits and usb cables in box today Being sent out soon
psycho98 Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 thanks for letting me know, making it into a clock will have to wait
Valyyn Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 Beat me to it - our CS teacher just got an email from them that says: A battery pack for each micro:bit will be delivered in the next few weeks, which allows the devices to be used untethered from a computer and you will need to supply two AAA batteries to power the micro:bit untethered.
mattpant Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 Our teacher pack arrived today too (with three inside, plus three usb connectors). I can't get the PINS 0 1 or 2 to work though - every tutorial I've seen (and tried!) on line with them all use a battery pack... do they not work with just a USB for power, does anyone know? Has anyone got their Pins working? I think - From sitting on the MicroBit Workshop at Bett - for the pins to work you also have to connect to ground - so if you set something to activate on Pin 1 - Touch Pin1 and Ground with your fingers
SimpleSi Posted February 11, 2016 Author Posted February 11, 2016 do they not work with just a USB for power, does anyone know? I used them last week to power some LEDS succesfully so they should work with just USB power
Valyyn Posted February 11, 2016 Posted February 11, 2016 I think - From sitting on the MicroBit Workshop at Bett - for the pins to work you also have to connect to ground - so if you set something to activate on Pin 1 - Touch Pin1 and Ground with your fingers Yeah, I had one crocodile clip on the short leg of the LED to ground and a croc clip from the longer leg to Pin 0. Thanks though! I used them last week to power some LEDS succesfully so they should work with just USB power Ah, that's good to know, thank you! I actually saw your post yesterday, but our LEA block vine so couldn't see it. Am at home today though and just watched them - very cool! No idea why we can't get our LEDs lighting up now though... weird. Maybe we'll try one of the other boards, just on the (very slim) chance we have a dud.
Gibbo Posted February 11, 2016 Posted February 11, 2016 Mine arrived yesterday in typical Yodel delivery fashion - box damaged and open.
gumbygaz Posted February 11, 2016 Posted February 11, 2016 We copied the Hex across and then disconnected from the PC and plugged in a Phone Microusb powerbank charger thing. It's now a mobile Microbit! Impressed how easy they are and no software etc needs deploying, literally plug code & play.
Valyyn Posted February 12, 2016 Posted February 12, 2016 Well that's weird - it's working today! Exact same code that we'd saved and everything... so clearly we were doing something wrong the other day, but at least it's working now
mavhc Posted February 12, 2016 Posted February 12, 2016 I wrote OXO for it https://plus.google.com/+MarkScholes/posts/iWeD1QEFpUp
Arthur Posted February 17, 2016 Posted February 17, 2016 Samsung's BBC micro:bit Android app helps you flash code to the system via Bluetooth ...now students will also be able to try their code on-the-go and wirelessly from their phones thanks to the new Android app. Developed by Samsung (which has partnered with the BBC as part of its Corporate Citizenship program), the app has four main sections to discover others' code on the micro:bit website, write your own code, connect to your micro:bit, and flash new code to see it execute. App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samsung.microbit
Tech-head Posted February 23, 2016 Posted February 23, 2016 Teacher set of 3 turned up today i'm already getting headaches as staff cant get them working over USB they only seem to want to connect to pc's in "maintenance" mode this is going to be hell when the kids get less loose with these things.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now