micro:bit Pins

This week we will take a look at what we can do with the General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) pins. You can do a lot of things using the pins at the bottom of the micro:bit including using touch, connecting them to tinfoil, fruit, headphones or other electronic components using crocodile clips. You can even use them with add-on boards like motor controllers, LED screens and more.

MakeCode

1. open MakeCode within your favourite browser
2. Click on the on start block and drag it to the left and drop it in the bin. Do the same for the forever block
3. Click on Input Click and drag a on p0 pressed block to the code area and drop it
4. Click on Basic Click and drag a show string “Hello!" block to the code area and attach it within the on p0 pressed block

Your code is now complete and ready to download to your micro:bit.

NOTE: You can use this code different ways. You can just hold the GND pin and press pin 0 or you can glue some tinfoil to cardboard and connect the pins with crocodile clips.

Completed Code

EduBlocks

1. Open EduBlocks within your favourite browser
2. Click on Basic Click and drag a from microbit import * block to the code area and drop it
3. Click on Basic Click and drag a while True: block to the code area and attach it under the from microbit import * block
4. Click on Basic Click and drag a if True: block to the coding area and attach it within the while True: block
5. Click on Pins Click and drag a pin 0.is_touched() block to the code area and attach it where it says True in the if block
6. Click on Display Click and drag a display.scroll(“Hello World”) block to the code area and attach it within the if pin 0.is_touched() block

Your code is now complete and read to download to your micro:bit and try out.

Completed Code

Python

1. Open your favourite Python editor to use with the micro:bit
2. Type from microbit import * This imports the Python library for micro:bit so we can now interact with the micro:bit
3. Type while True: This creates a loop that will carry on while the conditions are true
4. Type if pin0.is_touched: Creating a condition on pin 0, so when pin 0 is touched
5. Type display.scroll("Hello World!") When pin 0 is touched Hello World! will scroll across the LED display.

Your code is now complete and ready to try out.

Completed Code

from microbit import *

while True:
    if pin0.is_touched:
        display.scroll("Hello World!")

Conclusion

That’s it for this week. Come back next Monday where we will dig into the pins a little bit deeper and create a simple robot.