micro:bit Radio

This week in micro:bit Monday we are going to discover how to use the micro:bit radio.

MakeCode

1. open MakeCode within your favourite browser
2. Click and drag the forever block to the left to delete it as we will not be using that block
3. Click on Radio Click and drag a radio set group 1 to the code area and attach it within the on start block
4. Click on Input Click and drag a on button A pressed block to the code area
5. Click on Basic Click on …more click and drag a clear screen block to the coding area and attach it within on button A pressed block
6. Click on Radio Click and drag a radio send string “" block to the coding area and attach it under the clear screen block within the on button A pressed block
7. Click within the blank space of the radio send string block and type Hello
8. Click on Radio Click and drag a on radio received receivedString block to the coding area
9. Click on Basic Click and drag a Show String “Hello” block to the coding area and attach it within the on radio received receivedString block.

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

Completed Code:

EduBlocks

1. Open EduBlocks within your favourite browser and click on micro:bit
2. Click on Basic Click and drag a **from microbit import *** block to the coding area
3. Click on Radio Click and drag a import radio block to the code area and attach it under the **from microbit import *** block
4. Click on Radio click and drag a radio.on() block to the coding area and attach it under the import radio block
5. Click on Radio Click and drag a radio.config(channel=7) block to the code area and attach it under radio.on()
6. Click on Basic Click and drag a while True: block to the code area and attach it under radio.config(channel=7) block
7. Click on Display Click and drag a display.clear block to the coding area and attach it within the while True block
8. Click on Basic click and drag an if True: block to the code area and attach it under display.clear
9. Click on Buttons Click and drag a button_a.is_pressed() block to the coding area and attach it within the if block where it says True
10. Click on Radio click and drag a radio.send(“hello”) block to the coding area and attach it within the if button_a.is_pressed() block
11. Click on Radio click and drag a incoming=radio.receive() block to the code area and attach it under the if button_a.is_pressed(): block
12. Click on Radio Click and drag a if incoming == “hello”: block to the code area and attach it under the incoming=radio.received() block
13. Click on Display Click and drag a display.scroll(“Hello World”) block to the coding area and attach it within the if incoming ==“hello” block
14. Click on Basic Click and drag a sleep(1000) block to the code area and attach it under the if incoming == “hello”: block.

Your code is now complete and ready to download.

Completed Code

Python

1. Open your favourite micro:bit Python editor
2. Type from microbit import * this impoorts the micro:bit libaray for us to communicate with the micro:bit
3. Type import radio this will import the radio libaray for us to communicate with the radio on the micro:bit
4. Type radio.on() This will turn the radio module on so we can interact with it
5. Type radio.config(channel=1) this sets the radio channel to 1. It is important to make sure the micro:bits you are using are on the same channel. These can be numbered from 1-255.
6. Type while True: This will create a loop that will run forever
7. Type dispplay.clear() this clears the display on the micro:bit
8. Type if button_a.is_pressed(): this executes the next instuction if button a on the micro:bit is pressed
9. Type radio.send("hello") This sends the message hello to another micro:bit that is listening on the same channel
10. Type incoming=radio.receive() This sets a variable called incoming to radio.receive
11. Type if incoming == "hello": This executes the next lot of instructions if the incoming message = hello
12. Type display.scroll("Hello World") this will scroll Hello World accross the micro:bit display
13. Type sleep(1000) this will pause the program for 1 second.

Your code is now complete and ready to be flashed to the micro:bit.

Completed Code

from microbit import *
import radio

radio.on()

radio.config(channel=1)

while True:
    display.clear()
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        radio.send("hello")
    incoming=radio.receive()
    if incoming == "hello":
        display.scroll("Hello World")
    sleep(1000)

Challenge

Why not send a message to your partner with your name.

Conclusion

That’s all for this week. Why not come back next week to learn about the micro:bit Pins.