Light Strips for the micro:bit

Kitronik produce and sell a number of light strips for the micro:bit called Zip https://www.kitronik.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?cat=0&q=zip Huddersfield Girls Geeks chose a selection of the Arc and the Circle Zips with 12 lights for a headdress workshop. Here are some steps for connecting and coding these lightstrips. Connecting the Zips to the micro:bit Solder the Zip You need to …

CUBE: Post 2 – prototyping

So the wire I ordered was completely wrong. Copper wire is WEAK! And exactly what I don't want. This week I've gone with 2.5mm wire from screwfix: https://www.screwfix.com/p/apollo-2-5mm-2-5mm-galvanised-garden-wire-x-25m/57999 We used this YouTube video as a guide on how to straighten wire. It worked really well and was LOTS of fun https://youtu.be/b4-QF-WRFjQ We then created some …

CUBE: Post 1 – Waiting and Coding

As I wait for the lights to come from China I decided to prototype the cube in lollipop sticks. Or at least the first 3 columns. This really helped me visualise problem 1 with the cube. The lights are all in one strip and each one is addressable. So I can write some code that …

CUBE: Post 0 of my RGB LED Cube

There are sooo many LED cubes out there I can't even remember which one I saw first. I just know I've always been excited by them and have wanted to build my own. But the pure scale of an LED cube has always put me off... I just don't like resistors! Then just like my …

Christmas Lights on the Raspberry Pi

DRAFT********** TBC Tuesday 4th December     A simple guide to connecting WS2812B strips to a Raspberry Pi You can control a strip of individually controllable RGB LEDs using a Raspberry Pi. The lights The lights are called WS2812B. Adafruit calls them Neopixels. They are individually controllable red, green, blue lights. Here is a strip …

Extension: Hacking the Bearables badge with a micro:bit

After my husband successfully hacked the Pimoroni Bearables badge with a Raspberry Pi: https://lorrainbow.wordpress.com/2017/11/18/guest-blogger-phil-underwood-hacking-the-bareables-badge/ I decided to have a go and try it with the micro:bit I'm in no way an electronics whizz like him but the words i2c and CLK sounded familiar! Turns out the micro:bit does have an i2c bus! How to hack the …

Updated: micro:bit sound sensing hoodie

After buying the MonkMakes sensor board: https://www.monkmakes.com/mb_sensor/ I decided to upgrade the micro:bit light up hoodie. The lights would now light up the louder it got around me! Here's the final result: https://twitter.com/LMcUnderwood/status/922583301059235840 Build The sensor board is very easy to connect using crocodile clips Using 3 different crocodile clips you connect Pin 1 of the …

Make: micro:bit Harry Potter Sorting Hat

When the micro:bit was first released to schools it came in a choice of 4 colours. On Twitter we talked about making a sorting hat to decide which student would get which colour. I've finally made it! But I've just linked it to the 4 houses of Harry Potter 🙂 https://twitter.com/LMcUnderwood/status/922196514235146244   Equipment Steampunk hat …

Huddersfield Geek Girls

I was delighted to be invited to run a workshop at Huddersfield Geek Girls launch weekend.   This is a spot for me to put code samples and instructions for the girls     Beginner: Video of how to get the lights working in code http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGDJiJRsoj4 Intermediate: Video of how to get the lights working …

micro:bit hoodie

Unlike the cycling jacket, this make has no practical use: it's just fun! My brother left his hoodie behind when he visited. He also accidentally burnt a hole in the hood, so I figured he didn't want it anymore. Just a quick few steps on what I did: I pinned down the rough side of …