5 Easy Steps for you to Quick Start with BBC microbit
DFRobot
Sep 07 20174685
What is Micro:bit?
BBC micro:bit allows you to make all sorts of cool creations, from robots to musical instruments – the possibilities are endless. This little device has an awful lot of features, like 25 red LED lights that can flash messages. There are two programmable buttons that can be used to control games or pause and skip songs on a playlist. Your BBC micro:bit can detect motion and tell you which direction you’re heading in, and it can use a low energy Bluetooth connection to interact with other devices and the Internet – clever!
Micro:bit is an open development board that allows you to run code on it and have access to all of the hardware. We have enabled debugging so that you can really interrogate the system – the more you know about all the bits and pieces that your BBC micro:bit is made of, the more you can hack it and create with it.Then how could we quick start with Microbit? Five easy steps.
Step 1: Connect Microbit with Computer
Connect the micro:bit to your computer via a micro USB cable. Macs, PCs, Chromebooks and Linux systems are all supported. It comes with a fun application, give it a try!
Your micro:bit will show up on your computer as a drive called 'MICROBIT'. Watch out though, it's not a normal USB disk!
Step 2: Program Micro:bit
Using one of our fantastic editors, write your first micro:bit code. For example drag and drop some blocks and try your program on the Simulator in the Javascript Blocks Editor, like in the image below
Click the Download button in the editor. This will download a 'hex' file, which is a compact format of your program that your micro:bit can read. Once the hex file has downloaded, copy it to your micro:bit just like copying a file to a USB drive. On Windows you can right click and choose "Send To→MICROBIT."
Windows "Send To"
Mac Drag and Drop
Step 4: Play It
The micro:bit will pause and the yellow LED on the back of the micro:bit will blink while your code is programmed. Once that's finished the code will run automatically!
The MICROBIT drive will automatically eject and come back each time you program it, but your hex file will be gone. The micro:bit can only receive hex files and won't store anything else! What cool stuff will you create? Your micro:bit can respond to the buttons, light, motion, and temperature. It can even send messages wirelessly to other micro:bits using the 'Radio' feature. Check out the hardware page for more inspiration.
Step 5: Master it
This page shows you how to get started with micro:bit, but as well as JavaScript Blocks you can use Python and text-based JavaScript to program your micro:bit. Head over to the Let's Code page to see the different languages, or check out the ideas page for some things you might like to try out.
The original Microbit quick start is from Microbit official website, here is the link.
This article introduces the Mind+(Mindplus) editor, which seamlessly combines block-based and text coding in its interface, facilitating an easier transition.