BBC micro:bit

The BBC micro:bit

The BBC micro:bit is a small microcontroller board designed for computer education in the UK - see the Wikipedia Article for more information.

There are multiple versions of the micro:bit available:

micro:bit v2 - full-featured support with 2v08 and later (these are the ones with a speaker)
micro:bit v1.5 - (cut-down Espruino, limited memory) to use the sensors you'll need 2v07 or later
micro:bit v1 - (cut-down Espruino, limited memory) supported from Espruino 1v95

We are currently not using universal hex files, so you will need to load the correct hex file (_microbit1 or _microbit2) for your board.

micro:bit contains:

USB communications and JST power connectors
A 5x5 array of LEDs for use as a display
Two user-configurable buttons, and one reset button
An accelerometer and magnetometer (LSM303AGR, or MAG3110 + MMA8652 on older boards)
Speaker & Microphone on v2
A Nordic nRF52833 ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller (512kB flash, 128kB RAM) on v2, or nRF51822 ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller (256kB flash, 16kB RAM) on v1.
A Freescale Kinetis chip to handle USB - this provides a virtual USB flash drive that allows firmware updates just by saving a file.

Flashing Espruino
Using the micro:bit

micro:bit Functionality
show(bitmap)
Microbit class

Microbit.accel()
Microbit.mag()
Microbit.play(waveform, samplesPerSecond, callback)
Microbit.record(samplesPerSecond, callback, samples)

Pinout
Tutorials
Buying
Official Espruino Boards

micro:bit v1

While we do provide Espruino for the micro:bit v1, it takes a lot of memory to provide Bluetooth functionality and as a result some functionality has had to be removed compared to the v2 and other Espruino devices:

No ES6 Features (ArrayBuffer map/forEach, template literals, arrow functions, etc)
No debug or code autocomplete
No advanced library functions (In the reference, any function with the comment "Note: This is only available in some devices: not devices with low flash memory" will not be included)
Low program memory (Espruino on micro:bit has only 350 vars available, whereas on other devices it has over 10 times that)

If you want the full experience, please consider buying an official Espruino Board.

Flashing Espruino

There is a build of Espruino designed specifically for the micro:bit. Releases are available from the Download page for micro:bit 1 or micro:bit 2 - however you may also download 'cutting edge' builds from here - these are updated every time something changes in Espruino's source code, so may occasionally not work.

To flash onto your micro:bit:

Plug it into USB. A drive called MICROBIT should appear
Download the microbit .hex file for Espruino (ensuring that you have the microbit1 or microbit2 file depending on your device), and save it directly into the root of that drive
The yellow LED on the micro:bit will blink quickly for a few seconds, and will then stop.
The Espruino firmware is now installed!

Using the micro:bit

There are two ways to communicate with your micro:bit:

USB

This is the easiest, and recommended way of communicating with Espruino.

For Windows users, you will need to install drivers first - on other platforms, the board should 'just work'.

Follow the instructions in the Quick Start tutorial to install the Web IDE (ignore the Plugging in section), and you should be able to communicate with the micro:bit just like any other board.

Note: as the micro:bit has a display but no general-purpose LEDs, the tutorials in the Quick Start that use LED1/etc will not work without modification.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BT 4.0 / Bluetooth Smart)

You can also program the micro:bit wirelessly!

If you have a device that supports Web Bluetooth, you can go directly to the Online Web IDE in your web browser, and can connect with that.

Click the connect icon at the top left
Choose Web Bluetooth - if this doesn't exist, it's because your device doesn't have Web Bluetooth enabled. Click the status link for more information.
Now you should be prompted for a device to connect to by the web browser
Click it, and wait - connection can take around 10 seconds
Finally the icon up the top left should change state to 'Connected', and you'll be able to program Espruino as normal - but via Bluetooth!

micro:bit Functionality

The micro:bit has a few variables and functions that are useful:

`BTN1` and `BTN2`

These read the state of the two buttons, for example:

BTN1.read() or digitalRead(BTN1) return 1 or 0 depending on the state of the button

The following will write Pressed each time the button is pressed:

setWatch(function() {
  console.log("Pressed");
}, BTN1, {repeat:true, debounce:20, edge:"falling"});

Or this will write Pressed or Released:

setWatch(function(e) {
  if (e.state) console.log("Released");
  else console.log("Pressed");
}, BTN1, {repeat:true, debounce:20, edge:"both"});

Note: Currently the state of the buttons is inverted - 1 means not pressed, 0 means pressed.

`show(bitmap)`

Shows graphics on the built-in 5x5 LED screen. This takes a binary number or a string. For example:

show(0) shows nothing
show(1) lights the first LED
show(0b1000) lights the fourth LED
show(0b1111111111111111111111111) or show(0x1FFFFFF) lights all LEDs
The following will draw a smiley face:

show("1   1\n"+
     "  1  \n"+
     "  1  \n"+
     "1   1\n"+
     " 111 \n");
`

You can use the Graphics library to display text and images, for example the following with scroll 'Espruino' across the display:

g = Graphics.createArrayBuffer(5,5,1);
g.flip = function(){show(this.buffer);};

var x = 0;
setInterval(function() {
  x++;
  if (x>50)x=0;
  g.clear();
  g.drawString("Espruino",5-x);
  g.flip();
}, 100);

`Microbit` class

This contains functions for interfacing with the Micro:bit hardware. See a full reference here

Note: In 2v07 and earlier the Microbit class doesn't exist and instead there are just acceleration() and compass() functions.

`Microbit.accel()`

This returns an object with x, y, and z elements, each containing the force in that axis in g.

Note: In 2v07 and earlier this doesn't exist and acceleration() is available instead.

You can also use Microbit.accelOn() which then creates an event whenever data is available, which can be read with Microbit.on('accel', function(d) { ... })

`Microbit.mag()`

This returns an object with x, y, and z elements, indicating the current direction of the magnetic field

Note: In 2v07 and earlier this doesn't exist and compass() is available instead.

`Microbit.play(waveform, samplesPerSecond, callback)`

Micro:bit version 2 only: plays a sound - see the reference for more information

`Microbit.record(samplesPerSecond, callback, samples)`

Micro:bit version 2 only: records a sound - see the reference](http://www.espruino.com/Reference#l_Microbit_record) for more information

Pinout

Hover the mouse over a pin function for more information. Clicking in a function will tell you how to use it in Espruino.

Purple boxes show pins that are used for other functionality on the board. You should avoid using these unless you know that the marked device is not used.
! boxes contain extra information about the pin. Hover your mouse over them to see it.
3.3v boxes mark pins that are not 5v tolerant (they only take inputs from 0 - 3.3v, not 0 - 5v).
3.3 is a 3.3v output from the on-board Voltage regulator.
GND is ground (0v).
ADC is an Analog to Digital Converter (for reading analog voltages)
SPI is the 3 wire Serial Peripheral Interface.
USART is a 2 wire peripheral for Serial Data.
I2C is the 2 wire Inter-Integrated Circuit bus.