elecfreaks

Control your Lego® Power Functions motors using your micro:bit, an infrared LED and MakeCode. THINGS USED IN THIS PROJECT Hardware components: BBC micro:bit board  Infrared LED LEGO® 8884 - Power Function IR Receiver Software apps and online services: Microsoft MakeCode  pxt-powerfunctions MakeCode Project STORY LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this project. The Challenge We experimented with visual programming languages, and we love colorful interlocking plastic bricks. The desire to control a LEGO® train using a web-based, visual development environment was born. Our Journey We started with a Scratch and Arduino based solution. We had a working prototype that proved to be error-prone and complicated in the setup. In our second approach, we used the German sibling of the micro:bit. The  Calliope  board comes with a motor driver which reduced the required hardware to the board itself and some hom

Hello my dear friends! Happy new year to all of you! We have come back from our Chinese New Year Holiday. Do you miss us? We wish you have a good time like us. Today is Feb. 26, 2018, the first work day since we were back. Usually in China, the first day when people come back from New Year holiday and start to work, it is a custom for bosses to give their staff some red pockets. Personally, I am quite lucky enough because I have received two red pockets! Dear Boss, I would like to say thank you very much! Since we are back, the first thing we need to do is to deal with all orders placed during our holiday. Our forwarders are back to work now. Our logistic system is recovered. We will pack up your goods well and arrange delivery as soon as possible. Don't worry! You will get your goods soon! If there are some products delayed due to out of stock or still in preorder, we will inform you by email, or you can send us an email to ask the recent process. Of course, we will als

Hello my friends! Nice to see you on Friday! Today we will continue to introduce some useful electronic components for you. Hope you like it! New Product 1:  Octopus TMP36 Temperature Sensor Brick This is one of our newly developed octopus series of bricks. It is compatible with BBC micro:bit. By its name, we know this brick has something to do with temperature. Yes, it is a component used to test your surrounding temperature. It has low voltage comsuption and accurate centigrade output. You don't have to do any external calibration before use. Just connect it to your device directly and see its read. Don't just look at its small size! It is powerful enough to help you test the temperature range from -40 °C to +125 °C! New Product 2:  0.28 Inches LED Display Digital Voltmeter This is a small component too! From its outlook, you might think of it as a simple digital tube display. But it is a small voltage meter. You can use it to test the voltage range from 0V t

Hello my friends! Nice to see you on Friday! Today we will continue to introduce some useful electronic components for you. Hope you like it! New Product 1:  Octopus TMP36 Temperature Sensor Brick This is one of our newly developed octopus series of bricks. It is compatible with BBC micro:bit. By its name, we know this brick has something to do with temperature. Yes, it is a component used to test your surrounding temperature. It has low voltage comsuption and accurate centigrade output. You don't have to do any external calibration before use. Just connect it to your device directly and see its read. Don't just look at its small size! It is powerful enough to help you test the temperature range from -40 °C to +125 °C! New Product 2:  0.28 Inches LED Display Digital Voltmeter This is a small component too! From its outlook, you might think of it as a simple digital tube display. But it is a small voltage meter. You can use it to test the voltage range from 0V to 10

Today, we are going to make an ultrasonic distance tester with micro:bit and ultrasonic sensor module. Materials Needed 1 x  BBC micro:bit 1 x  Octopus:bit 1 x  OLED module 1 x  HC-SR04 ultrasonic module Background Knowledge HC-SR04 Basic Principle HC-SR04 is a kind of ultrasonic distance measuring modules. With this module， we can detect the space time between ultrasonic send and return, then convert it into distance. Here's the basic principle: Use the IO port TRIG to trigger distance measure with 10us high electric level at least. Automatically send 8 40kHz square wave and check if a signal returns. If a signal has returned, then output a high electric level through the IO port TRIG. The duration of high electric level is the time from ultrasonic send and return. Distance=(high electric level time x sound space (340m/s))/2 Note：  Find in the MakeCode for the already sealed ultrasonic library. You don't have to write any complicated drive code but just