RAREblog

Anastasia with the controller This is the fourth in a series of articles about Anastasia - a home-brew robot based on the micro:bit. In my previous post I shared the micropython code that runs on Anastasia's remote micro:bit controller. The controller can send one of five commands to Anastasia : stop applies a brake to the motors. left spins the robot anti-clockwise. right spins the robot clockwise. forward ( you guessed it1) drives the robot forwards. backward also does what you'd expect. In this post I'll step through the code than implements these commands on Anastasia. The code looks for incoming radio messages. It translates those messages into methods on a Driver class. These methods then send control signals to the  Kitronik motor controller. Here's Anastasia's code The code starts with the necessary imports, and then begins the definition of the Driver class. from microbit import * import radio class Driver: "...

My Adafruit Clue has just arrived, and I am delighted with it. The Clue is a small single board computer that has the same format and connectors as the BBC micro:bit . It's more expensive than the micro:bit but it's a much, much more capable device. micro:bit Pros and Cons  I still love the micro:bit. It invites you to interact with it as soon as you power it on and it's introduced a huge audience to the pleasures of programming. There are a range of programming options for the micro:bit, including micropython, and it's easy to program using the free mu editor.  However, it has some frustrating limitations. The micro:bit's 5x5 LED display is cute, but scarcely high-resolution. There are a few on-board sensors - an accelerometer and a magnetometer - and you can coax the processor chip into telling you how hot it is. It has a couple of buttons, and it supports radio communication with other micro:bits. But that's all. It also has quite limi...