BBC micro:bit v2 & Nordic nRF52833

Edge Connector Digital Pins

Multi-function edge pins compatible with crocodile clips and standard micro:bit breakout sockets.

• Rings 0, 1, and 2 function as digital GPIOs, touch inputs, or analog inputs
• Pushbuttons A and B are mapped internally to GPIO pins with hardware debouncing
• Pins 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 accessible via edge expansion sockets for servos and motors

Analog Input & Sensing Channels

10-bit and 12-bit ADC channels for sampling resistive sensors, potentiometers, and ambient light.

• Rings 0, 1, and 2 read analog voltages from 0V to 3.3V (0–1023 in MakeCode)
• Display matrix operates in reverse bias to measure ambient illumination level (0–255)
• Microphone input circuit includes an operational amplifier with high-frequency noise filter

Buses, Audio & Power Supply

Internal and external I2C buses, dedicated speaker PWM, and dual power input rails.

• External I2C bus available on pins 19 (SCL) and 20 (SDA) for OLED screens and sensor modules
• Power via Micro-USB (5V regulated to 3.3V) or JST battery connector (2x AAA batteries, 3V)
• Includes dedicated power-off sleep button holding down the rear reset button

micro:bit Radio

2.4 GHz Proprietary

Zero-configuration packet broadcasting between micro:bits up to 70 meters range for multiplayer games and swarm robotics.

Bluetooth 5.0 LE

Nordic SoftDevice

Secure wireless pairing with iOS, Android, and Web Bluetooth in Chrome for flashing and telemetry.

Hardware I2C Bus

Edge Pins 19 & 20

External I2C bus communicating with motor driver boards, color sensors, and real-time clocks.

Hardware SPI Bus

Edge Pins 13, 14, 15

High-speed SPI bus for connecting external graphical LCD screens, NeoPixel arrays, and SD cards.

USB Virtual Serial

Micro-USB Connector

115200 baud USB COM port for printing Python sensor telemetry and debugging directly to MakeCode/Thonny.

Sound Level Sensing

Internal Knowles MEMS

Continuously monitors ambient decibel levels to trigger alarms or animations on loud noises.

The official microbit Python library includes a phoneme speech synthesis engine capable of pronouncing English words and robotic voice phrases.

Pro tip: Adjust pitch, speed, and mouth parameters in the speech module to create distinct alien or robot character voices.

Broadcast telemetry packets on specific RF channels and power levels (0 to 7) without needing Wi-Fi routers, IP addresses, or pairing steps.

Pro tip: Group multiple micro:bits by assigning unique channel IDs (0–83) to prevent crosstalk in crowded classroom environments.

Put the nRF52833 into an ultra-low-power sleep state consuming under 10 µA. Wake up the board by tapping the logo or pressing button A.

Pro tip: Allows wearable step-counter watches to run for months on two AAA batteries.

The onboard accelerometer driver automatically detects pre-computed gestures like "shake", "freefall", "face up", and "tilt right" in silicon.

Pro tip: Detecting gestures in hardware eliminates the need to calculate square roots and vector magnitudes in software.

Because LEDs are semiconductor diodes, reversing their bias allows measuring ambient lux levels across the 5x5 matrix with zero dedicated sensors.

Pro tip: Use this to build automatic night-lights that illuminate only when the room lights are turned off.

Log sensor readings directly into internal Flash memory using the Python open() filesystem or the MakeCode Data Logger extension.

Pro tip: Connect the micro:bit to your PC to download the recorded CSV data as a standard USB flash file.

Classroom Physical Computing & STEM

Allows middle/high school students to program interactive games, animations, and robotics using Microsoft MakeCode block or Python.

Wearable Motion & Fitness Trackers

Uses the onboard 6-DoF accelerometer and step-counting algorithms to track steps, detect shakes, and communicate with smartphone apps over BLE.

Smart Educational Robotics (Buggy / Rover)

Slots into edge-connector robot chassis to drive dual DC motors, follow infrared lines, and avoid obstacles with ultrasonic sensors.

Multi-Node Swarm Radio Networks

Broadcasts low-latency packets across groups of micro:bits using the simple proprietary radio protocol without needing Wi-Fi routers.

# BBC micro:bit v2 - Motion, Touch & Sound Controller
from microbit import *
import music

display.show(Image.HAPPY)
audio.play(Sound.HELLO)

while True:
    # 1. Check for capacitive touch on the gold logo
    if pin_logo.is_touched():
        display.show(Image.HEART)
        music.play(music.BA_DING, wait=False)
        sleep(500)
    
    # 2. Check for physical shake gesture
    elif accelerometer.was_gesture('shake'):
        display.show(Image.SURPRISED)
        music.pitch(880, 200)
        sleep(400)
        
    # 3. Check for loud noise on the MEMS microphone
    elif microphone.was_event(SoundEvent.LOUD):
        display.scroll("LOUD!", delay=80)
        
    else:
        # Default: display current compass/temperature status
        temp = temperature()
        display.show(str(temp)[-1])
        sleep(100)

# micro:bit v2 - Wireless Radio Remote Controller
import radio
from microbit import *

radio.on()
radio.config(channel=7, power=6)

while True:
    if button_a.is_pressed() and button_b.is_pressed():
        radio.send("STOP")
        display.show(Image.NO)
    elif button_a.is_pressed():
        radio.send("LEFT")
        display.show(Image.ARROW_W)
    elif button_b.is_pressed():
        radio.send("RIGHT")
        display.show(Image.ARROW_E)
    else:
        display.clear()
        
    # Receive status messages from receiver robot
    incoming = radio.receive()
    if incoming:
        display.scroll(incoming, delay=60)
        
    sleep(50)