Arduino, Microbit

Program Your micro:bit Using Arduino IDE

by Idris
May 8, 2019

Arduino, Arduino IDE, Microbit

Did you know that you can program your micro:bit using Arduino IDE?

INTRODUCTION

If you’re Arduino user and want to try micro:bit, you can program your micro:bit using Arduino IDE. In this tutorial, I will share with how to setup and program your micro:bit using Arduino IDE.

VIDEO

This video shows how to program your micro:bit using Arduino IDE

HARDWARE PREPARATION

This is the list of items used in the video.

micro:bit Board

USB Micro B Cable

Sample Code

micro:bit board json link

https://sandeepmistry.github.io/arduino-nRF5/package_nRF5_boards_index.json

You can use following code for controlling LED and read push button status (basic lesson).

      
        const int COL1 = 3; // Column #1 control
      
        const int LED = 26; // 'row 1' led
      
        const int BUTTON_A = 5; // The number of the pushbutton pin
      
        const int BUTTON_B = 11; // The number of the pushbutton pin
      
        long previousMillis = 0;
      
        long currentMillis = 0;
      
        int interval = 500;
      
        boolean ledState = false;
      
        boolean buttonAPressed = false;
      
        boolean buttonBPressed = false;
      
        void setup()
      
        {
      
          Serial.begin(9600);
      
          Serial.println("microbit is ready!");
      
          pinMode(BUTTON_A, INPUT);  
      
          pinMode(BUTTON_B, INPUT);   
      
          // Because the LEDs are multiplexed,
      
          // we must ground the opposite side of the LED
      
          pinMode(COL1, OUTPUT);
      
          digitalWrite(COL1, LOW);
      
          pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);
      
        }
      
        void loop()
      
        {
      
          currentMillis = millis();
      
          if (currentMillis - previousMillis > interval) {
      
            previousMillis = currentMillis;
      
            ledState = !ledState;
      
            digitalWrite(LED, ledState);
      
          }
      
          if (digitalRead(BUTTON_A) == LOW &&
      
              buttonAPressed == false) {
      
            buttonAPressed = true;
      
            Serial.println("Button A is pressed.");
      
          }
      
          else if (digitalRead(BUTTON_A) == HIGH &&
      
              buttonAPressed == true) {
      
            buttonAPressed = false;
      
          }
      
          if (digitalRead(BUTTON_B) == LOW &&
      
              buttonBPressed == false) {
      
            buttonBPressed = true;
      
            Serial.println("Button B is pressed.");
      
          }
      
          else if (digitalRead(BUTTON_B) == HIGH &&
      
              buttonBPressed == true) {
      
            buttonBPressed = false;
      
          }
      
        }