Micro:bit 2-way radio example

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excuse for a drawing

Lately I’ve been playing with the BBC micro:bit. Having micro-Python on this cool device that boasts accelerometer, magenometer, bluetooth low energe (BLE), temperature sensors and a 25 LED matrix, and Integrated Circuit (I2C) interface makes it a easy entry point for kids to build and code on. So I was thinking it might be fun to send emoticons between two micro:bits, so here’s a micro-Python script I put together to broadcast emoticons to other micro:bits running the same script. You’ll need at least two micro:bits to send and receive emoticons, or if you have one micro:bit you can just use the A and B buttons to display different emoticons. For some reason, it’s rather entertaining selecting emoticons to send back and forth through the air!

Controls

Once the script is running on your micro:bit, it uses the following controls:

  • Button A: go to the previous emoticon
  • Button B: go to the next emoticon
  • Button A and B together: send the currently showing emoticon to other micro:bits running the script nearby

When you send an emoticon, the micro:bit will display ‘sending…’ and the receiving micro:bit will show a diamond, then display the received emoticon for 2 seconds. For this example, I’ve tried to stick to a fairly simple if..elif decision-making structure, using only the basics required to make this work.

Let’s get coding!

Ok, so let’s get started…

First, open whatever editor you are using to write your code. Since we are using micro-Python, you can use:

In our editor let’s begin writing the script and import the required micro:bit and radio modules. Add the following to a new file in your editor.

from microbit import *
import radio

Put the emoticons into a dictionary

The micro:bit’s image class has built-in images that we can associate with numerical keys in a dictionary. We’ll create a dictionary called images.

images = {1:Image.HEART,2:Image.HEART_SMALL,3:Image.HAPPY,4:Image.SAD,5:Image.SURPRISED,6:Image.ANGRY,7:Image.ASLEEP,8:Image.BUTTERFLY,9:Image.DIAMOND,10:Image.CONFUSED,11:Image.COW,12:Image.PACMAN}

Create an index

We’ll use a variable to keep track of which emoticon image we have ‘selected’ and set this to 1.

index_num = 1

Configure and enable the radio

To set up the radio functionality we need to set the radio channel to 10 and turn the radio on.

radio.config(channel=10)
radio.on()

Main loop and receive radio data

Now we come to the main loop that keeps repeating while the script is running. Received radio communications will be captured in the incoming variable. To keep things simple I haven’t done any validation on the incoming radio data. I’m just pointing out that you should be aware that this is reading unchecked radio data into a variable, and a rogue radio transmission could potentially exploit this. However, for the sake of this exercise, I’ll assume you’re well away from such transmissions and possibly in a Faraday cage or bunker of your choice ;)

while True:
    incoming = radio.receive()

Do things when events occur

The rest of the script is essentially saying “if something happens, do this” followed by displaying the select image and a delay. Without the delay, the micro:bit was checking the buttons too often, making it hard to read a single press. If you find that you have to hold down the buttons too long, you can reduce the sleep() delay value to make it a little quicker. If it flickers between different images when you press buttons, increase the delay.

Check for single button presses, and increase or decrease the index_num value. Since the if statements are inside the while loop, we need to make sure they are indented (moved right) so they line up with the incoming line above.

   	if button_b.is_pressed():
        index_num += 1
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        index_num -= 1

Send the current index_num value, and display ‘sending…’, if button A and B are pressed together. The str() function converts the number into a character to send. We could really send raw bytes here but I’m trying to keep it simple for now.

	if button_a.is_pressed() and button_b.is_pressed():
        radio.send(str(index_num))
        display.show('sending...')

If we have an incoming radio broadcast, display the TARGET image, wait for half a second, then convert the incoming data back to a number.

	if incoming:
        display.show(Image.TARGET)
        sleep(500)
        display.show(images[int(incoming)])
        sleep(2000)

Make sure that index_num stays within the key values for the images dictionary. In this case, if index_num is too high, we set it back to the first image, and if it gets too low, we set it to the highest image.

    if index_num > 12:
        index_num = 1
    elif index_num < 1:
        index_num = 12

Finally, display the currently selected image from images and wait for half a second.

    display.show(images[index_num])
    sleep(500)

The entire script

So the whole script should look like (I’ve added comments so don’t worry about anything starting with #:

# A micro:bit emoticon chat script
# By @justaboutfine
from microbit import *
import radio

# Create a dictonary of our emoticon images
images = {1:Image.HEART,2:Image.HEART_SMALL,3:Image.HAPPY,4:Image.SAD,5:Image.SURPRISED,6:Image.ANGRY,7:Image.ASLEEP,8:Image.BUTTERFLY,9:Image.DIAMOND,10:Image.CONFUSED,11:Image.COW,12:Image.PACMAN}
index_num = 1

# Set the radio channel to 10
radio.config(channel=10)
radio.on()

while True:
	# Capture received radio data
    incoming = radio.receive()

    if button_b.is_pressed():
        index_num += 1
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        index_num -= 1

	# Send the current emoticon if both buttons pressed together
    if button_a.is_pressed() and button_b.is_pressed():
        radio.send(str(index_num))
        display.show('sending...')

	# If there's incoming data, show the emoticon that's been received
    if incoming:
        display.show(Image.TARGET)
        sleep(500)
        display.show(images[int(incoming)])
        sleep(2000)

	# Keep the index_num within the valid dictionary key range
    if index_num > 12:
        index_num = 1
   	elif index_num < 1:
        index_num = 12
            
	# Show the current image
    display.show(images[index_num])
    	sleep(500)

Now flash this to two or more micro:bits and you should be able to use the controls listed above, to select and send emoticons from one micro:bit to another. On the Mu editor and Chrome plugin, you can just click on ‘flash’, with other editors you can compile your project to a .hex file and drag or copy it to your micro:bit once it is plugged in. Unfortunately, flashing via BLE doesn’t work if you’re using Python. Also, using radio in other languages can interfere with BLE functionality. If you have a group, you can send to more than one micro:bit. You can set separate radio channels on different pairs of micro:bits to have separate teams or emoticon conversations. From here, you could even use this to send text messages to one another as well, or use speech() to ‘say’ a message on another micro:bit equipped with a speaker. The possibilities are fairly broad, so go and experiment!