Technical University "Gh.Asachi" Iași - Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science.
Microprocessor Systems
Experiment No.10+
  • L10+.1 Title:


    • BBC Micro:bit - School of the Future (I)

     Developers:

    ARM
    NXP
    Nordic Semiconductor
    ST Micro
    Microsoft , BBC.


  • L10+.2 General presentation, purpose.

    • The laboratory experiment aims to explore the possibilities of using the BBC Micro:bit RPi platform as the central element for an educational system for developing computational thinking and the Tiny Machine Learning universe. The platform architecture, specific software tools, and categories of sensors usable for ML operations are explored. Special attention is given to resources for speech synthesis. At the end of the laboratory you will have sufficient information to start developing educational applications with the BBC Micro:bit platform.

  • E10+.3 Resources
    • Hardware: BBC Micro:bit, breadboard, audio amplifier, LEDs, 1k resistors, breadboard connection cables.
    Software: Thonny




  • L10+.4 Example program sources:

    • 1. Blink LED on BBC Micro:bit
    2. Using magnetic sensor
    3. Using acceleration sensor
    4. Display with messaging
    5. Messaging for sensors




  • E10+.5 How to conduct/track the experiment:

    • Developed in a collaboration between BBC, ARM, Microsoft, NXP, Nordic Semiconductor, Lancaster University, ... the BBC Micro:bit platform has 2 interconnected ARM processors for independent operations interfaced with sensors and communication elements in a miniaturized structure as follows:


    The platform architecture is shown below.


    The signals from the execution processor are connected to an extension represented in the images below.

    For the development of extensions it is possible to connect to a breadboard through a suitable connector with the following pin specifications:



  • L10+.6 Proposed problems:


    • 1. Develop on BBC Micro:bit an application using the accelerometer sensor;

    2. Develop on BBC Micro:bit an application using the microphone;
    3. Develop on BBC Micro:bit an application using the magnetic sensor;
    4. Develop on BBC Micro:bit an application using the light sensor;




    5. Develop on BBC Micro:bit a solution for data acquisition to be used in training solutions based on TinyML

  • L10+.7 The experiment can be extended to:

    • - Building educational equipment for pupils/students ;
    - Creating peripherals for mobile phones;
    - Creating local networks of sensors/actuators;
    - Developing projects for Hackster.io



    What did the graduates of this school create?

  • L10+.8 Reference materials:

    • © 2024 - Fl. Pantilimonescu, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science