Creating a Connected World

with the BBC micro:bit and Bluetooth

presented by Martin Woolley of Bluetooth SIG Twitter: @bluetooth_mdw

1st WAVE 2nd WAVE 3rd WAVE

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OVER 3 BILLION BLUETOOTH DEVICES SHIPPED IN 2015

THAT’S OVER 65 MILLION PER WEEK!

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Internet of Things (IoT)

All manner of things *communicating*

Bluetooth is one of the key

communications technologies of

the IoT

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Internet of Things (IoT)

Learning to code is essential but not

enough on its own

Creating systems of interacting

computing devices

Coding + Communications is the

sweet spot

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Bluetooth comes in 2 flavours

Bluetooth BR/EDR

Bluetooth low energy

what can you do with Bluetooth on a micro:bit?

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Bluetooth Services

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• Receive accelerometer dataAccelerometer Service

• Receive raw magnetometer or compass bearing dataMagnetometer Service

• Receive notification of button interactionsButton Service

• Read display state. Set patterns and send scrolling text.LED Service

• Communicate event codes bi-directionallyEvent Service

• Receive temperature dataTemperature Service

• Directly control or read from IO pins. Analogue and/or digital. PWM.IO Pin Service

• Exchange arbitrary data UART

connect, monitor, control

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Bitty Data Logger

Sensor data from a BBC micro:bit

Bluetooth notifications

http://www.bittysoftware.com

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Bitty Game Controller

Control something

Kitronik Buggy

http://www.bittysoftware.com

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micro:bit Blue

Various demos

Inspiration!

https://github.com/microbit-foundation/microbit-blue

Open Source

broadcast, detect, respond

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ABI Research predicts the market

for beacons will surpass 500 million shipments per year

by 2020

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micro:bit museum guide

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how do you write Bluetooth code for micro:bit?

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concepts

Bluetooth services

connection state tracking

advertising

pairing

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PXT

The entire PXT code for Bitty Data

Logger is shown on the left

connection state change event

handlers

Bluetooth services

C/C++

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PXT - beacons

EddyStone beacon data format

UID or URL types

Beacon

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OAQOccasionally Asked Questions

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Pairing?

establishes a secure, trusted relationship

between micro:bit and other Bluetooth

device

allows encryption of transmitted data

prevents others from connecting to *your*

micro:bit – anti-bullying

select “Passkey”, “Just Works” or “none”

in software

http://www.bittysoftware.com/videos_how_to.html

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Radio?

micro:bit’s “radio” capability is not Bluetooth

good, simple intro to wireless comms

micro:bit to micro:bit broadcast

uncommon outside the classroom

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micro:bit to micro:bit?

not *directly* with today’s micro:bit

(maybe in V2?)

use smartphone or Pi as hub

http://bluetooth-mdw.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/microbit-and-bluetooth-roles.html

Bluetooth Peripheral vs Central roles

602 December 2016

only smartphones?

No!

Any “GAP central” Bluetooth device e.g.

smartphone/tablet

Pi 3 or Pi 2 with dongle

PC with dongle

(see http://www.picaxe.com/BBC-microbit/)

602 December 2016

connecting to the internet?

Yes, using a Bluetooth Internet Gateway

Free software for Raspberry Pi available

from bluetooth.com

resources

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Bitty Software

mobile apps & coding tutorials

http://www.bittysoftware.com

Blog

Experiences and tips

http://bluetooth-mdw.blogspot.co.uk/

microbit.org

http://microbit.org/

Lancaster University

https://lancaster-university.github.io/microbit-docs/

Bluetooth SIG

http://www.bluetooth.com

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resources

Unthinkably ConnectedUnthinkably Connected71

Twitter: @bluetooth_mdw

questions?

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Most Important Point:

The advent of the Internet of Things means teaching about communications technologies like Bluetooth is as

essential as teaching about coding itself.

What to do:

Use the BBC micro:bit and its Bluetooth capabilities in lessons and code clubs with applications like those

from bittysoftware.com