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Bitbot Starter Guide Part 5

This document provides instructions for controlling a Bit:bot robot using a second micro:bit as a remote control. The controller micro:bit reads the tilt angles and sends the pitch and roll values over radio. The Bit:bot micro:bit receives these values, maps them to motor speeds, and drives the motors accordingly to move the robot based on the controller's tilt. The complete code listings are provided for both the controller and receiver micro:bits.

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Bobby
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197 views8 pages

Bitbot Starter Guide Part 5

This document provides instructions for controlling a Bit:bot robot using a second micro:bit as a remote control. The controller micro:bit reads the tilt angles and sends the pitch and roll values over radio. The Bit:bot micro:bit receives these values, maps them to motor speeds, and drives the motors accordingly to move the robot based on the controller's tilt. The complete code listings are provided for both the controller and receiver micro:bits.

Uploaded by

Bobby
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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4tronix makecode starter guide: Part 5 - Bitbot Radio

 
 
 

4tronix bit:bot control over radio


This is the fifth part of our tutorial, and assumes that you’ve already completed Part 1 
through to Part 4. You’ll also need a second micro:bit to act as the remote control for your 
Bitbot. We’ll be reading the angle of tilt from a second micro:bit, and sending it to the 
micro:bit in the Bitbot over radio. More tilt is translated to the Bitbot motor speeds - this 
gives better control than using fixed speeds, and will allow more accurate positioning for 
pushing or grabbing objects later. 
 
Since we will be programming two micro:bits, it may be useful to open 
https://makecode.microbit.org/​ in two separate tabs, so you can switch between both sets 
of code. 
 
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to: 
1. Read the accelerometer to get pitch (tilting forward and back) and roll (tilting side to 
side) values. 
2. Send two different values over radio, and translating these into movements in our 
Bitbot robot. 
3. Map angles of tilt in degrees, to the required range of values for motor speeds. 
 
You will need: 
● Two (2) micro:bits - one for the Bit:bot and one to act as a remote control. 
● A battery pack or similar to power the controller micro:bit. 
 
And the finished sending (controller) micro:bit code is available at: 
https://makecode.microbit.org/_6csexYCTufvC 
 
You can find the finished receiving Bitbot code for this project at: 
https://makecode.microbit.org/_Rra98JccCMER   

 
 
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4tronix makecode starter guide: Part 5 - Bitbot Radio

 
 
 

Send the tilt values over radio [controller


micro:bit]
❏ First we need to set the radio channel we want to use on our controller. We can 
have up to 255 different channels, so you could easily set this same project up on 
two separate Bit:bots for competing against each other e.g. pushing objects around 
etc. 
 

 
 
❏ Now we need to continuously send the tilt data over radio. We can separate the tilt 
data into pitch (forward/backwards) and roll (side to side). In order to do this, we’ll 
use the ​radio send value​ block with name and value pairs, so that we can 
recognise the values when they are received by the Bitbot. 
Hint: t​ o type “pitch” and “roll” do a search for “text” and you’ll find a bubble that will 
let you add text instead of a number. 

 
 
❏ Write this code to your controller micro:bit and put it aside. Now we are ready to 
program the micro:bit that sits in the Bit:bot robot. 

 
 
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4tronix makecode starter guide: Part 5 - Bitbot Radio

 
 
 

Receive the tilt data values [Bit:bot micro:bit]


❏ Again, we’ll set our radio group to match the radio channel used to send data from 
our controller micro:bit. Instead of sending this time, we’ll put our code in the ​on 
radio received​ block and use an ​if..then​ block to decide which data is ‘pitch’ and 
which is ‘roll’. 
You’ll also need to create two variables called ‘rawRoll’ and ‘rawPitch’ - we’ll store 
the received data in these. 

 
 

 
 
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4tronix makecode starter guide: Part 5 - Bitbot Radio

 
 
 

Convert ‘roll’ data into left and right motor


speeds [Bit:bot micro:bit]
❏ The roll or pitch data is an angle, so we need to check whether the controller 
micro:bit is tilted: 
● right (roll greater than 10 degrees) 
● left (roll less than -10 degrees) 
If the answer is left, the value is going to be negative and this would make the motor 
go the wrong way, so we multiply it by -1. 
When we write this code into a ​forever​ block, it looks like this: 

 
You’ll need to create two more variables: ​rightMotor​, and ​leftMotor​ for the above 
code. 
 
❏ These variables are used to hold the speed we want each motor to run at. But 
before we send these to the motors, we should check if the micro:bit controller is 
not tilted left or right. Although this should be 0 degrees, we’re human so we’ll say 
between -10 and 10 degree just to make the controls a bit easier. 
 
If the controller is not tilted left or right, then we’ll use the pitch (forward/backward) 
to get the speed and direction to more in a straight line. 
 
To check whether the roll value is between -10 or 10, we need another ​if..then​ block 
with the condition shown below (put it in the​ forever​ loop, just below the other two 
if ​blocks): 

 
 

 
 
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4tronix makecode starter guide: Part 5 - Bitbot Radio

 
 
 
❏ To move forwards in a straight line, we just set both ​motorRight​ and ​motorLeft 
values to the ​rawPitch​ value. Remember, the ​rawPitch​ value is the angle that the 
controller micro:bit is tilted forwards or back (we multiply by -1 because it makes 
more sense that tilting the micro:bit controller forward makes the Bitbot go forwards. 

 
 
 

 
 
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4tronix makecode starter guide: Part 5 - Bitbot Radio

 
 
 

Mapping the tilt angle to motor speeds [Bit:bot


micro:bit]
❏ We are going to use a ​map​ block to convert the ​motorLeft​ and ​motorRight​ to 
motor speeds. For this, we’ll use the ​map​ block when setting the ​motorRight​ and 
motorLeft​ variables. You’ll see that we are converting a value in the range 0-180 
degrees into a useful value for our motor speeds between 0-1024. 
 
❏ To set the motors to run at the mapped ​motorLeft​ and ​motorRight​ speeds, we use 
the drive motor at..speed blocks. The code below shows these blocks, which go in 
our ​forever​ loop, but below and not inside any ​if..then​ blocks: 

 
Although these values are what we found to work for us, you may want to play with 
the numbers to get a more or less responsive robot. You can also add additional 
commands to your controller, such as pressing the A and B buttons to operate the 
LEDs. 
 
We’ll leave these to you as an additional challenge! 

 
 
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4tronix makecode starter guide: Part 5 - Bitbot Radio

 
 
 

The complete code listings


The complete code for the ​controller micro:bit​ is as follows: 

 
 
The complete code for the ​receiving Bitbot micro:bit​ is as follows:

 
 
 
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4tronix makecode starter guide: Part 5 - Bitbot Radio

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
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