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App Inventor + Iot: Flying Bees With BBC Micro:Bit Magnetometer Sensor

This tutorial teaches you how to build an app in App Inventor that uses the magnetometer sensor on a BBC micro:bit controller to control the movement of a bee icon, by connecting to the micro:bit over Bluetooth and reading magnetometer data to update the bee's heading and display magnetometer values. The app displays magnetometer X, Y, Z values and bearing on labels and sets an image sprite's heading based on the Z-axis data to simulate the bee flying in response to magnetic fields detected by the micro:bit.

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Thanh Pham Minh
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110 views7 pages

App Inventor + Iot: Flying Bees With BBC Micro:Bit Magnetometer Sensor

This tutorial teaches you how to build an app in App Inventor that uses the magnetometer sensor on a BBC micro:bit controller to control the movement of a bee icon, by connecting to the micro:bit over Bluetooth and reading magnetometer data to update the bee's heading and display magnetometer values. The app displays magnetometer X, Y, Z values and bearing on labels and sets an image sprite's heading based on the Z-axis data to simulate the bee flying in response to magnetic fields detected by the micro:bit.

Uploaded by

Thanh Pham Minh
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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App Inventor + IoT: 60

Flying bees with BBC Micro:bit mins

Magnetometer sensor (with Basic Connection


tutorial completed)

Level: advanced

This tutorial will help you get started with App Inventor + IoT and
the magnetometer sensor on a BBC micro:bit controller. By
shaking or put a small magnet around the micro:bit, you will see
the bee icon on your app is flying.
 source .aia

Hardware
You only need one BBC micro:bit to get started with this project.

Pairing with Micro:bit


First, you will need to pair your
Android phone or tablet to the
micro:bit controller, using these
directions. Your device must be
paired with the micro:bit in
order for the app to work.
App Inventor
This app can let you control a small Bee icon in the app to move
around according the magnetic field around micro:bit. Now log into
MIT App Inventor site and create a new project.

You should complete the App Inventor + IoT Basic Connection


tutorial to make a basic connection to the micro:bit device. If you
prefer, you can download the completed .aia file here.
● App Inventor’s micro:bit magnetometer component’s document

The remaining steps all build off of the starter code for Basic
Connection tutorial and its .aia source code.

Designer
First, we need to add the necessary extension.
● In the Palette window, click on Extension at the
bottom and then on "Import extension" and click on
"URL".
○ Paste micro:bit extension URL:
http://iot.appinventor.mit.edu/assets/com.bbc.mi
cro:bit.profile.aix
● Add a Microbit_Magnetometer extension to
your app by dragging it onto the Viewer, set its
BluetoothDevice to "BluetoothLE1"(Don’t
forget!).
Let’s add more components to our app to read the magnetometer
status.
● From the Drawing and animation drawer in the
Palette, drag in a Canvas and an ImageSprite.
Set Canvas’s height to 320 pixels, width to fill
parent (or any size you like).
• Set ImageSprite’s Picture to some cute
image (no bigger than the canvas).
● Add four Label to show Magnetometer’s X, Y, Z
axis and bearing value.
After some adjusting, your designer should look similar to this. It
doesn’t have to be exactly the same. Feel free to modify the
component’s background color, position and text size.
Blocks
We would like to control ImageSprite’s heading by the Z-axis
movement of magnetometer on micro:bit controller. Let’s begin:

STEP 1: Request updates when connected


In the BluetoothLE1.Connected event, we show messages and tell
the micro:bit to update the magnetometer’s state.
And in the Microbit_Magnetometer1.WroteMagnetometerPeriod
event, we show the related message and the period value just set.

STEP2: Show bearing value


Whenever the Micro:bit’s bearing value is changed
(MagnetoBearingReceived event), we show the bearing value on
the label.

STEP3: Show XYZ data and control ImageSprite


Same idea, whenever the magnetic situation around Micro:bit is
changed (Microbit_Magnetometer1.MagnetoDataReceived event),
we do things below:
● Set ImageSprite’s heading to Magnetometer_Z value.
● Show X, Y and Z axis value on corresponding label, check
image below for micro:bit’s axis.

(From https://makecode.microbit.org )

Tips
Your app should now be working! Make sure you have paired the
Bluetooth on your Android device to your micro:bit. Then test it out
by connecting your micro:bit device using the MIT AI2 Companion
(if you haven't already) or installing it by .apk. Try to shake or flip
around your micro:bit or have a small magnet (not too strong or it
may influence your device!) point toward it, you should see the App
Inventor logo turning and turning!
Brainstorming
1. Try to add more cute movement into your app, for example,
you can use X and Y axis values to make ImageSprite move
left and right and show something when it bumps the edge of
the Canvas. (Refer to our Micro:bit button tutorial).
2. Add some sound effects when the magneto sensor value
have exceeded certain level.

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