kaspersmicrobit

Kasper's micro:bit

So you finished Python for kids? Wouldn't it be awesome to use your BBC micro:bit as a wireless game controller for your own DIY games? You can do it with this python package! Pair your micro:bit to your computer with bluetooth and use buttons A and B or the accelerometer to control your game. Like it? Give us a :star: on github!

Kasper's microbit is a python package to make a connection to a BBC micro:bit by means of the Bluetooth LE GATT services exposed by the micro:bit.

Watch the full video on youtube

Getting started

Install kaspersmicrobit:

$ pip install kaspersmicrobit

Copy this hex file to the micro:bit and run your first program:

import time

from kaspersmicrobit import KaspersMicrobit


def pressed(button):
    print(f"button {button} pressed")

with KaspersMicrobit.find_one_microbit() as microbit:
    microbit.buttons.on_button_a(press=pressed)
    time.sleep(10)

Learn more

Visit https://kaspersmicrobit.readthedocs.io:

• Try the accelerometer, or the led display
• Learn to make your own .hex files
• Simple examples, learn how to use each service offered by the micro:bit
• Full Api documentation
• Combining KaspersMicrobit with tkinter or with pygame

Or take a look at the examples directory.

Micro:bit versions, operating systems, Bluetooth pairing

Below you can find which combinations of operating systems and microbit versions have been known to work.

micro:bit v2.x	No pairing required	Just works pairing
Windows	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:
Linux	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:
MacOS	:heavy_check_mark:	:grey_question:

I don't have a mac to test kaspersmicrobit on. Let me know here (#5) if it works or not! Thanks @RyanNorge for testing a micro:bit v2.x on MacOS in "No pairing required" mode

micro:bit v1.x	No pairing required	Just works pairing
Windows	:heavy_check_mark:	:x:
Linux	:heavy_check_mark:	:heavy_check_mark:
MacOS	:grey_question:	:grey_question:

Troubleshooting

Upgrade to the latest version

$  pip install --upgrade kaspersmicrobit  

Bluetooth connection

First try turning the micro:bit off and on again.

If you are not using the "with"-block, but calling .connect() yourself, always make sure that in any case you call .disconnect() when you don't need the connection anymore (for instance when you exit your application)

No pairing required

If the hex file was created with the setting "No pairing required" then the micro:bit should not be paired with the operating system

Just works pairing

Don't use pairing with a micro:bit v1 on windows, use "No pairing required" instead.

For other versions: try to remove the micro:bit from the paired Bluetooth devices and pairing it your computer again.

See also: https://support.microbit.org/helpdesk/attachments/19075694226

The micro:bit shows a sad face and error 020

This means the micro:bit is out of memory. You probably have enabled too many Bluetooth services in MakeCode. Or maybe your MakeCode program is too large. Because the micro:bit v1 has less memory than the v2, this has a higher chance to occur on v1 micro:bits. See also: the micro:bit error codes

tkinter "main thread is not in main loop"

When combining kaspersmicrobit with tkinter (the window library used in Python for kids) you could bump into the TK error "main thread is not in main loop". This is probably because you call TK code from within a callback function that you registered to be called when a button press occurs or new accelerometer data is present (or some other notification). The callback is executed on a different thread and tkinter does not like this. There are at least 2 solutions for this:

• don't call tkinter code in a callback
• wrap the callback with kaspersmicrobit.tkinter.do_in_tkinter(tk, your_callback) this makes sure that your callback will be executed on the tk thread, avoiding the error