Microbit Module

The microbit module gives you access to all the hardware that is built-in into your board.

Functions

microbit.panic(n)

Enter a panic mode that stops all execution, scrolls an error code in the micro:bit display and requires restart:

microbit.panic(255)
Parameters:n – An arbitrary integer between 0 and 255 to indicate an error code.
microbit.reset()

Restart the board.

microbit.running_time()
Returns:The number of milliseconds since the board was switched on or restarted.
microbit.scale(value, from_, to)

Converts a value from a range to another range.

For example, to convert 30 degrees from Celsius to Fahrenheit:

temp_fahrenheit = scale(30, from_=(0.0, 100.0), to=(32.0, 212.0))

This can be useful to convert values between inputs and outputs, for example an accelerometer x value to a speaker volume.

If one of the numbers in the to parameter is a floating point (i.e a decimal number like 10.0), this function will return a floating point number. If they are both integers (i.e 10), it will return an integer:

returns_int = scale(accelerometer.get_x(), from_=(-2000, 2000), to=(0, 255))

Negative scaling is also supported, for example scale(25, from_=(0, 100), to=(0, -200)) will return -50.

Parameters:
  • value – A number to convert.
  • from – A tuple to define the range to convert from.
  • to – A tuple to define the range to convert to.
Returns:

The value converted to the to range.
microbit.set_volume(volume)

(V2 only) Configure the output volume of the micro:bit speaker and pins:

microbit.set_volume(127)
Parameters:volume – An integer between 0 and 255 to set the volume.
microbit.sleep(n)

Wait for n milliseconds. One second is 1000 milliseconds, so microbit.sleep(1000) will pause the execution for one second.

Parameters:n – An integer or floating point number indicating the number of milliseconds to wait.
microbit.run_every(callback, days=None, h=None, min=None, s=None, ms=None)

Schedule to run a function at the interval specified by the time arguments.

run_every can be used in two ways:

  • As a Decorator - placed on top of the function to schedule. For example:

    @run_every(days=1, h=1, min=20, s=30, ms=50)
def my_function():
    # Do something here

  • As a Function - passing the callback as a positional argument. For example:

    def my_function():
    # Do something here
run_every(my_function, s=30)

Each argument corresponds to a different time unit and they are additive. So run_every(min=1, s=30) schedules the callback every minute and a half.

When an exception is thrown inside the callback function it deschedules the function. To avoid this you can catch exceptions with try/except.

Parameters:
  • callback – Function to call at the provided interval.
  • days – Sets the days mark for the scheduling.
  • h – Sets the hour mark for the scheduling.
  • min – Sets the minute mark for the scheduling.
  • s – Sets the second mark for the scheduling.
  • ms – Sets the millisecond mark for the scheduling.
microbit.temperature()
Returns:An integer with the temperature of the micro:bit in degrees Celcius.

Classes