CH11-A - Potentiometer Number

We'll use Maker Tape to connect the Potentiometer to the Bit Board on a LEGO baseplate.

We'll need to connect one side of the Potentiometer to Ground (GND) and the other side to 3.3v

We will then connect the center of the Potentiometer to Pin 0. (Note that Pin 0 is an analog pin, which we'll need for the Potentiometer.)

The other analog pins are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10. See this chart for a pinout diagram: https://makecode.microbit.org/device/pin...

You'll notice the Ground on the Bit Board is color coded White.

The 3.3v hole on the Bit Board is labeled and is actually two holes right next to each other on the Bit Board. (There is a small line showing the connection between them.)

If you've never used a micro:bit before you'll want to check out this guide: Bit Board V2 Setup and Use

We're going to load the following code for our Potentiometer Number program: https://makecode.microbit.org/_LR9AMX1Hh...

This is some simple code! It will just use the built-in LED matrix on the micro:bit to display the value from the Potentiometer.

Once the code is loaded it should start running immediately.

You can power the micro:bit via the USB cable you used to load the code or you can use a battery pack plugged into the Bit Board.

Turn the small blue knob on the Potentiometer and you'll see numbers scrolling across the LED matrix.

We'll be honest... it's not ideal! Since the values range from 0 to 1023 any number that is not a single digit will scroll across the LED matrix.

Turn the knob all the way anti-clockwise and see if a zero appears. Then turn it very slowly clockwise to see the numbers increase.

Don't worry, we'll work within the limitations of the LED matrix in the next guide!

Follow along with our recorded Live Stream!

You can watch the full video of us walking through this project, along with explaining and exploring the code: https://youtube.com/live/jN7oP8TrU8k