CH11-D - Potentiometer Pixel Smooth

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 Pixel Smooth program: https://makecode.microbit.org/_gutWHvAia...

For this code we've added a variable to track the previous value of the Potentiometer. This allows us to compare it to the current value, and only clear the screen and plot a new pixel if the value has changed.

While our code is a little more complicated, it becomes more efficient, and only executes certain commands based on conditions.

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 should see a single pixel move left or right.

This time we plot the pixel (after clearing the screen) only after we check if the value from the Potentiometer has changed from what its previous value was.

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