CH2-A - LED Blink Together

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

Connect the Negative (-) sides of the LEDs to a Ground (GND) hole on the Bit Board.

Connect the Positive (+) side of the first LED to Pin 1 on the Bit Board.

Connect the Positive (+) side of the second LED to Pin 8 on the Bit Board.

You'll notice the Ground on the Bit Board (as well as the LED and other Crazy Circuits components we'll use) is color coded White.

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 LED Blink Together program: https://makecode.microbit.org/_hU7TEbA4Y...

This code will make both LEDs turn on, wait one second, turn them both off, wait another second, and then repeat.

The digital write command can be set to 1 or 0 to set a pin high or low which will turn on or off an LED in this example.

We can choose which pin will be affected using the drop down control in the digital write command. Here we have chosen Pin 1 and Pin 8.

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.

The LEDs should turn on together, then after one second turn off together, then after another second turn on again, and repeat.

You may be wondering if we could just connect two LEDs to one single pin...

The short answer is "Yes" but the long answer is "Maybe", so we'll explain.

In this specific case, connecting two Crazy Circuits LEDs to one single pin on the Bit Board... It will work.

But! there are a few caveats. First, our Crazy Circuits LEDs have built-in resistors which limit the amount of current they draw. So while connecting two LEDs is okay in this case, we shouldn't make it a habit.

Other LEDs may not have resistors built in. (Most do not!) We do it for ours to make getting started learning electronics a little easier.

As we delve into other components it will be rare that we'll be able to connect multiple parts to a single pin. So while worth mentioning here, we won't make a habit of it.

Finally, this connection method limits us to always controlling the LEDs together, and who wants to be limited?

In the next guide we'll cover how to control two LEDs separately!

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/QZck9h1C3A8