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by Pete Prodoehl

CH40-A - Thumbstick LED Matrix Simple

Written By: Pete Prodoehl
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Difficulty

Easy

Steps

5

Time Required

00:05:00 - 00:10:00

Sections

1

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0

Introduction

Connect a Thumbstick to a Bit Board and control the built-in LED Matrix on the micro:bit.

Video Overview

Featured Document

  1. We'll connect the Thumbstick with a Crazy Circuits Ribbon Cable using all four wires. Plug the three-wire connector of the Crazy Circuits Ribbon Cable into the row with Pin 0 on the Bit Board. The wire colors should match the pin header colors, with S1 (yellow) going to the yellow pin. Next, plug S2 (orange) into Pin 13. (S2 is separated from the three-wire connector to allow you to plug it into another row.)

    • We'll connect the Thumbstick with a Crazy Circuits Ribbon Cable using all four wires.

    • Plug the three-wire connector of the Crazy Circuits Ribbon Cable into the row with Pin 0 on the Bit Board. The wire colors should match the pin header colors, with S1 (yellow) going to the yellow pin.

    • Next, plug S2 (orange) into Pin 13. (S2 is separated from the three-wire connector to allow you to plug it into another row.)

    • To the Thumbstick plug - (black) into GND, + (red) into +5V; S1 (yellow) into VRx; S2 (orange) into SW.

    • We won't plug anything into VRy pin for this example.

  2. We used a 3D printed part we designed to hold the Thumbstick in place on a LEGO baseplate. We attached two 2x4 LEGO Bricks to the bottom of the 3D printed holder to allow it to snap onto the LEGO Baseplate a bit easier. Alternately you can try to use some LEGO bricks and some rubber bands to hold the sensor in place, or just hold it in your hand.

    • We used a 3D printed part we designed to hold the Thumbstick in place on a LEGO baseplate.

    • We attached two 2x4 LEGO Bricks to the bottom of the 3D printed holder to allow it to snap onto the LEGO Baseplate a bit easier.

    • Alternately you can try to use some LEGO bricks and some rubber bands to hold the sensor in place, or just hold it in your hand.

    • 3D print your own Thumbstick Sensor Holder.

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

    • 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 Thumbstick LED Matrix Simple program: https://makecode.microbit.org/_R3dbyTHb8...

    • In the on start block we'll enable the LED matrix and set Pin 13 to pull up.

    • In one forever loop we'll set buttonVal to read Pin 13 (which is connected to the button/switch on the Thumbstick) and if it's pressed we'll show an 'X' on the LED Matrix.

    • In the other forever loop we'll set xVal to the value from Pin 0 (which is connected to VRx, the X-axis of the Thumbstick) and then check if the value is between a number of ranges.

    • Remember, an analog input can give us values from 0 to 1023. Here we've divided that range into three sets, and show a corresponding pixel based on the Thumbstick position.

    • 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.

    • Move the Thumbstick left and right and you should see a pixel on the display move left and right. Press the Thumbstick down to see an 'X' on the screen.

Finish Line

Author

Pete Prodoehl

Member since: 3/4/20

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