So you finished Python for kids? Wouldn't it be awesome to use your BBC micro:bit as a wireless game controller for your own DIY games? You can do it with this python package! Pair your micro:bit to your computer with bluetooth and use buttons A and B or the accelerometer to control your game. Like it? Give us a ⭐ on github!
Kasper's microbit is a python package to make a connection to a BBC micro:bit by means of the Bluetooth LE GATT services exposed by the micro:bit.
Watch the full video on youtube
Install kaspersmicrobit:
$ pip install kaspersmicrobitCopy this hex file to the micro:bit and run your first program:
import time
from kaspersmicrobit import KaspersMicrobit
def pressed(button):
print(f"button {button} pressed")
with KaspersMicrobit.find_one_microbit() as microbit:
microbit.buttons.on_button_a(press=pressed)
time.sleep(10)Visit https://kaspersmicrobit.readthedocs.io:
- Try the accelerometer, or the led display
- Learn to make your own .hex files
- Simple examples, learn how to use each service offered by the micro:bit
- Full Api documentation
- Combining KaspersMicrobit with tkinter or with pygame
Or take a look at the examples directory.
Below you can find which combinations of operating systems and microbit versions have been known to work.
| micro:bit v2.x | No pairing required | Just works pairing |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Linux | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| MacOS | ✔️ | ❌ |
| micro:bit v1.x | No pairing required | Just works pairing |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | ✔️ | ❌ |
| Linux | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| MacOS | ✔️ * | ❌ |
* Magnetometer calibration of micro:bit v1 on MacOS fails with the micro:bit not responding or going out of memory (error 020 + sad face)
$ pip install --upgrade kaspersmicrobit First try turning the micro:bit off and on again.
If you are not using the "with"-block, but calling .connect() yourself, always make sure that in any case you
call .disconnect() when you don't need the connection anymore (for instance when you exit your application)
If the hex file was created with the setting "No pairing required" then the micro:bit should not be paired with the operating system
Don't use pairing with a micro:bit v1 on windows, use "No pairing required" instead.
For other versions: try to remove the micro:bit from the paired Bluetooth devices and pairing it your computer again.
See also: The micro:bit Bluetooth troubleshooting guide (.docx word file download)
See: How to find the name of your micro:bit
This means the micro:bit is out of memory. You probably have enabled too many Bluetooth services in MakeCode. Or maybe
your MakeCode program is too large. Because the micro:bit v1 has less memory than the v2, this has a higher chance to
occur on v1 micro:bits.
See also: the micro:bit error codes
When combining kaspersmicrobit with tkinter (the window library used in Python for kids) you could bump into the TK error "main thread is not in main loop". This is probably because you call TK code from within a callback function that you registered to be called when a button press occurs or new accelerometer data is present (or some other notification). The callback is executed on a different thread and tkinter does not like this. There are at least 2 solutions for this:
- don't call tkinter code in a callback
- wrap the callback with
kaspersmicrobit.tkinter.do_in_tkinter(tk, your_callback)this makes sure that your callback will be executed on the tk thread, avoiding the error