Makey:bit With OLED
The Makey:bit Adventure Board is a way to power many different devices with a micro:bit. This tutorial will show you how to operate it with an OLED screen. OLED stands for "Organic Light Emitting Diode", a type of display. We will use the one included with the Makey:bit deluxe kit.
This Instructable is for beginners, to get you up and running quickly with an OLED.
Supplies
Makey:bit Adventure Board with 3 AA batteries
BBC micro:bit (1.0 or 2.0). If you are brand new to micro:bit, there are some good tutorials here.
OLED (the one shown here comes with the Makey:bit Adventure pack).
F-F jumper cables (there was one in our Adventure pack, but it didn't fit the pin spacing on the OLED)
Computer and USB cable for programming the micro:bit
Connect Makey:bit to the OLED
Insert the AA batteries into the Makey:bit.
Attach the OLED to the Makey:bit.
There are four pins to connect between the OLED and the Makey:bit. They are marked SDA (which stands for Serial Data, connected by the white wire in the photo), SCL (Serial Clock) (connected by the yellow wire), VCC (red wire), and GND (black wire).
Load OLED Extensions
- Select the Extensions option
- Enter "OLED" into the search bar
- Load a set of OLED extensions. We selected the one below to match the OLED included with the Makey:bit kit.
Look at the OLED Extension Blocks
On the makecode screen, you will see a menu item called "OLED 12864_I2C" (or similar). Clicking on the item will show makecode blocks like the ones shown above.
MakeCode
In this example, we initialized the OLED at the start of the program.
When we click button A, it clears the OLED screen and displays the word "GEARS". When we click button B, it clears the OLED screen and displays the word "CAMS".
Download and Play
Download the code to the micro:bit.
Once you have downloaded the code, insert the micro:bit into the Makey:bit. It is now possible to detach the USB cable and run the micro:bit using the Makey:bit's power (use the switch on the back).
Press Button A: and the word "GEARS" will display on the OLED. Press Button B: "CAMS" will display on the OLED. Experiment with some of the other code blocks from the OLED menu, or combine with other mechanisms like motors and sensors.