While sitting in my hotel room the night before I lead a workshop on physical computing using the Circuit Playground Express and MakeCode I decided to give myself another challenge.
I am finding these challenges of building with limited tools and supplies to be quite engaging and challenging to keep me present in the everyday struggles every single educator faces.
My challenge was to build a project that used the Circuit Playground to control a 3.3v microservo motor using the IR sensor features. This was my first time messing with this function.
With anything we do in this field I made mistakes, had to rethink my original design, deal with setback, figure out why things did not work, but in the end Coffeeman was born and we have one cool looking project.
As my daughter told me while doing a FaceTime the Circuit Playground is not an eye, but his brain lighting up. I love it!
This video is documenting my build and sharing how I coded everything. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Here are the links to my MakeCode programs
Coffeeman Loop program https://makecode.com/_Wt39yXC1zCEP
IR Remote code https://makecode.com/_Ui677xWJ2CMC
Hi Aaron…Karl from Sydney here. Just a thumbs up for the tutorial vid on Circuit Playground…’i want coffee!’ I think your daughter was right about it being the brain lighting up. Just discovered the CP via Micro S Makecode site. The CP packs a lot in for such a small device..plus its not expensive.
I teach full time Lego Ev3. About 500 kids a week. 5 to 6 classes a day. 8 to 11 yr olds. We are talking only 50 to 60 min classes. So its all about the code with a fixed robot. No building challenges unfortunately. So far I have written 20 lessons (two school Terms) we have two Terms to go. Thinking this might be a a tangent to take the students on. Plus the beta Make Code for the Ev3s…thats something else to explore.
If you have any other suggestions for quick coding lessons – with or without sensors on Ev3…then please let me know. Love the enthusiasm – keep it up. All the best from Australia.