Installing Arduino IDE

 

Arduino tutorials have not been tested with BBC Micro:Bit version 2 and may not work.

To complete the more advanced tutorials you will need to install Arduino IDE and use that to program the BBC Micro:Bit.

The first half of the Ultrasonic Example will show you how to install Arduino IDE and set it up for use with the BBC Micro:Bit.

This might seem counter intuitive, you might be wondering why learn MicroPython and C. The reason is that MicroPython is less complex than C and easier to learn. I wanted to create vanilla examples using the Micro:Bit as it was designed; and that meant using MicroPython however I’ve found that the Micro:Bit is limited in its use by using MicroPython and to unleash all of its potential it is necessary to use C. You could use any IDE for this such as Visual Studio or mBed. I chose Arduino because its the easiest one to learn. By using Arduino IDE you will be able to create huge programs for the Micro:Bit. I found that using Mu and MicroPython the largest program that I could write was around 200 lines which, once your skills develop isn’t that big (This was for version 1 of the Micro:Bit, version 2 allows much bigger scripts to be written).