[ARM] BBC micro:bit nRF51822 impressions

[James Cameron]

For a primary school teaching project, my wife and I were given two
BBC micro:bit embedded systems. They've been around since 2015, but
this is the first time I've used them.

One of my regular irritations in new designs is startup time. Complex
firmware bootloaders slow things down.

So I used Atom and PlatformIO to code a blinky, and looked at the time
between 3.3V power and I/O pin rise. It is 2.5ms, which is quite
nice.

Loading Image...

Looking into it, there are two microcontrollers; the Nordic nRF51822
runs the application, and an NXP KL26Z is used as the USB interface.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Bit

[Kevin McGuinness]

I had heard of the BBC educational computer from the 80's but I didn't know
it was released more recently.

How would you compare it to an Arduino as an educational tool?

Post by James Cameron
For a primary school teaching project, my wife and I were given two
BBC micro:bit embedded systems. They've been around since 2015, but
this is the first time I've used them.
One of my regular irritations in new designs is startup time. Complex
firmware bootloaders slow things down.
So I used Atom and PlatformIO to code a blinky, and looked at the time
between 3.3V power and I/O pin rise. It is 2.5ms, which is quite
nice.
http://dev.laptop.org/~quozl/20171107-bbc-microbit-startup.png
Looking into it, there are two microcontrollers; the Nordic nRF51822
runs the application, and an NXP KL26Z is used as the USB interface.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Bit
--
James Cameron
http://quozl.netrek.org/
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[James Cameron]

Guess one could compare several dimensions of a phase space ...

- CPU speed,

- RAM,

- Flash,

- included peripherals in CPU,

- included peripherals on PCB,

- diversity of development environments across operating systems,

- power options,

- prototyping connectivity.

In every dimension the BBC micro:bit is superior to an Arduino Uno,
which is the other device I'm teaching with. But perhaps more
comparable to an Arduino 101 or MKR1000.

Post by Kevin McGuinness
I had heard of the BBC educational computer from the 80's but I didn't know
it was released more recently.
How would you compare it to an Arduino as an educational tool?

Post by James Cameron
For a primary school teaching project, my wife and I were given two
BBC micro:bit embedded systems. They've been around since 2015, but
this is the first time I've used them.
One of my regular irritations in new designs is startup time. Complex
firmware bootloaders slow things down.
So I used Atom and PlatformIO to code a blinky, and looked at the time
between 3.3V power and I/O pin rise. It is 2.5ms, which is quite
nice.
http://dev.laptop.org/~quozl/20171107-bbc-microbit-startup.png
Looking into it, there are two microcontrollers; the Nordic nRF51822
runs the application, and an NXP KL26Z is used as the USB interface.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Bit
--
James Cameron
http://quozl.netrek.org/
--
http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist

--
http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist