Barry's Blog

A few months back I bought a BBC Micro:bit at the Science Centre in Glasgow and it's been fun building apps with the single board device. I thought I'd write a blog entry about the latest project which will be a more permanent installation in our bathroom. A toothbrush timer! Kitronik sell an add on board which provides power from a coin cell battery and a piezo buzzer called a Mi:power, they also sell a Mi:power case which is designed to fit around a Micro:bit fitted with the Mi:power. This assembly combined with some code offers a neat toothbrushing timer. By using the display on the front we provide a short countdown - with a little tune through the buzzer. The program show 6 areas of the mouth to brush each for 20 seconds before showing a toothy grin and a finishing tune. Each time the area of the mouth changes it plays a 'level up' style jingle. Links to the parts: Mi:power https://www.kitronik.co.uk/5610-mipower-board-for-the-bbc-microbit.html Mi:powe...

After installing a hidden Linn DS for my bathroom, I found controlling it tricky, whilst using the phone is okay, I'd still like the convenience of a remote to switch off the music on the way out. I worked around this problem by extending the alarm clock functionality already in use for my kitchen to include a 'set standby' option. This would place the bathroom DS into standby mode at known times. Not ideal, but more useful. The Linn solution to this is a control panel on the wall which offers volume, power and a remote IR sensor. Whilst this gives me the ability to switch off on the way out. It would mean having a remote control in the bathroom to change source and not something I'd like. Since I'd added functionality to schedule stored playlists to start as well as the radio I convinced myself I also wanted the ability to preload a known selection of music at the press of a button. I'm a coder and after watching the RI Christmas lectures on 'hacking yo...