Skip to main content

Explore cloudBit


The cloudBit module allows tinkerers, kids and grownups alike, to connect their littleBit creations to a smartphone. This turns your littleBits into an IoT (Internet of Things) device. After I received my cloudBit Starter Kit, my daughter and I tried out a basic circuit to communicate with each other between the two different levels of our house.


Each littleBit has magnets on both ends of the module. This makes it easy for kids to build circuits.
The modules snap together when they are arranged correctly.

The magnets push apart when the modules are not arranged correctly and do not snap together.

Here’s the basic circuit my daughter and I created to test out our communication device idea.

Connecting the cloudBit to our router was easy using a smartphone and the littleBits cloud start website.


After our littleBits cloudBit was connected to the router, we set up some rules (or recipes) with triggers and events using my IFTTT (If This Then That) account. The first recipe we set up was to trigger the long LED module on the circuit using an IFTTT DO button (now referred to as a widget) on my smartphone.


When I pushed the Turn On LED button shown on my smartphone while sitting downstairs, the long LED module in our littleBits circuit would illuminate upstairs where my daughter could see it.


Then we set up a recipe (now referred to as applets) to show an IFTTT notification on my smartphone indicating that my daughter would be on her way down from the upstairs. The recipe would be triggered by the littleBits push button input module on the circuit.


Each time I pressed the button on my smartphone, the LED would light up. My daughter would see it and respond with an IFTTT notification sent to my phone by pushing the button module on the littleBits circuit.


We had a lot of fun testing out our littleBits cloudBit by signaling each other in our house! My daughter loved sending me a message and running downstairs to see if it actually worked. I’m sure will be making many more connected projects with littleBits!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tippe Top Design

The physics behind the tippe top toy have been the subject of studies by scientists for years - dating back to the early 1890s. The tippe top is spun just like any other top, but pulls a surprise stunt. The top flips over and spins on its stem when given a strong twist. Why does the tippe top flip over? What does this mean for anyone planning to make one on a 3D printer? Nobel Prize winners, Wolfgang Pauli and Niels Bohr, take a break with a tippe top at the 1954 inauguration of the Institute of Physics in Lund, Sweden. Early Top Patents The first patent for the top, listed as “Wendekreisel”, was filed in Germany by Helene Sperl in 1891. While the patent seems to describe the top’s inversion property, reproductions of the top have proved unsuccessful. The patent expired after one year because the fee wasn’t paid. During a trip to South America, Danish engineer Werner Østberg noticed kids spinning a small, round fruit. While spinning, the fruit would flip over (or...

micro:bit Fireworks with Python

I used the MicroPython editor to program a fireworks animation that controls the brightness of the LEDs as the firework explodes on the LED display. For young computer science students, this is a great introduction to text-based programming, arrays, and animating LEDs. Code # Display message and show pacman with firework option from microbit import * firework1 = Image("00000:00000:00000:00000:00200") firework2 = Image("00000:00000:00000:00200:00100") firework3 = Image("00000:00000:00200:00100:00000") firework4 = Image("00000:00000:00900:00000:00000") firework5 = Image("00000:07870:08580:07870:00000") firework6 = Image("60706:01210:72127:01210:60706") firework7 = Image("30503:00000:50005:00000:30503") firework8 = Image("10201:00000:20002:00000:10201") all_firework = [firework1, firework2, firework3, firework4, firework5, firework6, firework7, firework8] while True: if button_a.is_pressed(): ...

Remote Control micro:bot

Using SparkFun’s micro:bot kit and their gamer:bit breakout board, I programmed the micro:bot to be controlled by a second micro:bit microcontroller. The two micro:bits transfer data packets over low-energy Bluetooth antennae. The micro:bot can also be programmed to follow a line using its three line sensors and has the capability to control a couple of servos that come with the kit. The SparkFun moto:bit, also in the kit, breaks out the 21 pins on the micro:bit and sets it up to control DC motors and servos. Additional power is provided through a barrel power jack and four AA batteries nicely secured on the lower level of the micro:bot. The entire bot takes about 30 minutes to assemble. Programming it can take as long as you want… A moto:bit package can be added to Microsoft’s MakeCode micro:bit code editor . I used this package to control the micro:bot’s motors. If you have the gamer:bit, micro:bot, and a couple of micro:bits lying around, feel free to download my program to ...