MakeCode and IOS

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flounder
 
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MakeCode and IOS

Post by flounder »

The K-5 school I volunteer at has lots of iPads for the students. PC access is only in the lab, which is usually booked, and getting anything loaded on requires massive amounts of approval through the facilities people. Is there any way (e.g., BLE) to use MakeCode on the iPads and get the code loaded into a chip? I can go with a Feather as the host for a Crickit, although CPX would be my preferred choice. Or can I get the code onto my Windows laptop or Mac laptop and download from there? (not as simple as letting the kids do it themselves). Or can I use rebuilt ChromeBooks? I've seen these as low as $46 refurb, although I don't feel comfortable with the conditions (the "as is" parts that are not guaranteed).
joe

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danhalbert
 
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Re: MakeCode and IOS

Post by danhalbert »

MakeCode does have BLE capability for iOS for microBit: https://microbit.org/hk/guide/ble-ios/, so this is possible in principle. We are working on upcoming boards that will support BLE. However, this is all months off, and there's not a defined schedule.

I would think you could have your students do MakeCode editing and simulation on the iPads, share their projects, and then you can download those projects via some laptop or Chromebook, as you suggested. MakeCode is set up for that. Or download the .uf2's on the iPad and then push those files back to some cloud storage, and then download again via a laptop

Chromebooks work for direct download. I've seen inexpensive refurbished ones, but not as cheap as $46.

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oesterle
 
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Re: MakeCode and IOS

Post by oesterle »

Micro:bit uses a dedicated micro:bit app for iOS.

Interestingly, the various Espruino BLE products are also programmable via iOS devices, using WebBluetooth. Espruino utilizes the WebBLE app on iOS.

Adapting the web-based MakeCode app slightly to use WebBLE on iOS might be a shortcut for Adafruit to get something up and running quickly on a hypothetical future BLE CPX.

Cheers,

Eric

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