BlueFruit connection in Makecode maker

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Wolfman2004
 
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Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2020 7:13 am

BlueFruit connection in Makecode maker

Post by Wolfman2004 »

I have an Adafruit ItsyBitsy nRF52840 Express (long name), and want to use its Bluetooth capability with my smartphone via the BlueFruit Connect app.

I can find a ton of examples how to make the board do many things WHEN connected, but so far not a single page on HOW to activate the BLE on the board to facilitate the connection to my phones Adafruit Connect app, or how to setup the app.

How do I get the bluetooth blocks into my editor? I can actually find them for my Micro:Bit version, but has Adafruit ignored this possibility when they are making so many great products that has BLE onboard?

I am only using the MakeCode Maker (block edition for Micro:Bit and for Maker.MakeCode) for editing, so please - No arduino nor javascript !

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johnpark
 
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Re: BlueFruit connection in Makecode maker

Post by johnpark »

Have you tried adding the Extensions for Radio and Radio-Broadcast? These are available in Advanced > Extensions.

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Wolfman2004
 
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Re: BlueFruit connection in Makecode maker

Post by Wolfman2004 »

Hi John.

I have already added the broadcast extension, and I guess that the "Radio" part is bluetooth.

However I do not know how to make it function with the bluefruit app on my phone.

The extensions does not give much help in this matter, they does not even have the name / word "bluetooth" anywhere.

How would I have to set it up in the radio part, before my phone would find it and become able to interact with it?

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loretod
 
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Re: BlueFruit connection in Makecode maker

Post by loretod »

Just throwing my two cents in here as well. It would be amazing if the Maker Makecode platform could support blocked-based Bluetooth connecting similar to how it functions with the Microbit. Although Circuitpython is pretty user-friendly, I was hoping that the Maker Makecode platform might be able to support this option to allow total beginners to programming Adafruit boards for assistive technology purposes. The Microbit does not support the HID library like most of the Adafruit boards.

Since the Microbit Bluetooth extension already exists, I'm not sure how difficult it would be to convert these blocks for Adafruit boards? I imagine this extension is open-sourced on Github somewhere?
https://lancaster-university.github.io/ ... e/profile/- Microbit Bluetooth Profile Documentation
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Screen Shot 2021-07-17 at 3.04.47 PM.png (73.73 KiB) Viewed 1158 times
I know everyone is super busy and this might be the last item on people's to-do projects but would be an amazing resource to unlock and broaden the scope of the MCUs to persons with disabilities. I'm also wondering if this IS indeed possible? Perhaps we could find a volunteer coder on the Adafruit Discord server or elsewhere to take on this project?

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