BBC Micro:Bit V2: Review

The Micro:Bit V2 commonly known as SBCs, Single-board computers.
SBC – single board computers is a computer which is built on a single board circuit including a single or multiple microprocessors, I/O interfaces, RAM and other peripherals. These things when put together will make a fully functional computer. There are plenty of SBC’s available in the market and you need to have a good understand how to use it.
SBCs have become increasingly popular in the maker community for their capabilities in small projects.

The first Micro:Bit came about as a result of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) initiative to educate more of the youth in the UK about technology and programming. The resulting BBC Micro:Bit is a small SBC with LEDs, buttons, ports, computing power, and more. One Micro:Bit was distributed, for free, to every seventh-grade student in the UK in 2016. Since then, Micro:Bit has continued its journey to strengthen young people’s knowledge about programming, computing, and other technologies.

The BBC Micro:Bit was also successful commercially, leading to the development of a second board known as the BBC Micro:Bit V2. The V2 is an improved version of the original, with some extra features like a touch sensor, microphone, and speaker.

The BBC Micro:Bit V2 is, like its predecessor, very small, powerful for its size, and useful for microcomputing projects, especially when size is a consideration. You can use 3D printing to make custom housings for the V2 to turn it into wearable device like watch, or use it for other small projects. The BBC Micro:Bit V2 costs around $30, but most retailers sell the board in a kit, along with a data transfer wire and a battery pack.

The first thing to look at with any modern-day SBC is its computing power, and unfortunately, the Micro:Bit V2 isn’t super powerful. However, it’s important to remember its size and how it’s not really meant for high-computing tasks.

The BBC Micro:Bit V2 uses an ARM Cortex-M4 processor with a clock speed of 64 MHz. For comparison, the Raspberry Pi Zero uses a clock speed of 400 MHz. This is definitely a disadvantage of the board, but again you have to remember the Micro:Bit’s size and how the board’s focus wasn’t the computing power.
Furthermore, the V2 has 128 KB of memory (RAM), equivalent to 0.000128 GB of RAM (to compare it to other SBCs that offer 1 GB+ of RAM). So obviously, the Micro:Bit doesn’t have a lot of memory, but it does have a 2.4 GHz radio antenna as well as Bluetooth 5.1. You can also use a low-power Bluetooth mode, and these features somewhat compensate for the lower computing power.

LEDs
The LEDs on the Micro:Bit V2 are perhaps one of the most obvious features of the board as they take up most of the front side of the SBC. These LEDs open the doorway to many small projects, from a pixel diagram to an LED reaction (light up) caused by sensor detections.

Ports & Sensors
The Micro:Bit V2 has a fair number of interface ports and sensors for its size. Because the board is commonly powered by a battery, there’s a port for using a battery power supply, usually AA batteries. There’s also a Micro-USB port for uploading programs and other data to the board from another device (laptop or PC), and when uploading information, you don’t have to power the board with a battery.
Other ports include the V2’s general-purpose input/output (GPIO) ports, also known as edge connectors. You can use these ports to add other features to the board, like a servo motor or maybe another sensor. There are also a 3 V power and a ground edge connector, which will also be needed for adding devices.

For the board’s sensors, the V2 has a built-in temperature sensor on its processing unit, which can help ensure the CPU isn’t burning up. Also, the board has a 3-axis accelerometer sensor that serves as a compass or a magnetometer, according to Micro:Bit. These functions allow the board to sense its orientation and the strength of nearby magnetic fields, but make sure to calibrate these features before incorporating them into a project or program.

Below is a list of the BBC Micro:Bit V2’s specs, including both digital and physical details:

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