Any news about BLE on micro:bit V2?

Questions and discussion about running MicroPython on a micro:bit board.
Target audience: MicroPython users with a micro:bit.
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alf147a
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Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:29 pm

Any news about BLE on micro:bit V2?

Post by alf147a » Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:43 pm

I see there are ports for several boards using nrf52832 and nrf52840 on GitHub but the microbit port is still for the "old" nrf51.
Does anyone know of a micropython port for the micro:bit V2 with ubluetooth library?
I think it would be a big advantage to have such a board with all the sensors, LEDs, Sound and full bluetooth support.

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jimmo
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Re: Any news about BLE on micro:bit V2?

Post by jimmo » Thu Feb 25, 2021 12:29 am

alf147a wrote:
Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:43 pm
I see there are ports for several boards using nrf52832 and nrf52840 on GitHub but the microbit port is still for the "old" nrf51.
Does anyone know of a micropython port for the micro:bit V2 with ubluetooth library?
I think it would be a big advantage to have such a board with all the sensors, LEDs, Sound and full bluetooth support.
Yeah this would be awesome.

I don't know what the exact plan for this is. As I'm sure you're aware, there are kind of four different micro:bit ports right now (although 2 and 4 are kind of the same):

- v1 bbcmicrobit/micropython (the "official" v1 firmware)
- v1 micropython/micropython/ports/nrf/boards/microbit (the "upstream" v1 firmware, but has much of the core micro:bit module)
- v2 microbit-foundation/micropython-microbit-v2 (the "offical" CoDAL based v2 firmware, no BLE support)
- v2 micropython/micropython/ports/nrf (no board definition created yet for v2, but the nrf52832 is supported)

The good news is that upstream nRF ubluetooth support is planned (for #2 and #4) and this will likely be done by implementing NimBLE over the mynewt controller.

With #3, I understand that the CoDAL does support BLE using the Nordic SoftDevice..... it's possible that someone could implement ubluetooth bindings for CoDAL's BLE, but I think it would be better to spend the time on the upstream work instead.

alf147a
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Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:29 pm

Re: Any news about BLE on micro:bit V2?

Post by alf147a » Thu Feb 25, 2021 12:11 pm

Hey jimmo,
thank you for your overview of current porting activities.
I wanted to be sure that I don't miss a BLE-able port in a state that is already testable.

I think we will see progress in the next months.

Regards
Alfred

alf147a
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2021 5:29 pm

Re: Any news about BLE on micro:bit V2?

Post by alf147a » Thu Feb 25, 2021 12:49 pm

I just found out, that circuitpython already has a port for a nrf52833 board:

#define MICROPY_HW_BOARD_NAME "PCA10100 nRF52833 Dongle"
#define MICROPY_HW_MCU_NAME "nRF52833"

Last commit was on Feb 18, 2021 – so quite current.

I don't know how far this circuitpython fork is away from micropython but maybe some hints are usable, what there is to do.

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