micro:bit kernel

[Thomas Kluyver]

Hi all,

I'd like to introduce a Jupyter kernel for controlling the BBC micro:bit:
https://github.com/takluyver/ubit_kernel

The micro:bit is a single-board computer with various accessories built in - a 5x5 pixel LED grid, two buttons, pins, an accelerometer and a compass. It's being distributed to every year 7 student (age ~11) in the UK, to foster an interest in programming.

Thanks to the hard work of other people, especially Damien George in Cambridge, the micro:bit can run MicroPython, a Python 3 dialect for microcontrollers. The MicroPython port on the micro:bit offers convenient high level functions like scrolling text across the LED display, and calculating gestures from the accelerometer.

Fernando and Nicholas Tollervey met at EdFoo and started working on a Jupyter kernel for the micro:bit (http://ntoll.org/article/edfoo ). I've built on the code from that using our wrapper kernel machinery. ubit_kernel runs on your local computer, sending code to the microbit over a serial port and reading the results back. It's early days, and there's plenty to improve, but if you can beg, borrow or steal a micro:bit from somewhere, you can start playing with it from a notebook.

Best wishes,

Thomas

[Dave Willmer]

This is awesome, thanks Thomas! :)

[Fernando Perez]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 5:15 AM, Dave Willmer <dave.w...@gmail.com> wrote:

This is awesome, thanks Thomas! :)

+1!

I got really excited talking to Nicholas, who did all the initial hard work.  It's a bit of a weird setup, b/c the microbit does run python, but can't run a full kernel by itself (this is why the kernel_wrapper machinery makes sense in this case, despite the device running python natively). The result is sort of a "two headed python":

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/133923/20160216/python-gives-birth-to-two-headed-snake-in-australia.htm

I now look forward to our next million Jupyter contributors coming from the UK :)

Cheers

f

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Fernando Perez (@fperez_org; http://fperez.org)
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[Denis Akhiyarov]

This is great for teachers and students in UK! Any way this 2-headed snake from jupyter world could work with generic uPy without BBC microbit for those who own PyBoard or other similar boards?

[Thomas Kluyver]

Hi Denis,

There's no reason it couldn't work with other boards running micropython, but I don't have any to check. Can you connect to it as a serial device and get a REPL? If so, it should be just a question of tweaking the code that identifies the device and opens the serial connection.

Thomas

On 25 Mar 2016 02:06, "Denis Akhiyarov" <denis.a...@gmail.com> wrote:

This is great for teachers and students in UK! Any way this 2-headed snake from jupyter world could work with generic uPy without BBC microbit for those who own PyBoard or other similar boards?

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[Sylvain Corlay]

I am curious, what prevents micro python to run ipykernel? Can it run ipython itself?

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[Thomas Kluyver]

It's running without an operating system, so there are many things missing. On the micro:bit at least, there's no networking capability that I'm aware of. I don't think there's even a filesystem. I'm pretty sure that running IPython on it directly would be either impossible or very hard.

Thomas

[Robin Cole]

Great work, just what I wanted from the micropython platform!

[Thomas Kluyver]

To follow up on an earlier question (from Denis), Jens Nie made a variant of the kernel for the NodeMCU board:
https://github.com/jneines/nodemcu_kernel/

He has told me that this was as simple as changing the USB PID & VID it looks for. So we might look at merging them into a single micropython kernel which checks for a range of boards.

Thomas

On 29 April 2017 at 08:07, Robin Cole <robma...@gmail.com> wrote:

Great work, just what I wanted from the micropython platform!

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[Roy Volkwyn]

Hi Thomas,

Has any other work been done on  Jupyter for micro:bit apart from your work on Github?

I am new to this Group. Bought some Jupyter courses on Udemy just over a year ago but did not start using them. Paid for Juno Pro so I could run Jupyter on my iPad. Installed Carnets so I can run Jupyter Notebook natively on my iPad.

I am gearing up to give Micro:bit courses. One module will be for Micropython. It will teach Python/Micropython to children, teachers, laypersons.  I would like to introduce Jupyter too, if it can be easily installed and simply used.

Roy

On Tuesday, May 2, 2017 at 2:25:25 PM UTC+2, takowl wrote:

To follow up on an earlier question (from Denis), Jens Nie made a variant of the kernel for the NodeMCU board:
https://github.com/jneines/nodemcu_kernel/

He has told me that this was as simple as changing the USB PID & VID it looks for. So we might look at merging them into a single micropython kernel which checks for a range of boards.

Thomas

On 29 April 2017 at 08:07, Robin Cole <robma...@gmail.com> wrote:

Great work, just what I wanted from the micropython platform!

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