LED Flags

In this step-by-step lesson, you'll learn how to create LED flags using a Microbit project. You'll start by making simple bicolor and tricolor flags, then progress to a more challenging task of coding the LED to represent the American flag. This lesson combines creativity with coding skills.

Learning Goals Learning Outcomes Teacher Notes

Warning: Your screen size is quite small for viewing this. Rotate your device into landscape mode if you can.

1 Introduction
2 Create a new Microbit project
3 Add the neopixel extension
4 Setup the LED Strip
5 Make a bicolor flag
6 Make a tricolor flag
7 Challenge
Challenge
Quiz

1 - Introduction

Let's try make some flags using our LED strip. The easiest flags to make will be bicolor (2 colour) flags or tricolor (3 color) flags but we can get creative and make other ones as well.

10 points

2 - Create a new Microbit project

To get started create a new Microbit project.

makecode.microbit.org

Microbit: How to create a new Microbit project

Go to the Makecode.com Microbit website using the link below and click on the 'New Project' button underneath the 'My Projects' heading.

https://makecode.microbit.org/

Install the micro:bit app on your iPad or tablet.

Open the app, tap 'Create code' and then create a new project.

10 points

3 - Add the neopixel extension

To access the blocks we need to program the LED strip, you need to add the neopixel extension to your project.

Microbit: How to add an extension

To add an extension follow these steps:

Click on 'Advanced' in the toolbox
Click 'Extensions'
Type the name of the extension in the search box
Click on the extension in the search results
The extension and all it's blocks will be added to your toolbox

15 points

4 - Setup the LED Strip

To be able to interact and program the LED strip we will need a variable that stores the strip.

Add the following code to your project. We set the value to be 30 as there are 30 LEDs on the strip.

20 points

5 - Make a bicolor flag

To make a bicolor flag, we will create 2 ranges of LEDs on the strip and light them up the separate colours of the flag. In this example we're going to make the flag of Malta which is white and red.

Create 2 ranges: