Micro-Bit Arcade Machine

In this Instructable you will be hooking up a joystick to a Micro-bit and making a machine you find at arcades. Inspiration to make this project came when I decided to figure out how to add parts onto Micro-bits, like joysticks. Once I completed my original goal, I decided to go further and instead of a Micro-bit, Joystick, and a million messy wires in between, I challenged myself to make an Arcade style box to put it in and I hope you will too!

You will need:

• A light cardboard box (see step 1)
• A hole puncher
• A Micro-bit with some sort of extension board
• A battery pack and USB cable
• 4 Micro-bit buttons
• 4 connector wires, 1 black, 1 red, and 2 random
• A computer (pretty sure you have one!)

First let's get some cardboard,

This arcade machine should be made out of light cardboard, slightly thicker then a cereal box, but not corrugated. The end result should be about the width and length of your micro-bit extension board.

For this project I will be using the measurements for this extension board (in the kit). Most extension boards that are smaller then 3.25 inches should work though.

Now you can use the pictures as a guide to measure your box, clicking them enlarges the pictures.

Now that we have box measured, it is time to cut it. Simply cut it out along the edge of the boarder,

Also looking at the pictures for text boxes.

Let us begin to measure holes to put things in.

1. Starting with the hole for the Micro-Bit, outline the uppermost part of the box upside down with your Micro-Bit, as in the pictures.

2. Now use a hole puncher to make a hole right were the battery pack is going to go through.

3. Finally, make a hole on the end of the box just big enough to fit your joystick.

First let us download the code that we are using for this project.

Use a USB to plug in your micro-bit into your computer, then download the code to your computer using the download below this step, then download it to your Micro-Bit using its file (found in your computer's files)

Once completed, your Micro-Bit should light up "A" on its screen.

Once you put your Micro-bit into the extension board, you should look for four pins on it, the Ground pin, 3V(volts) pin, pin 1, and pin 2.

Start putting in your connector wires, connect one end of the black connector to ground, the red connector to 3V, and the two random ones to pins 1 and 2.

Finally, take the other ends of each and put the black connector to Ground on the joystick, the red to 5V, pin 1 to VRX, and pin 2 to VRY.

VRX makes an output between 0 and 1023, depending on the x position of the joystick(or horizontal position) VRY outputs the Y position (or vertical position).

Now we will be putting on the Micro-bit to the arcade box.

Download Here

Start by using hot-glue to glue the Micro-bit extension board onto the box, as shown in the picture. then push your joy-stick into the hole you made earlier, then gluing it in place.

At this point you should have cut out the box and put on the Micro-bit. You are now ready to glue the box together

put glue on one of the tabs, like in the picture. Then fold that tab into another side, so that it folds up the box.

repeat this until you have all the tabs folded in, making sure that all the electronical parts don't move in the middle of it.

Once you have glued the whole box together, the last step is to plug in the battery to the Micro-bit and try it out!