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BBC Micro:bit + WiFi + Phone Notifications

In this project we show how to connect BBC micro:bit to WiFi and send a phone notification over the Internet without coding!

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In this project we demonstrate BBC micro:bit how to connect it to WiFi and send a notification to a phone without writing a single line of code. The micro:bit comes with a microphone, among the other features. We are going to use it to detect loud sound e.g. clicking fingers and when a loud sound is detected we send an alert notification to our phone.

In order to connect and send the alert notification, we use the IOT Circket WiFi module. All we have to do with it is to attach batteries, configure it and our "IoT sound detector" is ready to communicate with our phone over MQTT or HTTP apis.

What is really cool is that both Circket and micro:bit can operate directly on batteries. We can easily create an advanced mobile device which you can place anywhere within WiFi range.

Everyone can realise this project from beginners to advanced engineers.

An intro video showcasing the whole project:

View project log

  • 1
    Step 1) Set up micro:bit

    Micro:bit is a tiny computer which empowers anyone at all skill levels to create exciting electronics projects. It includes microphone, gyroscope, accelerometer, temperature sensor, light sensor and other features. In this example we are going to use the microphone to detect clicking fingers or any other high volume noise. Once the sound is detected we are going to:

    • Display the Heart icon on the LED display
    • Set the P0 pin to "1" for a short period of time (1 second) - to wake up Cricket WiFi moduleto send a notification to a phone

    Let's go and create the program in https://makecode.microbit.org/ as shown below:

    Here is our complete project: https://makecode.microbit.org/_3gr76PCMDXKh

    Once the program is ready we need to put it on our micro:bit with the following steps:

    • Click the "Download" button and save the program on the local disk
    • Connect micro:bit via USB to PC (MICROBIT drive should appear)
    • Copy/Paste the downloaded program to MICROBIT drive (micro:bit should be flashing LED when performing the copying)

    Our micro:bit is ready! We can test it by clicking fingers and see if the heart icon shows up on the LED display. If yes, we can disconnect from USB and move on to the next step.

    For more information how to get started with micro:bit please check out this official guide how to get started with micro:bit. We were inspired to do this project with the sound input tutorials which you might also like to check.

  • 2
    Step 2) Assembly

    In this step we are going to connect all the components together with the following steps:

    • Connect micro:bit to the batteries
    • Connect Cricket to the batteries (we peel out the coat from the cables to connect Cricket on the same power source)
    • Connect micro:bit's P0 pin to Cricket's WAKE_UP pin [green cable]

    A complete project assembly may look like this:

  • 3
    Step 3) Setup Pushsafer

    Pushsafer, we learned, is one of the easiest and reliable internet service which provides multi-platform push notifications. There is some free allowance of notifications but we quickly ran out of it and had to purchase 1000 extra notifications for ~$1. It is very cheap for what it gives you back and it is super simple to set up:

    • Go to pushsafer.com
    • Open an account
    • Create a notification message
    • Generate a URL link and save it somewhere (we will need this link to copy/paste to Cricket's configuration in the next step)
    • Install mobile app on your phone (iPhone or Android) and login with the same account

    Below there is a screenshot of how we created an example message:

    Now we can press the "Send Message" button and, if everything is configured correctly, we should receive a message: "Microbit: Hello from Cricket!" on our phone.

    Please do not forget to press the "Create Link" button and save the URL address as we will need this to configure Cricket In the next step.

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