REKA:BIT Robotics Board for micro:bit

The REKA:BIT is a compact robotics expansion board for your BBC micro:bit (not included), providing a huge range of useful features, ports and onboard protection to help you make awesome micro:bit robotics projects. It’s the smaller sibling of the popular EDU:BIT.

The helpful features (see below) such as the GPIO and motor indicator LEDs as well as test buttons and easy-to-use Grove ports make this a great choice for your first robotics project or educational environments, where fiddling with components and wires can be frustrating and distract students from learning how to code.

Program your REKA:BIT with the Microsoft MakeCode Editor. Just add REKA:BIT MakeCode Extension and you’re good to go. If you’re a beginner, you can start with the block programming mode; simply drag, drop and snap the coding blocks together. For more advanced users, you can easily switch to JavaScript or Python mode for text-based programming.

The REKA:BIT comes with a USB power/data cable, 4xAA battery holder, grove header cables, screwdriver and building block lift arm + pin. All you need to add is a micro:bit board (not included).

Features

Your micro:bit simply slots into the onboard connector, which then connects it to the many features on the board:

• 2x Motor terminals (connected to an onboard motor driver chip
  • Drive two DC motors (1A continuous, 1.5A peak (< 5 seconds))
• 4x Servo headers
• Motor test buttons (no code required)
• Motor status LED indicators
• GPIO status indicators
• 6x Grove ports for adding sensors and other devices
• 2x Onboard addressable RGB LEDs
• Barrel Jack DC power input (3.6V – 6V)
  • Undervoltage (LOW) indicator & protection
  • Over-voltage (HIGH) indicator & protection
  • On/off switch
• Power indication LEDs
• Dimensions: 10.4mm x 72mm x 15mm

The REKA:BIT features a co-processor to handle multi-tasking more efficiently. Playing music while controlling up to 4x servo motors and 2x DC motors, animating micro:bit LED matrix and even lighting up RGB LEDs in different colours, all at the same time, is not a problem for the REKA:BIT.

Specifications

Parameters	Min	Max	Unit
Power Input Voltage	3.6	6	V
Analog Input Voltage	0	3.3	V
Total +3V3 Output Current (Grove Ports)	–	300	mA
Maximum DC Motor Current Continuous	–	1	A
Maximum DC Motor Current Peak (< 5 seconds)	–	1.5	A

Package Contents

• 1x REKA:BIT expansion board
• 1x USB power and data cable
• 1x 4xAA battery holder
• 1x Mini screwdriver
• 3x Grove to female header cable
• 2x Building block 1×9 lift arm
• 4x Building block friction pin

micro:bit board, motors or any other parts not listed here are not included

Resources

• Datasheet
• MakeCode Extension & Test/Demo Program
• Pinout Diagram
• 3D CAD
• micro:bit Getting Started Guide
• MakeCode Online Editor
• MakeCode Offline Editor