[Microbit-Python] SPI APIs on BBC micro:bit and ESP8266

[Mark Shannon]

Hi,

If you use the latest firmware, you can use any of the pins for I2C.
Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Mark.

On 20/11/16 15:04, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> Hello,
>
> over the weekend, we tried to get a connection from a BBC Microbit
> to an ESP8266, both running the latest MicroPython for the resp.
> platform, established via SPI.
>
> We found several problems with this:
>
> * the SPI APIs on the ESP8266 are all non-blocking and return
>   whatever is currently in the buffer (using 0x00 for missing data
>   and 0xff in case no connection is available)
>
> * the SPI APIs on the Microbit are all blocking, only returning
>   if all data is sent / received
>
> * the connection is rather unreliable: we had lots of data loss or
>   data corruption, with bytes not being transmitted or with lost bits
>   - we tried several different baud rates without success
>
> On the plus side, we did get SPI to work fine between two Microbits,
> but that's not really what we were after, since we wanted to get
> one of the Microbits in our mesh network connected to a WLAN and
> work as gateway.
>
> The blocking nature of the MB APIs make it difficult to write
> interfaces which aim at being fault tolerant and work as
> gateways. Having non-blocking versions would be better for this
> sort of application.
>
> Are there better ways to connect MBs and ESP8266 ?
>
> We also tried I2C, but gave up, since the pins on the MB for
> accessing I2C were too tiny to connect to without a breakout
> board.
>
> BTW: We were impressed by the new radio module. Getting MBs
> to connect using these low level radios is really easy.
>
> Cheers,
>