Elecrow Crowtail Starter Kit User manual

User Guide
V2.0 2020.02
www.elecrow.com
2020 ELECROW All Rights Reserved.
C
Crowtail Starter Kit
for Micro:bit

Table of Contents
Instruction
Get to know micro:bit
Modules list
What is Crowtail
Exciting experiments
• Experiment 1 Blinking an LED
• Experiment 2 Switch light
• Experiment 3 Micro:bit singer
• Experiment 4 Do not touch
• Experiment 5 Collision check
• Experiment 6 Intelligent corridor lights
• Experiment 7 Plant soil moisture detection
• Experiment 8 Intrusion alert
• Experiment 9 Make an adjustable table lamp
• Experiment 10 Automatic control
• Experiment 11 Automatic door
• Experiment 12 Weather station
• Experiment 13 Ultrasonic ranging smart door
• Experiment 14 Make an accurate clock
• Experiment 15 Distance display
• Experiment 16 Wireless communication
• Experiment 17 Remote control your micro:bit
• Experiment 18 Smart music box
• Experiment 19 Remote control fan
• Experiment 20 Car remote control
• Experiment 21 Pick up beans
Keep exploring
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2020 ELECROW All Rights Reserved.
C

Instruction
Easy Funny Affordable
The Elecrow Starter kit for Micro:bit is designed for people who are at the doorstep of learning
electric modules and programming knowledge and bring numerous creative possibilities for
you to dig out and help you enter a wonderful electronic world. This kit includes more than 20
modules like the buzzer, light sensor, servo, ultrasonic ranging sensor, and OLED, etc. The kit
also provides you plenty of fun experiments so you can learn how the electric modules work
and use it to build innovative works and plan out unique projects. In addition, the kit also
focuses on stimulating children's creativity so that they can continue to move forward rather
than stagnate after completing their work. We never allow complicated jumpers to prevent
children from learning about the electronic world and programming hobbies and interests,
and we vowed to change it. Therefore, we have equipped this starter kit for Micro:bit with our
plug-and-play crowtail series of electronic modules to make you realize the electronic works in
the mind quickly and easily.
1

Micro:bit is a pocket-sized computer that lets you get creative with digital technology. You can
code, customize and control your micro:bit from anywhere! You can use your micro:bit for all
sorts of unique creations, from robots to musical instruments, the possibilities are infinite. The
micro:bit compatible with a number of online code editors across a number of different
languages, such as
Blocks , JavaScript , Python , Scratch , and etc. This guide will focus on
Makecode, a block or JavaScript-based environment developed by Microsoft.
LED Array: The micro:bit has 25 individually-programmable
LEDs, these 5x5 red LEDs form a very small section of a screen,
and display information like words, numbers, and pictures
through a combination of ON and OFF LEDs.
Edge "Pins": The gold tabs at the bottom of the board are
for hooking up external components. The tabs with larger
holes can be easily used with alligator clips to prototype
quickly!
Get to know micro:bit
Components on the board
2

A/B Buttons: There are two buttons on the front of the
micro:bit - button A and button B, you can detect when these
buttons are pressed, allowing you to trigger code on the
device. You can detect events such as a single press, a double
press, and a long press by programming.
Light Sensor: The LED screen works as a basic light sensor by
reversing the LEDs of the screen to become an input which
allows you to detect the ambient light.
5
Temperature Sensor: The Microcontroller doubles
as a temperature sensor! The temperature sensor
transforms the temperature in the ambient
environment into digital signals that can be read by
the micro:bit for calculating the current tempera-
ture of the device.
Compass: The compass detects the earth’ s magnetic field,
allowing you to detect which direction the micro:bit is facing.
The compass has to be calibrated before it can be used.
Calibrating the compass ensures the compass results are
accurate.
Accelerometer: The accelerometer measures
the acceleration of your micro:bit, it can track
motions like tilt, free fall and shake.
3

Bluetooth: The Bluetooth Low Energy antenna
allows the micro:bit to send and receive Bluetooth
signals, you can wirelessly communicate between
micro:bit and phones, PCs, or tablets. You need to
pair your micro:bit with another device before using
the Bluetooth antenna.
Radio: The radio feature allows you
to communicate wirelessly
between two or more micro:bits.
Quick start
Step 1. Connect it
Connect the micro:bit with your computer via a USB cable, then your micro:bit will show up on
your computer as a drive called “MICROBIT”.
Write your micro:bit code by using the official online editor https://makecode.microbit.org/
Step 2. Program it
4

The left part is a simulator, which will simulate the work of micro:bit after finishing the
program. The middle part is our command area, there are various program blocks we need.
The rightmost area is the script area, you can drag and drop instructions into this area to form
your program. Drag and drop some blocks and try your program out in the Simulator in the
Makecode Editor, the example below shows you how to program a smiley face.
Step 2-1. Select “on start” block in the command area, and drag it out to place it in the script
area.
Step 2-2. Drag out the “show icon” block and place it inside the “on start” block.
Step 2-3. Pick a name for your program, We’ll name this project as “Smile Face”.
3
4
5

Click the Download button in the editor, And then it will download a “hex” file that your
micro:bit can read. Once the hex file has downloaded, copy it into your micro:bit like copying
a file into a USB drive.
The micro:bit will pause and the yellow LED on the back of the micro:bit will blink while your
code is programmed, the code will run automatically once it’s finished. Then look at your
micro:bit, the screen will show a smiley face.
Note: The micro:bit drive will automatically eject and come back each time you program it,
but your hex file will be gone. It can only receive hex files and won’t store anything else.
There is no wire needed if you use Bluetooth to send the
code to your micro:bit from your mobile device. What
you need to do is to make sure your micro:bit is powered
up and within easy reach of the phone or tablet while
running the App. There are two types of APPs available
for micro:bit which are based on Microsoft Makecode
languages and Javascript: respectively micro:bit
companion app and Windows 10 APP.
The micro:bit app is the essential companion to the BBC
micro:bit, available for iOS and Android. Download the
official micro:bit app for Android or iOS from the app
store, the app contains handy instructions on how to
pair your micro:bit with the app.
The Windows 10 APP has a few extra features over the editor at makecode.microbit.org that
will work on micro:bits with up-to-data interface firmware: automatically program your
micro:bit over USB, without needing to drag-and-drop the file onto the micro:bit drive;
directly read serial data from your micro:bit for data logging and other fun experiments.
APP for Micro:bit
Step 3. Play
Step 2-4. Download the code
6

Modules list
What is Crowtail
Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit
Welcome to the world of Crowtail! Crowtail is a modular, ready-to-use toolset, it takes a
building block approach to assemble electronics. It simplifies and condenses the learning
process significantly. In our Crowtail repository, there are over 150 Crowtail modules and
Crowtail shields!
The Crowtail products are basic-functional modules that consist of a Base Shield and various
modules with standardized connectors, each Crowtail module has its specific functions, such
as light sensing and temperature sensing. It will satisfy all you need for your project!
Crowtail is a series of products that we made to solve the messy jumper when connecting
electronic circuits. It consists of a Base Shield and some basic Crowtail modules, which help
you create small, simple, and easy-to-assemble circuits. In other words, when you use Crowtail,
your electronic project will not be messy wiring. Instead, it will be simple and easy to manage
an electronic project!
The Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit is the core part of this
kit, it acts as a bridge between Micro:bit board and Crowtail
modules. You can plug and then play with Crowtail
modules and micro:bit through this base shield, which
allows you to create more interesting and innovative works
with micro:bit. This shield integrated 6 crowtail connectors
and 2 crowtail UART/I2C connectors onboard. So you can
use plenty of crowtail sensors. All you need to know is that
there is no need for any soldering or jump wire about
Crowtail.
In addition, there is a power port, from which you can draw 3.3V/5V/12V three voltages! This
means that when you use a module such as a motor, you no longer need an external drive!
Crowtail-Base Shield for Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-LED（Yellow）x1
Crowtail-LED（Green）x1
Crowtail-Buzzer x1
Crowtail-Switch x1
Crowtail-Touch Sensor x1
Crowtail-Collision Sensor x1
Crowtail-Light Sensor x1
Crowtail-Moisture Sensor x1
Crowtail-PIR Motion Sensor x1
Crowtail-Ultrasonic Ranging Sensor x1
Crowtail-Linear Potentiometer x1
Crowtail-Temperature&Humidity Sensor x1
Crowtail-Relay x1
Crowtail-9G Servo x1
Crowtail-RTC x1
Crowtail-OLED x1
Crowtail-IR Receiver x1
Infrared Remote Control x1
DC motor x1
7

We've made more than 100 kinds of electronic modules into Crowtail modules. They include a
variety of sensors, displays, inputs and outputs modules, communication types include I2C,
UART, digital or analog, which aim to provide more options to fully meet all needs for your
electronic projects! All modules can be used by simply connecting them to the Crowtail- Base
shield for Micro:bit with Crowtail cable, which is a huge improvement over the previously
troublesome jumper connections.
Crowtail – Modules
Electric lights are ubiquitous in our daily life which we can't even leave. It was the invention of
the electric light that marked the human society's entry into the electric era, and made people
welcome the light in the dark night. Here, we will learn how to use the LED and control it’s on
and off.
Learn how the LED work and use it to make a blinking light.
Learn how to run the code forever.
Learn how to output logic high and low signals.
Learn how to pause the code.
Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-LED（Green）x1
LED is the best choice to help you learn I/O pins. What you need to do
is connecting the LED module to the port of the base shield, then
download the program to the Micro:bit. Besides the very basic usage,
you can make the LED blink with the frequency you want, or adjust
the brightness with PWM. Actually, LED is the most popular used for
human interface.
Target
Exciting experiments
Experiment 1 – Blinking an LED
Instruction
Hardware learning and connection
Note: When you connect a high-power device, such as a motor, you need to connect a 12V
power supply to the board.
Required Parts
Crowtail-Cable x1
USB cable x1
8

Connect Crowtail-LED to P0 port of Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit. The hardware connections
are as follows:
Forever: The forever block is a block that loops
any other command blocks inserted into it over
and over again. It starts from the top and executes
your code in order by working its way to the
bottom and then starts from the top again.
Digital write: The digital write block enables
you to turn a pin on or off. There is a dropdown
option for you to choose which pin you want to
control, and it accepts a variable as the pins state.
You could use 1 as on and 0 as off. If you
prefer, you can also use Boolean states of true and false , but we will use 0 and 1 as our
standard throughout this guide.
Pause: If you were to just turn pins on and off with the digital write block without a pause,
the LED would blink really, really fast. The
pause block enables you to slow the micro:bit
down and lets you control the timing of things happening. It accepts a number or variable as
the number of milliseconds you want the micro:bit to pause. Think of this block as a stoplight
for your code!
Download the program to micro:bit to see what happens.
Just like the lights at home, can we add a switch to control the lights on and off at any
time?
Programming and note
You will see the LED blink on and off at 2 seconds interval. If it doesn’t, make
sure you have connected the LED to correctly port.
Result
9

The Crowtail- Switch is a Latching switch. When the switch is pressed for the
first time, the switch maintains current regulation and the button outputs a
HIGH signal in the self-locking state. When the switch is pressed for a second
time, the switch button pops up and the switch turns off and then outputs a
LOW signal. In fact, it is very similar to the button, except that the switch has a
self-locking function so that it can output logic high level signal without
pressing it all the time.
Connect Crowtail-Switch and Crowtail-LED to P0 and P1 ports of Crowtail-Base shield for
Micro:bit. The hardware connections are as follows:
Congratulations, you have mastered the method of controlling the LED on and off. But just like
the lights at home, can we add a switch to control the lights on and off at any time? Of course,
in this experiment, we will use our switch module to control the lights anytime and anywhere.
Learn how the switch work and use it to make a switch light with LED.
Learn how to use the if/else logic statement.
Learn how to read the state from the digital module.
Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-LED（Green）x1
Crowtail-Switch x1
Crowtail-Cable x2
USB cable x1
Target
Experiment 2 – Switch light
Instruction
Hardware learning and connection
Required Parts
10

Programming and note
Digital Read: Just like the way digital write block turns a pin on (1) or off (0), the digital read
block check at the state of a pin, which is either HIGH (1) or LOW (0). In this case, we can detect if
the switch is pressed or not by using this block.
If/else: The if/else block is a logical structure. If the logical statement that is attached to it
(switchState=1) is true, then it will execute the code blocks inside of the if. If that statement is
false, it will execute the
else blocks. In this case, if the statement is true(the value is digital read
from P0 port equal to 1), then turn on the LED on pin 1; else, turn off the LED on P1.
Download the program to micro:bit to see what happens.
Do you like music? Have you ever dreamed of becoming a singer? The power of music is really
great, it can make people happy physically and mentally. In this experiment, we will make the
micro:bit to be a “singer”, let’s see how to do it!
Experiment 3 – Micro:bit singer
Instruction
When you press the switch, the LED lights up, and when you press the switch
a second time, the LED turns off.
Result
Do you have this experience? whenever you go up the stairs at night, the lights will
light up in front of you. Can we make such a lamp?
11

The buzzer module is used for making sound in your project. It makes a
sound when activated by a logic HIGH signal. Connect the buzzer to any
port of Crowtail- Base shield for Micro:bit, you can easily make it sound with
setting the related port to logic HIGH. The buzzer module can also be
connected to an analog pulse-width modulation(PWM) output to generate
various tones, which means you can use it to create your own melody!
Connect Crowtail-Buzzer to P0 port of Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit. The hardware
connections are as follows:
Programming and note
Learn how the buzzer work and use it to play songs.
Learn how to run the code once at the beginning of the program.
Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Buzzer x1
Crowtail-Cable x1
USB cable x1
Target
Hardware learning and connection
Required Parts
Start melody repeating: The Start Melody Repeating block eliminates all of the frustra-
tion from getting music from a microcontroller. It is as simple as selecting one of the many
songs that were pre-programmed into MakeCode and repeating it as many times as possible!
Note that: There’s no other to run while the melody is playing. Which is called "blocking" code
and must be Considered in your program.
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Note: Do not use it in a truly dangerous area, it can be dangerous!
On start: Different from forever block that loops your code forever, The On start block
is a block of code that only runs once at the very beginning of your program. In this case, we
use it to set the melody to play once.
Download the program to micro:bit to see what happens.
The touch sensor can detect the human touch by sensing changes in
capacitance. When it detects a touch, it outputs a HIGH logic level signal.
Based on the touch IC TTP223-B, this module can detect human finger in
0~3mm, that is, you can place this sensor on a non-metallic surface such as
the glass or paper, with a thickness of less than 3MM, this would be useful for
applications that waterproof is needed, or you want to keep the buttons
secret.
There are so many dangerous areas that we can’t touch with our hands directly, otherwise, we
may be in danger. For example, we can't touch the power socket with our hands because the
danger of electric shock! Therefore, this time we will make a touch alarm, put this alarm in a
simulated danger area, and when someone touches it, make the buzzer shout loudly so that
they will never touch this area again!
Learn how the touch sensor work and use it to make a touch alarm with buzzer.
Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Touch Sensorx1
Crowtail-Buzzer x1
Crowtail-Cable x2
USB cable x1
Target
Experiment 4 – Do not touch
Instruction
Hardware learning and connection
Required Parts
Once you upload the program to micro:bit, you can hear the buzzer playing
the “dadadum” melody once and then stop.
Result
How to make a buzzer play multiple melodies and control the previous and next song
by pressing a button?
13

Connect Crowtail-Touch Sensor and Crowtail-Buzzer to P0 and P1 ports of Crowtail-Base shield
for Micro:bit. The hardware connections are as follows:
Programming and note
Digital Write:
Different from the last experiment, this time we will use digital write block to set the
buzzer 1(on), which can make the buzzer make a big bee noise to prevent touching. The
buzzer will stop sounding until you stop touching.
Download the program to micro:bit to see what happens.
If you put your hand on the touch sensor, the buzzer will make a large beep
to prevent touch. The buzzer will not stop sounding until you remove your
hand from the touch sensor.
Result
By learning this experiment, we know the touch sensor can sense our hand. So, if we
have many touch sensors and a buzzer, We can make a touch-type musical instrument
that allows us to play own melody?
14

Connect the Crowtail-Collision Sensor, Crowtail-LED and Crowtail-Buzzer to P1, P0 and P2 ports
of Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit. The hardware connections are as follows:
This is a robot model car crashes or collision switch sensor module,
it usually outputs a logic HIGH signal, but when the sensor crash
something such as the wall, the on-board switch will be pressed,
and the module outputs a logic LOW signal. This module can be
installed into any mobile platform to achieve collision detection
function via 4 pin sensor cable and Micro:bit sensor expansion
board connector.
Hardware learning and connection
Learn how the collision sensor work and use it to make a collision detector with buzzer.
Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Collision Sensor x1
Crowtail-Buzzer x1
Crowtail-LED(Yellow) x1
Crowtail-Cable x3
USB cable x1
Target
Required Parts
Do you know there is a collision sensor inside the car? It is used to detect collisions to make sure
the car can open airbag immediately and alarming after the impact. In this experiment, let's
make a collision detector to simply simulate the process of automobile collision detection.
Experiment 5 – Collision check
Instruction
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Programming and note
If/else: The If/else block is a logical structure. If the logical statement that is attached to it
(digital read P1 = 0) is true, then it will execute the code blocks inside of the if. If that
statement is false, it will execute the else blocks. In this case, if the statement is true(the
value is digital read from P1 port equal to 0, note that it will output a logic LOW signal when
the collision sensor is crashed), then turn on the LED and buzzer on P0 and P2; else, turn off
the LED and buzzer on P0 and P2.
Digital Write: There are two modules we need to use the digital write block to set they
output 1(logic HIGH signal) or 0(logic LOW signal). Here, we set the LED and buzzer output to
1 when the collision sensor detect a collision, otherwise, set it to 0.
Download the program to micro:bit to see what happens.
When the on-board switch of the collision sensor is pressed, LED will light on
and the buzzer will make a big beep noise to remind collision to occur,
otherwise, LED will light off and buzzer stop work.
Result
The car can detect a collision, but how the car detects the obstacle to prevent a crash?
16

You must have a lot of questions if pay attention to the various phenomena of daily life, such as
corridor lights? How does it work? How did it automatically turn on the lights when we went
up the stairs? With these questions in mind, let's start our sixth experiment: intelligent corridor
lights.
Experiment 6 – Intelligent corridor lights
Instruction
Learn how the light sensor works and use it to make an intelligent corridor light with LED.
Learn how to read the values from an analog module.
Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Base shield for Micro:bit x1
Crowtail-Light Sensor x1
Crowtail-LED(Green) x1
Crowtail-Cable x2
USB cable x1
Target
Required Parts
The Light sensor module uses the GL5516 photoresistor to detect the
light intensity of the environment. The resistance of the sensor decreases
when the light intensity of the environment increases. The chip LMV358
is used as a voltage follower to enable you to get accurate data.
This module outputs an analog signal that shows the light intensity. It
can be used in many occasions, such as Intelligent street light, intelligent
corridor light, etc.
Connect Crowtail-Light Sensor and Crowtail-LED to P0 and P1 ports of Crowtail-Base shield for
Micro:bit. The hardware connections are as follows:
Hardware learning and connection
17