The micro:bit can be connected to Scratch programming language via a Bluetooth dongle. The dongle pictured is known as a BLED 112 Smart Dongle. Follow the instructions below to connect Scratch and the micro:bit.

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Connecting the micro:bit to the S2 Bot app via the Bluetooth dongle

Step-by-step process:

1. Plug your Bluetooth dongle into your computer – this will cause a driver to automatically install. After this, restart your computer.
2. When your dongle’s driver is installed, open Google Chrome and install the S2Bot 4 Scratch app, downloadable here. After doing so, force Chrome to quit and restart the app.
3. When Chrome is open and ready for use, open the ‘apps’ tab and select the S2Bot app – the apps logo is shown in the image to the right.
4. Opening this app causes the S2 Bot screen to open and this is displayed on the right. From the drop-down menu, select ‘BBC micro:bit’ and as you can see, this will cause ‘no adaptor found’ to show. To rectify this and allow the app to search for your micro:bit, click on the menu button located to the right of the app.
5. Clicking this will cause a drop-down menu to appear. Click on ‘Program micro:bit’ and choose to save the file to your desktop. Do not try to skip this step by trying to download straight to the micro:bit.
6. After saving this ‘.hex’ file, drag and drop it onto the micro:bit location in your computer. This will cause the micro:bits back button to start flashing orange, proving that it is doing something.
7. Next, the micro:bit will ask you to draw a circle: to do this, use the tilt function
   of the micro:bit to create a complete circle of lit red LED lights.
8. After completing this, return to the S2 Bot app which should still be open in chrome.
9. Click ‘scan for devices’ and select your micro:bit from the list displayed. When the light goes green, the micro:bit is connected, which will be displayed in the S2 Bot app by showing a green circle.

 

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Connecting the micro:bit to Scratch via bluetooth

After having successfully connected the micro:bit to S2 bot, the next job is to connect it to Scratch. To do this:

1. Click on the menu icon to the right of the S2 Bot app and click ‘New Scratch Template’ – this will require you to save this file onto the desktop.
2. Open Chrome and visit the Scratch website.
3. Click on ‘create’ to make a new project.
4. Click on ‘file’ and choose the option which asks you to ‘upload from computer’ – find the recently downloaded Scratch file and select this.
5. Once this opens, you will now be able to view ‘more blocks’ on Scratch which will allow you to use specific blocks on Scratch which can control the micro:bit (these are displayed to the right).
6. Once this process has been carried out, the Scratch circle in the S2 Bot app will turn green, similar to what happened when connecting the micro:bit in the first process.