By Invitation Only - Minode Kit - Review

Table of contents

RoadTest: STEM micro:bit - Minode Kit

Author: mrbeech

Creation date:

Evaluation Type: Development Boards & Tools

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: N/A in my experience

What were the biggest problems encountered?: None

Detailed Review:

The kit provides a useful extension to the Micro:Bit for working with year 4&5 children.

 

I used this primarily with a class that had experience of blockly and working with CodeBug so the initial learning curve was quite shallow. The Additional package that needs to be loaded was simple enough but some children would forget to load it at the start of a new project which led to a bit of unnecessary frustration for them. If there could be a direct url that I could like to a bookmark for them that brought up the Blockly editor and pre-loaded the additional package, that would be handy.

 

The kit itself is well made and sturdy enough for children of the age I was working with and the wires are easy to replace as they use standard connectors if you needed to make longer ones for example.

 

The additional package all made sense and the fact there was no documentation in the box was a real positive for me (I would have removed it anyway) as it lead to some fantastic experimentation from the learners (and me) to find out how each element worked. We have only begun to experiment with a few of the inputs/outputs but they have all been massively enthused by working with this product - I only wish I had more than one fo them!

 

If you were looking for an additional feature that would add to this product, the Micro:Bit has provision to run from a battery pack using 2 AAAs so if the Mi:Node had this funtionality too, it would enable some more inventive placements around the school. For example, my students wanted to use it to alert teachers to high noise levels and running from batteries would have made this simpler.

Anonymous
Parents
  • Hi Daniel

     

    You say that you wished the Mi:Node could be run from a 2 x AAA battery pack like the micro:bit itself. Did you try attaching such a battery pack to the micro:bit while it was slotted into the Mi:Node? I would have thought this would be sufficient to power most of the components that were supplied, including the noise level sensor and loudspeaker. It certainly works with other edge-connector boards for the micro:bit (except for devices that require high power).

Comment
  • Hi Daniel

     

    You say that you wished the Mi:Node could be run from a 2 x AAA battery pack like the micro:bit itself. Did you try attaching such a battery pack to the micro:bit while it was slotted into the Mi:Node? I would have thought this would be sufficient to power most of the components that were supplied, including the noise level sensor and loudspeaker. It certainly works with other edge-connector boards for the micro:bit (except for devices that require high power).

Children
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