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Activity

Scratch boom-box

Beginner | Scratch | Buttons | Input/output

Step 1: Make it

What is it?

Make your own sound machine using the micro:bit’s buttons and accelerometer.

Scratch boom-box sprite

How it works

  • Like the Scratch theremin project this uses the accelerometer to measure the angle of tilt to make sounds lower and higher in pitch.
  • Instead of using a ‘forever’ loop to play a constant sound, this project plays two different beatbox sounds on your computer’s audio output when you press micro:bit input button A or button B.

What you need

  • micro:bit and optional battery pack
  • a suitable computer with Scratch link installed. See https://scratch.mit.edu/microbit for details on how to get Scratch working with micro:bit

Step 2: Code it

Step 3: Improve it

  • Change the boom-box sounds or add others from Scratch’s sound library.
  • Record your own sounds, trigger them with button presses and change their pitch by tilting.
  • Use sequences of notes to play different tunes when you press different buttons.