I²C

The i2c module lets you communicate with devices connected to your board using the I²C bus protocol. There can be multiple slave devices connected at the same time, and each one has its own unique address, that is either fixed for the device or configured on it. Your board acts as the I²C master.

We use 7-bit addressing for devices because of the reasons stated here.

This may be different to other micro:bit related solutions.

How exactly you should communicate with the devices, that is, what bytes to send and how to interpret the responses, depends on the device in question and should be described separately in that device’s documentation.

Functions

microbit.i2c.init(freq=100000, sda=pin20, scl=pin19)

Re-initialize peripheral with the specified clock frequency freq on the specified sda and scl pins.

Warning

Changing the I²C pins from defaults will make the accelerometer and compass stop working, as they are connected internally to those pins.

microbit.i2c.scan()

Scan the bus for devices. Returns a list of 7-bit addresses corresponding to those devices that responded to the scan.

microbit.i2c.read(addr, n, repeat=False)

Read n bytes from the device with 7-bit address addr. If repeat is True, no stop bit will be sent.

microbit.i2c.write(addr, buf, repeat=False)

Write bytes from buf to the device with 7-bit address addr. If repeat is True, no stop bit will be sent.

Connecting

You should connect the device’s SCL pin to micro:bit pin 19, and the device’s SDA pin to micro:bit pin 20. You also must connect the device’s ground to the micro:bit ground (pin GND). You may need to power the device using an external power supply or the micro:bit.

There are internal pull-up resistors on the I²C lines of the board, but with particularly long wires or large number of devices you may need to add additional pull-up resistors, to ensure noise-free communication.