MonkMakes

A capacitive moisture meter with temperature and relative humidity measurement. Compatible with micro:bit, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Pico and most microcontroller boards.


Monitor soil moisture, temperature and relative humidity measurement with the Plant Monitor. This board is compatible with the BBC micro:bit, Raspberry Pi and most microcontroller boards.

• Alligator / croc clip rings
• Ready soldered header pins for your choice of microcontroller.
• Easy to use UART serial interface
• Additional analog output for moisture only
• Built-in RGB LED

A4 (210 x 297mm) squared-grid spiral-bound notebook with watermark breadboards. 158 pages, card covers.

The book also includes

• Microcontroller programming cheat sheet
• Common circuits and calculations
• Pinouts
• Resistor color codes
• ASCII table

The Mosfetti is a 4 channel MOSFET switch designed for maker projects. It is supplied as a PCB with surface mount components attached and header pins and screw terminals as a kit for the customer to solder if required.

• Resettable ‘polyfuse’ to protect against over-current
• Power indicator LED
• LED indicator for each channel
• Low-side switching up to 2A per channel
• Flyback diode on each channel for inductive loads

The MonkMakes Switch for micro:bit is a solid-state (no moving parts) switch that allows an output of a micro:bit to turn things on and off.

This board can be used to switch low voltage devices such as light bulbs, a motor, a small heating element or even a string of 12V LED lighting. The voltage needs to be kept under 16V, but the switch will automatically protect itself against too much current.

What's in the box?

1 x Solid-state Switch for micro:bit

Resources

Datasheet (PDF)

Instructions (PDF)

Hi Res Images (Google File Share)

For further help please email [email protected]

Plug a servo meter with 5.4mm (0.1 inch) header socket in, and connect croc/alligator clips to the rings, so that you can easily connect a servomotor to a ring-based microcontroller, such as the BBC micro:bit, Adafruit Circuit Playground Express or Crumble.

What's in the box?

1 x Servo Clip

Resources

Datasheet

For further help please email [email protected]

The MonkMakes Amplified Speaker 2 is an easy to use amplified speaker on a circuit board.

The board needs a 3.3 to 6V power supply that can be provided by a Raspberry Pi or Arduino. Audio input will normally be to the 3.5mm stereo audio jack socket, which is mixed to a mono signal.

The product includes a separate input with low-pass filter for use with PWM/PCM audio.

What's in the box?

1 x Monk Makes Amplified speaker 2

Resources

Datasheet

Instructions

Hi Res Images (Google File Share)

For further help please email [email protected]

Now updated with a new chapter on the Raspberry Pico W, this book will teach you Python programming and some basic electronics without assuming any prior knowledge of either subject.

The book initially focusses on Python programming, building up a Morse Code example using the Raspberry Pi Pico’s built-in LED. Once you have mastered the basics of coding the Pico, the book will introduce electronics, showing you how to use sensors, switches, LEDs, servomotors and displays attached to your Pico or Pico W.

All the parts used in the book are available in the companion kit, Electronics Kit 1 for Pico (SKU00088)

What's in the box?

1 x Paperback (162 pages)

ISBN: ‎ 978-1-7394874-3-0
ISBN9781739487430

This book will teach you Python programming and some basic electronics without assuming any prior knowledge of either subject. The book initially focusses on Python programming, building up a Morse Code example.

The book is suitable for most ESP32 boards, but concentrates on the most popular ESP32 Lite and the ESP32 DevKit 1. In the chapters on electronics, breadboard layouts  are provided for both of these boards.

Discover how to:

• Flash Python firmware onto an ESP32 board Install and use the Thonny Python editor and upload programs on to your ESP32
• Write simple programs to control the ESP32 in Python
• Structure you programs with functions and modules
• Make effective use of Python Lists and Dictionaries
• Attach sensors, LEDs, displays and servomotors  to an ESP32 and to program them
• Make use of the ESP32s WiFi capabilities to use the ESP32 as a web server and to call web services on the Internet

What's in the box?

1 x Paperback Printed in full colour.

ISBN978173948745

The MonkMakes Sensor Board for micro:bit allows you to sense sound level, temperature and light level.

Features

• 3V and GND connections can be made from either side and allow you to power a second board such as the MonkMakes Relay Board or MonkMakes Speaker.
• LED ‘power on’ indicator
• Reverse polarity protection
• All three sensors are analog and can be connected to pins P0, P1 and P2 using alligator clips.

Getting Started

Connecting to your micro:bit

You only have to wire up the sensors that you are actually using, but you could wire all the sensors up as shown below. The code examples below assume that pin 0 is used for sound, pin 1 for temperature and pin 2 for light. You can use any pin for any of the sensors, but remember to modify the code to match the pin you are using.

Sound

The Sensor for micro:bit uses a MEMs (microphone on a chip) and a pre-amplifier. The output of the sound sensor is connected to an analog input where it can be sampled. The sound signal varies about the 1.5V level. So, silence will produce an analog output of around 1.5V. When there is sound the analog readings will oscillate above and below the 1.5V level like this:

This is why 511 is subtracted from the readings in the code examples below.

JavaScript Blocks Editor

Here is an example of using the Sensor Board to display a bargraph to indicate the sound level. Click on the image below to try it out. Making a noise into the microphone will make the LEDs dance.

MicroPython

from microbit import *

def bargraph(a):
display.clear()
for y in range(0, 5):
if a > y:
for x in range(0, 5):
display.set_pixel(x, 4-y, 9)

while True:
sound_level = (pin0.read_analog() - 511) / 100
bargraph(sound_level)

Temperature

The Sensor for micro:bit uses a thermistor to measure temperature. The temperature output from the board is a voltage that indicates the temperature. This is then measured using an analog input on the micro:bit.

The calculations for converting this voltage reading to an actual temperature are quite complicated and so the code examples here will only give a rough idea of temperature.

If you want your temperatures in Fahrenheit, then multiply the temperature in degrees C by 9, divide the result by 5 and then add 32.

JAVASCRIPT BLOCKS EDITOR

This is an example of using the Sensor Board to display the temperature, try putting your finger on the temperature sensor to warm it up. You can run the example below by clicking on it.

MicroPython

from microbit import *

while True:
reading = pin1.read_analog()
temp_c = int(reading / 13.33 - 14)
display.scroll(str(temp_c))
sleep(500)

Light

The light sensor uses a phototransistor to measure the light level and produces an output voltage that increases as the light level increases. Here is a guide to the kind of light level you might get from the sensor under different conditions (0 to 1023).

• Dark 0 to 3
• Dimly lit room 6 to 10
• Indoors directly under a light 10 to 50
• Outdoors (dull day) 100 to 200
• Outdoors (sunny day) 800 to 900

Even though the maximum analog read value is 1023, the maximum reading from this sensor is around 900.

JAVASCRIPT BLOCKS EDITOR

Here is an example of using the Sensor Board to display a bargraph to indicate the light level. Click on the image below to try it out. Put your finger over the light sensor to make it dark or shine a flash-light onto it to make more LEDs light up.

MicroPython

from microbit import *

def bargraph(a):
display.clear()
for y in range(0, 5):
if a > y:
for x in range(0, 5):
display.set_pixel(x, 4-y, 9)

while True:
light_level = pin2.read_analog() / 10
bargraph(light_level)

Whereas there are many books that will teach you a particular programming language, this book sets this core skill in the context of both the software tools people use and the software industry as a whole.

Features

• Programming Bootcamp with Python
• Chapters on data structures, functions and modules
• Introduces frameworks, web applications and other languages
• Covers theory, core skills and other roles in development
• Learn more about the software industry as a whole

What's in the box?

1 x Paperback Printed in full colour. 202 pages.

ISBN: 9-781739-487409