Happy Valentine’s day! If you are looking for the right person in your life, we’ve made a Micro:Bit love tester to help you out!

This project uses a Micro:Bit and a servo motor to determine how much you love each other. Don’t worry, it is actually completely random so you don’t have to be afraid. Here’s how it works: you and your potential loved one must hold hands, and with your other hand or finger you have to touch the touchpads shortly at the same time. The servo motor will display the love percentage, and the Micro:Bit will display a matching emoticon. We’ve mounted the electronics on a cardboard in the shape of a heart to make it a little more crafty. Enjoy this loveable project!

Materials needed for making a Micro:Bit love tester

Ingredients:

Tools:

Programming the development board of the Micro:Bit love tester

Dev board: Micro:Bit

Difficulty: easy

Preparations:

Checking the MicroBit MakeCode sketch: go to the MicroBit code editor (https://makecode.microbit.org/) and start a new project.

Micro:bit - new project

Download the “microbit_heart_code.zip” here and drag the file into the editor.

Download the micro:bit code

Now you should see the code for the love meter, below is some explanation.

Micro:bit explained

Prepping the connections

Connection Table Servo motor

MINI ANALOG SERVO – 9 GMicroBit
GGND
V5V
SP2

Uploading the program

You’re now ready to upload the code! Connect the Micro:Bit to your PC and drag the “MicroBit_Lovetester.hex” to the Micro:Bit removable disk, as shown in the picture below. The LED on the Micro:Bit will Flash quickly until the program is uploaded.

Upload your micro:bit code

Assembling the electronics

Overview of the Ingredients:

overview of the ingredients

Step 1: Cut out a heart shape of about 25 x 20 cm, you can use this template.

heart cutout

Step 2: Place the template onto the cardboard and trace it with a pencil. The semicircle in the left top of the heart will display the love percentage with the servo. Do not cut it out of the cardboard, but trace it with a pencil.

Trace with a pencil

Then cut it out with a box cutter

Cut out the heart

Step 3: Place the POWER:BIT SHIELD on the cardboard and trace the 3 mounting holes with a pencil.

Power:bit shield

Then cut it out with a box cutter, also make a hole just above the shield. This will serve as a feed-trough for the cables.

Another cut out

Step 4: Now we will cut out the hole to mount the servo motor in, trace the shape of the servo with a pencil.

Cut out for the motor

Then cut it out with a box cutter (we also colored the love percentage bar).

Cut out for the motor

Step 5: Mount the servo in the hole you just made.

Mount the servo

Step 6: Mount the servo arm. Make sure the servo is at its full left position.

Motor full left position

Step 7: Feed the servo cable through the hole, as shown in the picture below.

Feed the servo cable through the hole

Step 8: Stick some conductive tape at the side of the heart as shown in the picture below. Or use tinfoil. If you are using the conductive wire, you can sow it through the cardboard by using a thick needle.

Stick some conductive tape at the side

Do the same on the other side.

The same on the other side

Step 9: Mount the POWER:BIT SHIELD on the Micro:Bit.

Mount the POWER:BIT SHIELD on the Micro:Bit.

Tighten the 5 M3x8 bolts.

Tighten the 5 M3x8 bolts

Step 10: Connect the servo to the POWER:BIT SHIELD like in the picture below. Pay attention to the colors!

Connect the servo to the POWER:BIT SHIELD

Step 11: Place 2 CR2025 batteries in the POWER:BIT SHIELD.

Place 2 CR2025 batteries in the POWER:BIT SHIELD.

Step 12: Place the MicroBit with the POWER:BIT SHIELD on holes in the cardboard we’ve made earlier.

Place the MicroBit with the POWER:BIT SHIELD on holes

Then tighten it down with 3 M3x8 bolts.

Then tighten it down with 3 M3x8 bolts.

Step 13: You should now be at this point:

You should now be at this point:

POWERStep 14: Connect a wire to P1 of the:BIT SHIELD (last free pin).

Connect a wire to P1 of the:BIT SHIELD

Step 15: Pinch it through the cardboard….

Pinch it through the cardboard....

Through the conductive tape.

Through the conductive tape.

Step 16: Solder the wire to the conductive tape so it stays put en makes a good connection.

Solder the wire to the conductive tape

Step 17: Solder another wire to the GND of the Micro:Bit.

Solder another wire to the GND of the Micro:Bit.

Step 18: Pinch it through the cardboard and conductive tape on the other side of the heart. Solder the wire to the conductive tape……

Pinch it through the cardboard and conductive tape on the other side of the heart

Done! Now color, customize and pimp your love tester to your own taste! Be creative!

Use your USB cable to power up the Micro:Bit love tester if the batteries aren’t enough.

Use your USB cable to power up the love tester if the batteries aren't enough