mBot for Makers

6 Building Big and Small with mCore

This chapter explores the flexibility of the mBot through the frame of dollhouse services—designing simple and complex features, considered part of “smart” environments, on a smaller physical scale. However, the adaptability of the mCore platform means that it’s entirely possible to scale up a clever idea from the dollhouse to the real world. On a small scale, we’ll work with water, small LEDs, and servos, and then show how to adapt those programs to make use of household lamps, fans, and aquarium pumps.

We’ll use the mCore to control several different devices. At the electrical level, these devices are mostly two-pole motors—sets of electrified copper coils pushing against magnets. The rotational force ...