XinaBox, producer of an innovative educational technology ecosystem, today launched revolutionary functionality for the BBC micro:bit, bringing easy IoT and SD card-based data logging capabilities to a community of over 4 million learners.

BBC micro:bits are utilized in educational computer science, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and natural science programmes across primary, secondary and third-level educational institutions. XinaBox’s interface brings ground-breaking functionality to:

• Connect the micro:bit via WiFi to the Internet of Things, gather sensor data, and control devices via the cloud.
• Record data to SD card, ready for analysis.

The interface is supplied in two core XinaBox kits, the XK05 micro:bit IoT kit and XK04 micro:bit STEM kit.

There has been much anticipation from the IoT and STEM community in advance of today’s launch, with Andy Stanford-Clark, IBM Chief Technology Officer for UK & Ireland, and co-inventor of MQTT, commenting: “This is really cool! It adds Wi-Fi and an MQTT client to a humble micro:bit and puts powerful, easy-to-use IoT technologies into the hands of the next generation of engineers.”

XinaBox (pronounced “ex-in-a-box”) kits are used by educators around the world in conjunction with many hardware and coding platforms, including Microsoft’s MakeCode, Arduino IDE, Raspberry Pi and BBC micro:bit. The ease with which circuits can be built, without wires, bread-boards or soldering, makes it perfect for beginners and classrooms, while it still has applicability in Universities for building satellites and prototyping. In addition to its hardware kits, XinaBox has developed learning resources in natural sciences, space, data science, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, in collaboration with Microsoft.

Commenting on the launch, Daniel Berman, CEO of XinaBox said: “XinaBox’s new kits turbo-charge the micro:bit experience, by empowering users to take their micro:bit to the next level – from creating digital tools as part of STEM curricula activities, to smart devices connected to the Internet of Things.”

The new XinaBox kits (XK05 IoT and XK04 STEM) for micro:bit:

• Make it quick and easy to connect your micro:bit to an IoT platform.
• Connect to MQTT servers, and are tailored to work with 3 leading IoT platforms ALSO AllThingsTalk, Azure and Ubidots.
• Use light and weather sensors to investigate the natural world and undertake experiments/lessons (XK04 STEM).
• With the OC05 servo driver, you can control a servo motor and build automation projects.The OD01 OLED display is great for showing data/diagnostics.