Plot Acceleration

Introduction

The ||led:plot bar graph|| uses the screen to display the magnitude (how big a number is whether it’s positive or negative) of a value. This is a great tool to understand the data returned by sensors… like the accelerometer.

Acceleration

In a ||loops:forever|| loop, ||led:plot|| ||input:acceleration|| in the x dimension on the LEDs.

basic.forever(function() {
    led.plotBarGraph(
        input.acceleration(Dimension.X),
        0
    )
})

Console

Click on the Show Console button by the simulator to see a chart of the values plotted by the block over a period of time. Hover over the board in the simulator to make a force in the x dimension.

Maximum value

If you specify the maximum value, the block can do a better job at displaying the data. For example, we can tell the block that we don’t expect values beyond 1000 mg.

basic.forever(function() {
    led.plotBarGraph(
        input.acceleration(Dimension.X),
        1000
    )
})

Other sensors

You can use this block for pretty much any kind of data. Try it out! Plot the ||input:light level|| inside the ||loops:forever|| instead. Play with the light sensor in the simulator.

basic.forever(function() {
    led.plotBarGraph(
        input.lightLevel(),
        0
    )
})

Download and try

Download the code to your micro:bit and test the sensors.