L L O

H E

Chapter 1
Introduction to Maqueen Plus
 Introduction

What is Maqueen Plus?

Maqueen Plus is a smart programmable educational robot designed for beginners. It supports Mind+ and
MakeCode programming platforms, on which we can program Maqueen Plus to realize awesome functions by
simply dragging and snapping the graphical blocks. Follow Maqueen Plus to enter the world of robotic, and while
learn something about coding in playing!
Before we get started, let’s see what Maqueen Plus has got there.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11
16 12
13
17
14

18 15

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

1 Buzzer switch 2 micro:bit socket 3 RGB-LED-L 4 L2 indicator LED 5 L1 indicator LED

6 Infrared receiver 7 R1 indicator LED 8 RGB-LED-R 9 R2 indicator LED 10 Buzzer

M3 Electricity
11 12 R3 indicator LED 13 Battery case 14 15 Right wheel
Mounting holes indicator LED
Line-tracking Charging
16 L3 indicator LED 17 18 Left wheel 19 Charging port 20
Calibration Key indicator LED

21 Motor-L 22 IIC expansion port 23 Encoder-L 24 GPIO port 25 Encoder-R

Power supply Power

26 Servo port 27 Motor-R 28 29
indicator LED supply switch
 Back view for Maqueen Plus main-board

31 32 33 34 35

30 36

30 R3 line-tracking 31 R2 line-tracking 32 R1 line-tracking 33 Support wheel 34 L1 line-tracking

sensor sensor sensor sensor

35 L2 line-tracking 36 L3 line-tracking
sensor sensor
We can see that Maqueen has equipped with so many functions, and now you must can’t wait to try them. OK,
here we go!

Assembly
Maqueen Plus Assembly Diagram

1 Install 18650 battery 2 Install the expansion bracket 3 Install wheels

 Maqueen Plus Assembly Diagram

4 Install ultrasonic sensor 5 Plug in micro:bit board

Battery indicator Charging port

Note: when the battery is fully charged, all LEDs will be on. The LEDs will be off one by one as the power
gradually decreases. If all lights go out, the battery needs to be recharged.

After we assembled Maqueen Plus, put it aside because first, we need to get familiar with it’s most important
controller device---micro:bit. Just like the CPU in a computer, micro:bit is Maqueen’s “brain” for storing and process-
ing data, which also is the key to make Maqueen Plus “alive”.

Introduction to micro:bit

What can micro:bit do?

The micro:bit can be programmed to do various interesting things, it can be a digital watch, fitness tracker, or a
game console. The device features 25 LED lights and two programmable buttons, which can be used in game-play
or to skip through tracks in a playlist. It also features an on-board compass to track the direction of the wearer...
In addition, micro:bit is equipped with commonly-used sensors like light sensor, temperature sensor, etc. It can
be widely used in computer games, acousto-optic interactions, robotics, scientific experiments, wearable device and
so on.
 micro:bit Function
On the credit card size board, it has 25 LED lights, two programmable buttons, light sensors, accelerometer,
compass, temperature sensor, and Bluetooth module and so on.

micro:bit Function Overview

5*5 LED Matrix Bluetooth Antenna USB Port Reset

Battery
Low power Box Port
consumption USB
Bluetooth module BLE ANTENNA
RESET
BATTERY

Button A Button B
Magnetometer PROCESSOR
COMPASS
ACCELEROMETER
PINS

Accelerometer

Front View Back View

25 programmable LED Lights Display patterns, words, and numbers

Used separately or together to make things happen. For example,

2 programmable Buttons
press down A to display a heart pattern.
The 25 LEDs can act as sensors to measure how much light is falling
Light Sensor
on the micro:bit.

Accelerometer and Compass Measure the gestures or forces in 3 dimensions.

Temperature Sensor Detect the temperature in the current environment.

Your micro:bit can communicate with other micro:bits by radio, and

Bluetooth & Radio
with other devices using Bluetooth.

micro:bit Programming
We can directly program micro:bit online without installing any software. There is a huge community of people
making tools for programming and interacting with the micro:bit which means you can program your micro:bit in
Python, C++ and other languages, including all kinds of block editors like Mind+, Blocks, Javascript, Python, Scratch.
In this tutorial, we will use MakeCode to program, click the link https://makecode.microbit.org/ to enter Make-
Code online programming environment.

MakeCode Online Programming

MakeCode Introduction
Microsoft MakeCode is a framework for creating interactive and engaging programming experiences for those
new to the world of programming. The primary goal of MakeCode is to introduce programming in a way that is
approachable and inviting. MakeCode uses the blocks programming model to let the users learn coding concepts in
a more tangible fashion. Once the user becomes comfortable with the coding elements and structure, they can
progress to create more complex programs.
 Projects in MakeCode

Build Up Programming Environment

1.Input https://makecode.microbit.org/ to your browser to enter the MakeCode programming environment.
Note: it should be operated on the computer with a good Internet connection. If it cannot be loaded properly,
please try it again using Google browser.

Enter MakeCode

Click”New Project” and enter

programming page

2.Open MakeCode editor and create a new project to enter MakeCode programming interface.

Home & Share Interface Switch Setting

Editing Section

Command
Simulator Blocks

Download Section Save/Name

 Name Function

Home & Share Home: create a new project, open tutorial, game, music, fashion
Share: publish your project to share it or embed it in other web pages.
Blocks: graphical programming, suitable for beginners, primary and middle school students.
Interface Switch
JavaScript: code in JavaScript, suitable for high school, college students, and above.

Setting Setting: project setting, extensions, language, delete project, reset, etc.

Simulator: test the result of your program.

Simulator
Preview Control: start, restart, stop the simulator, slow motion, mute audio, full-screen

Command Blocks Blocks: 17 categories of programming blocks and more extended blocks.

Editing Section Programming Editor: construct your program by dragging and snapping colorful blocks

Download Section Download: download the program you edited into micro:bit.

Name: name your project.

Save/Name Save: save your project.
Note: when you click “save”, it will download the program at the same time.

After we got a general understanding of MakeCode, let’s step on our journey to code! In the first example, we
will learn how to write and download a program.

1.Write a program
Step 1: drag the block we need to the editing section.

Step 2: to remove a block, drag it from the editing section to the command section, or right-click to delete.

Knowledge Expansion
Hover your mouse pointer over the block,
then the pointer will become
“ ” ; left-click to select the block, the point-
er becomes “ “; when you drag the block to
the command section, it will become “ “ ,
then release the mouse to remove the block.
 Step 3: after we completed a program, check its effect via the simulator.

2.Prepare to download
Connect the micro:bit board to your computer by a USB cable. There will be a hard-disk named micro:bit ap-
pearing in your computer when the connection is successful.

MICROBIT(I:)

3.Download
Click “Download” to download the program into your micro:bit.
Note: when downloading a program, the micro:bit power indicator will keep flashing, and please do not discon-
nect the USB cable.

MICROBIT(I:)

Download
File name: xxxxxxx.hex

4. Download completes
Once the downloading is completed, the micro:bit LED screen will show a heart pattern.

Since we have learned the basics about Maqueen Plus, micro:bit and MakeCode programming, so for the next
chapter, we are going to write a program to let micro:bit to drive Maqueen Plus.