Calliope - Level 1: Introduction

Discover the world of microcontrollers with the Calliope mini! This little star-shaped computer fits in your hand and can do an incredible amount: light up LEDs, play music, measure temperature, and much more. And the coolest part: you tell it what to do!

What is the Calliope mini?

The Calliope mini is a small computer developed especially for kids and teenagers — right here in Germany! It’s shaped like a star and comes with everything you need to program:

• 25 red LEDs (a 5x5 grid) — for displaying images and text
• One RGB LED — that lights up in any colour
• Two buttons (A and B) — like buttons to press
• A speaker — for sounds and music
• Sensors — for light, temperature, motion, and compass
• Connectors (pins) — for hooking up external things, like a motor

What you need

• A Calliope mini (available at KidsLab!)
• A USB cable (Micro-USB)
• A computer or laptop with internet access

Step 1: Connecting Calliope to your computer

1. Connect the Calliope mini to your computer with the USB cable
2. The Calliope now appears as a USB drive (like a USB stick)
3. Open makecode.calliope.cc in your browser
4. Click “New Project”

Step 2: Your first program — a smiley!

Let’s dive right in and display a smiley on the LEDs:

1. In the middle you’ll see two blocks: “on start” and “forever”
2. Click “Basic” on the left
3. Drag the “show LEDs” block into the “on start” block
4. Click the little squares in the LED block to draw a smiley pattern:

   . # . # .
   . # . # .
   . . . . .
   # . . . #
   . # # # .
5. Click “Download” at the bottom left
6. Drag the downloaded file onto the Calliope drive
7. The Calliope blinks briefly — and shows your smiley!

Step 3: Reacting to button presses

Now let’s make it more interactive! Your Calliope should react to buttons:

1. Click on “Input”
2. Drag the “on button A pressed” block onto the workspace
3. Add inside it: “show string” → type in e.g. “Hi!”
4. Do the same for button B with a different text
5. Upload the program to the Calliope

Now press button A or B — your Calliope shows the text scrolling across the LEDs!

Step 4: Colours with the RGB LED

The Calliope also has a coloured LED that can light up in any colour:

1. Click “Basic” → “more”
2. Drag the “set LED colour to” block into “on start”
3. Choose a colour — red, green, blue, or mix your own!
4. Upload the program and watch the Calliope light up

Step 5: Making music!

Your Calliope has a built-in speaker:

1. Click on “Music”
2. Drag the “play tone” block into your program
3. Choose a note (e.g. Middle C) and the duration
4. Chain several notes together — and you’ve got a melody!

Try to see if you can play the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”!

Ideas to keep going

• Dice: on shake (Input → “on shake”) show a random number from 1–6
• Thermometer: read the temperature sensor and display the degrees
• Compass: show the direction on the LEDs
• Reaction game: who can press the button faster when the LED lights up?