Getting Crocodile-Clip Wires
In your week 10 lab we will use a little wire to connect two of the ring connectors on your microbit. If you’re on campus, we will give you a crocodile/alligator clip wire to use. If not, you will have to find one yourself.
How to get clip wires
Have you noticed that there are lots of little pin connectors at the bottom of your microbit? To connect to these you need some crocodile clip wires!
Crocodile (or alligator) clips come in lots of sizes, you might have seen big ones for jumpstarting car batteries
If you’re learning with us in-person you will receive these wires in your lab, but if you’re not on ANU campus you will have to order them for yourself.
Don’t worry: these are very easy to obtain from electronics suppliers or online sellers (Core Electronics, Ebay, Taobao, AliExpress). You might even have some at home.
The right type of wires to get:
You’ll want to get some small crocodile clip wires that are appropriate for electronics (not the big kind for cars!). They usualy come in a pack of 10 for about 5AUD.
Where should I get them?
Here’s some suggestions. If you’re in Australia, I recommend Core Electronics.
- Core Electronics - Alligator Clip Wire / Cable 10 Pack ($4.39)
- Random Ebay sellers ($5-$10) - usually pretty quick in Australia if they say they have stock in AU. Just be careful that you’re actually ordering crocodile/alligator wires! :-D
There are lots of other potential online stores, and doubtless many many sellers on TaoBao/AliExpress who have these kind of things.
I don’t have clip wires, is there anything else I can do?
You need to be able to connect two of the rings on your microbit for lab 10. If you don’t have a crocodile clip wire, you can probably use something you have around the house, e.g.:
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a regular wire: strip a bunch of insulator off and wrap the conductor around the ring
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a paper clip: bend it so that it goes through ring 0 and ring 2 and springs against them to keep a contact
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a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm PC audio cable: stick one plug through each hole (it’s a loose but ok fit) then put the microbit down on a table so that it pushes against the plugs
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aluminium foil: roll some foil into a wire and carefully thread it through ring 0 and ring 2, you might need some tape to keep it in place
There’s examples of clip wire alternatives on the microbit website (this example is for connecting headphones, but you can see the idea).
Use your own ingenuity! The crocodile clips are going to be the most convenient and will be what we use in in-person classes, but there are lots of ways that will work!
Here’s an example of what you might come up with:
