micro:bit v2 Flasher

Build your program and flash it to a BBC micro:bit v2 over WebUSB, from inside VS Code — including a GitHub Codespace, which has no USB port of its own.

One key does the whole job: Ctrl+Alt+F (Control+Option+F on a Mac), or the Flash micro:bit button in the status bar. It runs the workspace Build task, then flashes build/main.hex. The first time, the browser asks which USB device to use — choose the micro:bit. Then the micro:bit › Serial view opens in the bottom panel: your program's output over the same USB connection, an input field to send it a line (Enter sends CR LF), Clear, and header buttons to connect, flash and disconnect. The micro:bit output channel carries the extension's own log.

Made for the Ada micro:bit course template; it flashes any Intel HEX at build/main.hex, whatever produced it.

Where it runs

This is a web extension: VS Code runs it in the browser, on your own machine, where the board is plugged in — not in the Codespace, which cannot see your USB ports. Install it from the Extensions view of a Codespace opened in the browser (or vscode.dev / github.dev); if VS Code offers a choice, pick Install in Browser. Installed into the Codespace it can never start.

It needs a Chromium browser — Chrome, Edge or Opera. Safari and Firefox have no WebUSB. In desktop VS Code there is no WebUSB either; flash with python3 tools/mb.py flash from the course template instead.

Commands

Source

extension/ in the template repository. python3 tools/mb.py extension assembles this folder, bundling @microbit/microbit-connection into it; it is published with vsce by the repository's workflow.