Custom Micro:bit Class set Holder

By Mr. Mills

EXAMPLE DOCUMENTATION PAGE

TAS1O Technology and the Skilled Trades

Grade 9 - October 10th 2025

Define

My classroom micro:bits are living in a bit, loose, scattered and prone to damage and mix ups. Students always can't remember which micro:bit they are using and it causes them all sorts of issues trying to share with others.

I need a way for students to quickly find which micro:bit belongs to them for their projects, and also give them a safe place to store them in between classes that could be easily serviced by me, the teacher.

BRAINSTORM

My first instinct is to go online and take a look at what others are doing for their classroom micro:bit storage. On Google Images I searched for "micro:bit holder 3d printed" and found a lot of different designs that looked quite functional. Some of them were very small and light however, and I realized that even if I did print any of these off, I wouldn't have a great place to keep the 3D printed model.

DEFINE - I realized that I also needed this storage solution to be able to fit into my existing classroom storage, so I am starting to think of ways that I can design this holder to fit inside of one of the storage bins I already use inside of the classroom. I decided that the final version of this project needed to:

Be able to hold 20 micro:bits and 20 battery packs in one of my large black tubs, safely and securely and in a way that students were able to quickly identify which microbit was theirs, grab them and then return them at the end of class.

I think the best way to do this is to create a a box that could fit both the microbit and battery pack side by side, and then have them easily slottable like a cartridge of sorts. Each microbit could also have a vinyl cut number assigned to it, so students knew which one was theirs.

Once I had one figured out, I could easily extend the design to support the full 20 by just copying it. I started by drawing out a sketch of what it could look like:

PLAN

Picture caption: My rough work using a printed copy of the micro:bit blueprint CAD, adding my own dimensions. I was a bit off for certain dimensions and had to revisit them, as shown in purple pen.

I need to be able to model the microbit in TinkerCAD before I begin, as I'll need to know what measurements I'm working with to get started. The first thing I need to do is to accurately dimension all of the features of a single micro:bit and transfer these dimensions to CAD. I started by making a sketch of the micro:bit and adding the dimensions.

Prototype

Now that I have dimensions for the micro:bit I can start adding it to CAD. I want to get a rough estimate of how large the micro:bit is and how much space it will take up when inserted into a box.

I created a little pocket that would hold the micro:bit in place, and added a little notch to hold it in place

Test

The first test print was not quite right. I didn't get the notch size correct, it was about 2mm too wide, so I made a quick adjustment in CAD and reprinted it. This version held the micro:bit nicely, but I quickly realized after holding this version for the first time, that the notch was not even necessary, and that my design could be simplified to just hold the micro:bit at the bottom.

ITERATE

PROTOTYPE

I created a box that would be solid for now, and modelled the microbit and battery pack dimensions to see how it would all fit.

I didn't want the microbit to fall completely through the stand, so I added a lip on the inside to catch it.

Test

I wanted to see how the micro:bits would fit in a line, so I printed a test of just this lip, repeated 5 times, without the battery pack. I added hole underneath in the CAD to ensure I wasn't wasting too much filament with this test print.

My first test did not fit the microbits nicely. The slit was too thin to accomodate the diagonal insertion of the device.

Even with a fixed width (shown in blue on the left) the device didn't stand up the way I wanted it to.

DEFINE - A new problem was made clear, I needed to be able to insert the micro:bit at a diagnoal, so it needed a back rest to hold that angle in place.

BRAINSTORM

I thought about different ways that I could cradle the microbit, and ultimately settled on a design with multiple "steps" to allow the thinnest part of the microbit to fall through, but the pins of the connector board to get stopped.

PROTOTYPE

I modelled a new version of the case with the battery pack included, and added a back rest/support so that the micro:bit would fit nicely.

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