Radio is incmpatible between blocks and micropython

[rhubarbdog]

This is probably a bug with Blocks I've logged it there #1712

There is a lack of compatibility between blocks radio and micropython radio.

Describe the solution you'd like When I have a micropython producer and a blocks consumer. I broadcast on channel 7 group 1 "Message" the consumer logs the message's arrival by executing on RadioReceive block but the message logged is blank. When i have a blocks producer and a micropython consumer. I broadcast on group 1 and receive on channel 7 group 1. The message is preceded by garbage. On the microbit it displays as ?<???????Hello or ????F????Hello . screen a serial terminal collects the following

        FHello
<Hello

I'd like to be able to produce Radio applications in both blocks and micropython that can communicate with each other

[ukBaz]

FYI: I did a blog post about the differences between MakeCode and MicroPython radio message structure. https://ukbaz.github.io/howto/ubit_radio.html

[DavidWhaleMEF]

This is not a bug. It is a difference in implementation. The two languages were mostly developed in isolation, and the radio formats in the very early days were not well documented, so different implementations appeared as a result.

FYI: I wrote a knowledge-base article about this, with code examples of why there are differences and ways to inter-work.

https://support.microbit.org/support/solutions/articles/19000053168-receiving-radio-data-from-the-makecode-editor-within-python

[microbit-carlos]

As @ukBaz and @DavidWhaleMEF have covered (thanks!) this is due to the different implementation of the radio module. The articles linked in those responses should give a pretty good overview on how to get MicroPython and MakeCode programs talking with each other via radio.

I'll close this issue, but feel free to reopen or add additional comments if you have any other questions.