micro:bit "disable Radio" does NOT disable

[Turgut Guneysu]

is received on the 2nd micro:bit, even with the radio disabled on one side or both.

[John Maloney]

I’ll check but I think sending something automatically re-enables the radio. The main use of the “disable radio” block is to save power. Just having the radio listening consumes power and if you want to run for day son batteries you might want to turn the radio off for periods of time. That’s a pretty advanced use-case, of course.

[Turgut Guneysu]

I was trying to further test the disable command, but unfortunately it disappeared from the menu of radio.ubl commands !

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[John Maloney]

That block is in the radioPrims library since it is expected to be used rarely, if at all.

I checked the code. As I thought, that block powers down the radio but using any other radio block will power the radio back up. So it’s only real purpose would be to save batteries by only turning on the radio for a short period of time then off again. For example, if you wanted to monitor the outside temperature you might have a battery-powered micro:bit in a water-tight enclosure outside that sent the temperature to a micro:bit inside your house once an hour. By turning off the radio between readings, you could extend the battery life significantly.