micro:bit "radio send packet" emanates no messages

[Turgut Guneysu]

No matter what type of data was placed in the block (number, string, pair, list, boolean, json, a variable), it never resulted in a “radio receive packet” or “radio message received?” at the other end.

The only differentiation between a message and a packet that I am aware of from micro:bit docs is that string messages are 19 bytes, but packets can be 32 bytes.

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[John Maloney]

The _radio send packet and _radio receive packet are super advanced blocks meant for experimentation with “raw” data packets. By “raw” I mean that they are not compatible with the MakeCode radio packet protocol used by the other radio blocks. (See https://ukbaz.github.io/howto/ubit_radio.html and https://support.microbit.org/support/solutions/articles/19000053168-receiving-radio-data-from-pxt-within-python for more details.) An advanced user could use those blocks to build their own packet protocol built on raw, 32-byte Nordic radio packets.

Do you you think those blocks should be removed from the radio library even though they are already marked as advanced? They would still be available in the radioPrims library. (Everything in the “system” libraries folder is intended only for very advanced users.)

I did notice a small bug in _radio receive packet; it should be a reporter block that returns true when a packet has been received.