Outline · Arduino Uno
Crack the Code
Crack the Code is the NSW Technology Mandatory 7–8 design project, rebuilt as a self-paced course on Little Bird. You'll go from your first `digitalWrite(LED, HIGH)` to a complete alarm/alert system using a real Arduino + ThinkerShield kit. By the end you'll be reading buttons, potentiometers and light sensors, driving LEDs and piezos, and writing real Arduino C++ — the same code your kit ships with.
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Lesson 1.1 · Preview
Inputs → Processing → Outputs
Spot the control technology in a TV remote, a microwave, a Tickle-Me-Elmo. · 15 min
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Lesson 1.2
Your kit · Arduino + ThinkerShield
What's on the board, what plugs in where, and what NOT to do. · 20 min
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Lesson 2.1 · Preview
Blink
Light an LED. Turn it off. Repeat. · 25 min
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Lesson 2.2
Why HIGH and LOW?
Computers are made of switches. Switches have two states. · 15 min
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Lesson 3.1
Buttons & digitalRead
Make the LED light up while a button is held. · 25 min
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Lesson 3.2
Analog input · pots & light sensors
Read a value from 0 to 1023 and feed it into anything. · 25 min
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Lesson 3.3
The piezo buzzer
Output: sound. Now we can build an alarm. · 15 min
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Lesson 4.1
Read the brief
Identify the real constraints before you start cutting wires. · 20 min
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Lesson 4.2
Prototype it
Wire it up. Write the smallest sketch that proves the idea works. · 35 min