Activity C3 — Digital outputs

Create a new sketch in the Arduino IDE. It will look like this:

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:

}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

}

Save your Arduino sketch. Name it C3-level1.

Digital pins on an Arduino can be inputs or outputs, depending on what you want them to be.

The pinMode() function is how you tell the Arduino that a pin is going to be an input or output.

Tell the Arduino that pin 9 is an output, by putting the following code inside the setup() function.

    pinMode(9, OUTPUT);    // set up pin 9 as an output.

I can give you a hint if you need it, but have a go by yourself first.

The Arduino knows that pin 9 is an output, so now you can turn it on and off.

Let’s just flash it on briefly each second. Put this code into the loop() function:

    digitalWrite(9, HIGH);  // turn the LED on
    delay(100);             // wait for 1 tenth second
    digitalWrite(9, LOW);   // turn the LED off
    delay(1000);            // wait for 1 second

I can give you a hint if you need it, but have a go by yourself first.

Now upload the sketch to an Arduino that has a Thinkershield attached.

Did LED 9 flash?

That’s fantastic!

Now claim your achievement.

1. Copy the saved sketch to your Year 8 Digital Tech folder on Google Drive. Here are instructions about how to do this.
2. Complete a claim slip. The code is C3 and the level is 1.