C4 — Digital inputs

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 C4-level1.

Remember that 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 6 is an input, by putting the following code inside the setup() function.

    pinMode(6, INPUT_PULLUP);    // set up pin 6 as an input.

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

Also tell the Arduino that pin 8 is an output, by putting the following code inside the setup() function.

    pinMode(8, OUTPUT);          // set up pin 8 as an output.

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

Now we’ll use the input to turn the output on and off.

Copy this code into the loop() function of your sketch:

    if (digitalRead(6) == HIGH) {     // check if the button is pressed
        digitalWrite(8, HIGH);         // turn the LED on if the input is on
    } else {
        digitalWrite(8, LOW);          // turn the LED off if the input is not on
    }

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

Now upload the sketch to an Arduino with a Thinkershield attached.

What’s LED 8 doing?

Press the button labelled D6

What happened to LED 8?

Well done! You have used an input.

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 C4 and the level is 1.