Course chapters
Tap View summary on any chapter to see what’s inside — no need to start the course.
🎯 What you’ll learn
- Sensors as a machine’s senses: sense → think → act
- Digital signals: active high vs active low wires
- In TinkerPy ON always means “detected” — set the mode, fix wrong modes
🎬 Animated demo
Compare an active high and an active low sensor: the wires move opposite ways, yet TinkerPy says ON for both.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Smart doorway with a PIR and an IR sensor
- Mode detective: test and label your sensor modules
- Human vs machine senses chart
🎯 What you’ll learn
- Analog levels: 0–3.3 V becomes 0–100, thresholds and bands
- Dual DO + AO modules and the sensitivity knob
- Pulse timing (ultrasonic) and serial data (DHT11 one-wire, I2C)
🎬 Animated demo
Drag a light slider and watch the voltage become a 0–100 level, then sort sensors into all four output types.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Light meter with signal bars
- Echo parking helper
- Signal type sorting cards
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How an LDR’s resistance changes with light
- DO (ON = DARK, active low) and AO light level 0–100
- Automatic lights with thresholds and levels
🎬 Animated demo
Drag the light level down as evening comes and watch the night lamp pick full, soft or off.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Automatic street light model
- Night lamp with levels
- Sunrise alarm that beeps when the room gets bright
🎯 What you’ll learn
- IR obstacle sensor: reflected light, ON = OBJECT
- Ultrasonic echo timing and distance() in cm
- Yes/no or how far: choosing the right sensor
🎬 Animated demo
Follow invisible IR light bouncing off a hand, then slide a wall closer and watch the echo come back faster.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Automatic hand sanitiser
- Smart dustbin lid
- Toy garage parking sensor
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How IR reflection tells black from white
- line_sensor ON = BLACK (digital, active low)
- How a two-sensor line-follower robot steers
🎬 Animated demo
Sort surfaces into black or white, then watch a line follower decide how to steer.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Black-or-white tester
- Line-follower robot
- Table-edge robot that never falls off
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How a PIR feels moving body heat
- pir ON = MOTION (digital, active high)
- Time and sensitivity knobs, and warm-up
🎬 Animated demo
Walk up the stairs past the sensor and watch the light switch on, then sort what a PIR can notice.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Staircase light
- Room guard alarm
- Wildlife camera trap model
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How a microphone module hears a clap
- sound ON = SOUND: a short active-low pulse
- Toggling a lamp with a variable
🎬 Animated demo
Follow a clap from your hands to the lamp, then step through two claps of the clap switch.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Clap switch lamp
- Classroom noise light
- Knock alarm for a cupboard
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How a capacitive pad feels your finger’s charge
- TTP223 module: digital, active high, ON = TOUCHED
- Touch-to-toggle with the edge trick
🎬 Animated demo
Follow a touch from fingertip to SIG HIGH to ON, then step through a touch lamp that flips once per tap.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Touch lamp hidden in a box
- Three-step dimmer lamp
- Touch quiz buzzer
🎯 What you’ll learn
- Spring and SW-420 vibration switches, sensitivity knob
- Digital active low blips: ON = SHAKING
- Counting shakes for a model earthquake meter
🎬 Animated demo
Drag the shake strength to see when the knock alarm fires, then sort events into knock or no knock.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Almirah knock alarm
- Shaking-table earthquake meter
- Secret-knock box
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How a rolling metal ball switch senses tilt
- Digital active low: ON = TILTED, debounce a bump
- Latching alarms; MPU6050 for exact angles
🎬 Animated demo
See where the ball goes when level, tilted or bumped, then sort jobs: tilt switch or MPU6050?
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Treasure box anti-theft alarm
- Level buddy for shelves and frames
- Fallen cycle alert
🎯 What you’ll learn
- The Hall effect: a magnet pushes charges to one side
- Digital active low: ON = MAGNET, magnet poles
- Counting wheel turns and working out RPM
🎬 Animated demo
Watch the Hall effect step by step, then turn wheel turns in 10 seconds into RPM.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Magic magnet box with a servo lock
- Cycle wheel RPM meter
- Fan speed checker
🎯 What you’ll learn
- Two metal reeds in glass that a magnet closes
- Digital active low: ON = CLOSED, OFF = door open
- Reed switch vs Hall sensor
🎬 Animated demo
Open and close a door to see the reeds touch and the alarm react, then compare reed and Hall.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Room door alarm
- Fridge door-open reminder
- Shop visitor counter
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How a flame sensor sees invisible infrared light
- Digital active low output: ON = FIRE
- A fire alarm with a siren — and fire safety
🎬 Animated demo
Follow a flame’s infrared light to the siren, then sort what can fool a flame sensor.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Kitchen fire alarm model
- Fire-fighting robot
- Diya watcher
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How a heated MQ sensor smells LPG, alcohol and bad air
- Dual module: ON = GAS or a 0–100 gas level
- Gas leak alarms, exhaust fans and gas safety
🎬 Animated demo
Drag the LPG level from clean air to danger and watch the lights and exhaust fan react.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Kitchen gas-leak alarm model
- Classroom fresh-air monitor
- Sanitiser sniffer
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How raindrops join the tracks of a rain plate
- Digital active low output: ON = RAIN
- Rain alerts and a servo roof for the clothes line
🎬 Animated demo
Follow the first raindrop from the rain plate to a servo roof that covers the clothes.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Clothes-line rain roof
- Monsoon rain logger
- Smart window model
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How water bridges the contacts of a leak probe
- Digital active low output: ON = WATER
- A latching leak alarm that stops the pump
🎬 Animated demo
Compare a dry floor, a tap-water puddle and pure water, then sort rain jobs from leak jobs.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Purifier drip-tray alarm
- Model washing machine leak guard
- Bathroom floor-dry check
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How a track strip measures water depth
- Analog output read as 0–100 on i1–i4
- A tank LED indicator and an automatic pump
🎬 Animated demo
Drag the water level to light the tank LEDs, then step through a pump that uses two thresholds.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Model tank indicator
- Never-overflow pump
- Plant-pot saucer watcher
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How wet soil lets current flow between the probe legs
- DO (ON = DRY, Active Low) or AO Soil level 0–100
- Testing, the knob and stopping probe corrosion
🎬 Animated demo
Drag the soil level down and watch a smart pump decide to water the plant.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Plant thirst alarm
- Self-watering pot
- Which soil holds water longest?
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How a thermistor and an LM35 feel heat
- Analog temperature level 0–100 with analog_read()
- Calibrating the level against a thermometer
🎬 Animated demo
Drag the temperature up and watch the fan step from OFF to slow, medium and full speed.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Three-speed fan
- Hot or cold LEDs
- Classroom heat log
🎯 What you’ll learn
- Humidity and why sticky days feel hotter
- One-wire serial data: 40 bits and a checksum
- dht_temperature(), dht_humidity() and reading every 2 s
🎬 Animated demo
Follow one DHT11 reading from “wake up” through 40 bits to °C and % in your code.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Classroom weather station
- Smart exhaust fan model
- Clothes-drying advisor
🎯 What you’ll learn
- Why bending raises the resistance
- Analog bend level 0–100 through a voltage divider
- Mapping and calibrating the bend to a servo angle
🎬 Animated demo
Bend the finger and watch the LEDs light up and the robot finger’s servo angle follow.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Robot finger glove
- Bend meter
- Two-finger robot hand
🎯 What you’ll learn
- Time of flight: timing laser light
- Serial data over I2C on o7 / o8, address 0x29
- laser_distance() in cm, 999 and laser vs ultrasonic
🎬 Animated demo
Follow a laser flash out and back, then move an object and watch the parking helper’s LEDs.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Laser parking helper
- Laser height meter
- Laser vs ultrasonic test
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How an accelerometer feels gravity and a gyroscope feels turning
- I2C serial data on o7 (SDA) / o8 (SCL), address 0x68
- tilt_x(), tilt_direction(), shake, fall and turn_angle()
🎬 Animated demo
Tilt the MPU6050 and watch tilt_x() and tilt_direction() change from flat to front down or up.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Spirit level
- Lunch box guard
- Square-path robot
🎯 What you’ll learn
- What air pressure is and why it drops as you climb
- Reading pressure(), altitude() and bmp_temperature() over I2C
- Using pressure changes to guess the weather
🎬 Animated demo
Climb from the beach to a hill station and watch the air pressure fall, then sort pressure changes into weather.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Rain predictor
- Floor finder
- School weather station
🎯 What you’ll learn
- Why things look coloured: reflected light
- R G B values, brightness and color_name() over I2C
- Address 0x29 and testing with your own cards
🎬 Animated demo
Follow white light to an object, through colour filters, to a colour name; then mix red, green and blue light.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Colour reader
- Sweet sorter
- Traffic-card robot
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How four light sensors see the direction of a swipe
- gesture() and proximity() over I2C
- Storing a swipe for one pass of loop:
🎬 Animated demo
Follow a hand swiping over the sensor, then bring a hand closer to brighten a touchless lamp.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Magic swipe lights
- Wave-driven robot
- Touchless lamp
🎯 What you’ll learn
- How red and infrared light find the heart rate and SpO2
- Why it is a learning project, not a medical device
- A Multi-Sensor Station using all four output types
🎬 Animated demo
Follow light through a fingertip to the heart rate, then build the station layer by layer.
🛠️ Project & application ideas
- Heartbeat display
- Multi-Sensor Station (final project)
- Output type recap table