TinkerPy Tutorial

🎯 What you’ll learn

• What a program is
• TinkerPy: a Python-like language for boards
• What you can build with TinkerPy

🎬 Animated demo

Press Compile & Upload and follow your code all the way to the board.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Explore the TinkerPy Code editor
• Inputs & outputs hunt at home

🎯 What you’ll learn

• A tour of the TinkerPy editor (IDE)
• Compile, read errors and fix them
• Test in the Simulator, then upload over WiFi or Bluetooth

🎬 Animated demo

Follow a program through Write → Compile → Simulate → Upload, one step at a time.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Fix-the-bug challenge
• Simulate before you upload

🎯 What you’ll learn

• How every TinkerPy program is laid out
• Pin names and comments that write themselves
• import, setup: (runs once) and loop: (runs forever)

🎬 Animated demo

Watch setup run once, then loop run again and again.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Start-up hello beep
• Label every line of a program

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Input pins i1–i4 and output pins o1–o8
• TinkerPy Mini vs TinkerPy Mega
• Built-in features: WiFi, Bluetooth, PWM, I2C

🎬 Animated demo

Tap each pin group to see what it can do, then compare Mini and Mega.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Draw and label your board
• Pin-planning sheet for a project

🎯 What you’ll learn

• if, elif and else
• repeat and for loops
• while and break

🎬 Animated demo

Hold the button and watch the program choose its path.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Quiz buzzer for two players
• Three-beep alarm

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Storing values in variables
• + − * / and % in code
• Comparisons and and / or / not

🎬 Animated demo

Press Step and watch the variable box grow and the LED brighten.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Button press counter
• Even-or-odd blinker

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Digital inputs: ON or OFF
• Active low and active high
• Analog inputs: a number from 0 to 100

🎬 Animated demo

Turn a knob and watch the analog reading change.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Doorbell button
• Knob-controlled light level

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Digital outputs: ON or OFF
• PWM: brightness and speed from 0 to 100
• How PWM fools our eyes

🎬 Animated demo

Drag a slider and watch the PWM wave and LED brightness change together.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Sunrise lamp
• Two-speed fan

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Buttons, switches and touch
• Motion, sound, light, fire, water and gas sensors
• Analog modules: knob, water level, temperature, flex

🎬 Animated demo

Sort each sensor: digital or analog?

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Smart doorbell plan
• Sensor treasure hunt

🎯 What you’ll learn

• LEDs, bulbs and lasers
• Relays, motors, fans, pumps and locks
• Buzzers, servos and RGB LEDs

🎬 Animated demo

Pick an output and see what it does with ON, OFF and PWM.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Smart room plan
• Output matching game

🎯 What you’ll learn

• What I2C is: two wires, many modules
• SDA and SCL on o7 and o8, and addresses
• Displays, motion, clock, pressure, distance, colour, gesture and pulse modules

🎬 Animated demo

Watch many modules share the same two I2C wires.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• I2C module flash cards
• Weather station plan

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Fixed-pin modules: ultrasonic, robot motors, joystick, GPS and GSM
• Board features: Bluetooth, IoT and Wireless
• Counter, Clock and TV remote

🎬 Animated demo

Sort each module by the pins it takes: fixed pins, a pin you pick, or none.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Plan a robot car
• Big project planning sheet

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Digital input conditions in code
• analog_read() and voltage()
• Turning readings into decisions

🎬 Animated demo

Turn a knob and watch the code read and decide, line by line.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Light-level alarm
• Knob-controlled game speed

🎯 What you’ll learn

• ON, OFF and pwm() in code
• invert, increment and decrement functions
• Smooth fades with output_increment_till()

🎬 Animated demo

Step through a fade and watch the brightness climb.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Breathing night light
• Fan with three speeds

🎯 What you’ll learn

• distance() in centimetres
• dht_temperature() and dht_humidity()
• Joystick x, y, direction and press

🎬 Animated demo

Move a wall closer and watch the echo — and the warning LED.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Car parking sensor
• Joystick-controlled light

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Servo angles and smooth servo moves
• robot_control() for robot cars
• Turning, spinning and curving

🎬 Animated demo

Drag to point a servo, then drive a robot around the floor.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Automatic gate
• Robot dance routine

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Beeps and tunes with buzzer_play()
• Mixing any colour with an RGB LED
• Blink and breathe effects

🎬 Animated demo

Move the red, green and blue sliders to mix any colour.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Musical doorbell
• Mood lamp

🎯 What you’ll learn

• How the phone app and board talk
• Reading and sending Bluetooth data
• Control and watch your project over the internet (IoT)

🎬 Animated demo

Tap a phone switch and watch the data fly to the board.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Phone-controlled fan
• IoT plant monitor

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Board-to-board Wireless (nearby)
• Wireless IoT: boards far apart, through the internet
• Reading TV remote buttons

🎬 Animated demo

Follow a message from one board to another.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Two-board doorbell
• TV-remote robot

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Counters that count by themselves
• Pausing, clearing and checking counters
• A clock with HH, MM and SS

🎬 Animated demo

Press Step and watch the counter and clock tick.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Visitor counter
• Morning alarm clock

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Writing text and numbers on the OLED
• The 16×2 LCD display
• Clearing, scrolling and animations

🎬 Animated demo

Type a message and see it appear on the OLED screen.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Digital name badge
• Live temperature display

🎯 What you’ll learn

• MPU6050: tilt, shake and fall detection
• RTC: a clock that keeps time
• BMP280: air pressure and altitude

🎬 Animated demo

Tilt the board and watch the readings change.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Fall alarm for a toy
• School bell with a real-time clock

🎯 What you’ll learn

• VL53L0X laser distance
• TCS34725 colour sensor
• APDS-9960 gestures and pulse oximeter

🎬 Animated demo

Read a colour’s R, G and B numbers and name it like the sensor does.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• Colour-sorting robot
• Wave-to-switch lamp

🎯 What you’ll learn

• GSM: send and read SMS, make calls
• GPS: latitude, longitude, speed and time
• Safety and tracking projects

🎬 Animated demo

Follow an SMS from the board to a phone.

🛠️ Project & application ideas

• SMS fire alert
• Bus location tracker