Capstone under the clock
Scored challenges, not extra worksheets.
The Digital Challenge hackathon moves students from guided labs to messy engineering: choose parts, defend a measurement, present a live prototype.
Day 1
| # | Challenge | Pts | What you are really assessing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unknown blue / red / green resistors | 10 | Ohm-meter transfer. Circuit, software, three values. |
| 2 | LED turn-on voltage, I ≤ 50 mA | 12 | Safe measurement method, not a lucky number. |
| 3 | Morse CQ on light, 15 mA, 200 ms dot | 15 | Resistor math + timing. Alien-invasion wrapper. |
| 4 | Invisible-robot temperature > 30°C | 20 | Standalone LED alarm + Processing live display. |
| 5 | Parking sensor, green/red LED law | 25 | Distance bands, PWM brightness, blink < 5 cm. |
| Special | Light decoder, 3-letter codes | 50 | Pulse detection, tables, a working demo on a test word. |
Parking-sensor law · post this
> 15 cm
Green at full brightness, then dim as the obstacle closes.
10–5 cm
Red turns on and brightens toward 5 cm.
< 5 cm
Red blinks rapidly. Processing visualization is the B-task.
Day 2 · ESP32 track
Use if you have ESP32 modules and Cirkit Designer. ECHO is 5V; ESP32 is 3.3V logic — voltage divider or level shifter is a scored talking point.
| Challenge | Pts | Arc |
|---|---|---|
| Distance + Processing bar | 35 | Schematic, hardware, sketch, serial proof, UI |
| Servo from distance bands | 30 | 0° / 90° / 180° at 10 and 20 cm. External 5V for the servo. |
| Radar scanner | 50 | ANGLE,DISTANCE stream, green sweep, polar dots |
| Wi-Fi sonar on Android | 30 bonus | UDP packets, same-network phones. Only after 1–3. |