Answer: Binary Secret #216

The secret message is:

SCARF

The decoded message: SCARF
Every row decoded.

Row by row

RowBulbsAdd the ‘on’ numbersCharacter
10101001164 + 16 + 2 + 1 = 83S
20100001164 + 2 + 1 = 67C
30100000164 + 1 = 65A
40101001064 + 16 + 2 = 82R
50100011064 + 4 + 2 = 70F

Crack it with Python

Python can do the adding for you. int(code, 2) reads a string of 1s and 0s as a binary number. Then chr() turns the number into its character.

secret = [
    "01010011",
    "01000011",
    "01000001",
    "01010010",
    "01000110",
]
message = ""
for code in secret:
    number = int(code, 2)
    message = message + chr(number)
print(message)

When you run it, it prints:

SCARF

<strong>Beep says:</strong> Want to write your own secret message? Turn it around: ord() turns a character into its number, and format(number, “08b”) writes the number as 8 binary digits. Beep boop!