Answer: Binary Secret #353

The secret message is:

Big smile

The decoded message: Big smile
Every row decoded.

Row by row

RowBulbsAdd the ‘on’ numbersCharacter
10100001064 + 2 = 66B
20110100164 + 32 + 8 + 1 = 105i
30110011164 + 32 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 103g
40010000032 = 32a space
50111001164 + 32 + 16 + 2 + 1 = 115s
60110110164 + 32 + 8 + 4 + 1 = 109m
70110100164 + 32 + 8 + 1 = 105i
80110110064 + 32 + 8 + 4 = 108l
90110010164 + 32 + 4 + 1 = 101e

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 = [
    "01000010",
    "01101001",
    "01100111",
    "00100000",
    "01110011",
    "01101101",
    "01101001",
    "01101100",
    "01100101",
]
message = ""
for code in secret:
    number = int(code, 2)
    message = message + chr(number)
print(message)

When you run it, it prints:

Big smile

<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!