Understand

From complete beginner to engineering level

Arduino Lab

An LED that lights up because your program decided it should: that is where it starts. This course teaches you the electricity you actually need, the components, the Arduino Uno board and the programming that makes hardware act, one idea at a time, then takes you all the way to interrupts, registers, protocols, connected devices and the design of a complete system, tested and documented.

In every lesson you build the circuit on a virtual breadboard, write the program, run it and watch. The lab really computes what happens: an LED plugged in backwards stays dark, a forgotten resistor burns the LED out. When you have a real board, every mission tells you how to do it for real.

Modules
26
Lessons
136
Time
~78 hours
Projects
32
Get started

What you'll be able to do

  • Explain voltage, current and resistance, and calculate a protection resistor with Ohm's law
  • Build a circuit on a breadboard from a schematic, and find a wiring mistake
  • Write a complete Arduino program - setup, loop, outputs, inputs, Serial Monitor
  • Read a button, a potentiometer, a sensor, and make the circuit react
  • Dim a light, make a sound, drive a motor without damaging the board
  • Write responsive programs with millis(), state machines and interrupts
  • Drive a motor with a transistor, a flyback diode and a separate power supply
  • Read and write the input/output registers, store data in EEPROM, filter a measurement
  • Make components talk to each other (UART, I²C, SPI) and design a robust serial protocol
  • Design, test, document and defend a complete embedded system

Who it's for

Anyone who has never touched electronics or programming: curious high-school students, robotics club members, students preparing practical work, hobbyists. Engineering students will find what comes next as well: interrupts, timers, registers, memory, protocols, robustness, system design. Every chapter is open: if you can already program, or already know electricity, start where you are (the lesson « Embedded systems » shows you where).

What you need

None. A computer is more comfortable for building circuits; the lessons, the questions and the code also work on a phone. An Arduino Uno board is useful but not needed to get started.

What you'll build

  • Calculated LED
  • Blinker
  • Traffic light
  • Reaction timer
  • Serial interface
  • Button and LED
  • Automatic night light
  • Parking assistant
  • Temperature monitor
  • Distance alarm
  • Smart traffic light
  • Automatic fan
  • Pedestrian crossing
  • Reflex game
  • Non-blocking crossroads
  • Dashboard
  • Controlled device
  • Timing
  • Temperature logger
  • Fault-tolerant overheating alarm
  • Register-driven chaser
  • Telemetry node
  • Connected weather station (ESP32)
  • Regulated fan
  • Automatic watering
  • Automatic car park barrier
  • Smart greenhouse
  • Access control
  • Environmental station
  • Low-voltage energy monitor
  • Autonomous robot
  • Free project

Curriculum

Level 0 · Discovering electronicsWhat Arduino is, the electricity you need, components, safety and measurement. 4 modules · 22 lessons
  1. 1 Arduino and embedded systemsWhat an Arduino board is, what a microcontroller can (and cannot) do, and where to start depending on what you already know.
  2. 2 Before Arduino: the electricity you needVoltage, current, resistance, Ohm's law, the LED and the breadboard. Just what you need to burn nothing out.
  3. 3 Electronic componentsResistors, diodes, capacitors, switches, relays, transistors, sensors and actuators. What each one does, and its limits.
  4. 4 Safety, measurement and troubleshootingThe board's limits, the multimeter, a method for finding a fault, and your first project calculated from start to finish.
Level 1 · First programsThe Uno board, setup and loop, variables, conditions, loops, functions, Serial Monitor. 3 modules · 17 lessons
  1. 5 First boardThe Arduino Uno, the structure of a program, and your first LEDs driven by code.
  2. 6 Programming the hardwareVariables, types, conditions, loops, functions, arrays, and the Serial Monitor to see what your program is thinking.
  3. 7 Projects: first complete programsA reaction timer and a command interface over the serial port. Everything you learned in level 1, put together.
Level 2 · Inputs, outputs, interactive circuitsButtons, sensors, analog converter, PWM, sound, servo, motors, displays. 4 modules · 20 lessons
  1. 8 Inputs and sensorsRead a button, understand pull resistors, measure a voltage with analogRead, and make the circuit react.
  2. 9 Outputs and actuatorsDose power with PWM, make a sound, position a servo motor, drive a motor without damaging the board.
  3. 10 RoboticsMeasure a distance, drive motors, and organise a robot's logic.
  4. 11 Projects: interactive circuitsA temperature monitor, a distance alarm, a smart traffic light and an automatic fan. Measure, decide, act.
Level 3 · Arduino engineeringNon-blocking time, state machines, interrupts, timers, UART, I²C, SPI, libraries. 4 modules · 23 lessons
  1. 12 Designing reliable programsTime without delay(), the cooperative scheduler, state machines with enum, interrupts and critical sections, and living with 2 KB of memory.
  2. 13 Hardware timersThe counters that keep time inside the microcontroller, prescalers, PWM, conflicts between libraries, and periodic interrupts.
  3. 14 CommunicatingReceive orders through the serial port, build a robust protocol, understand UART, I²C and SPI in detail, display on a screen, use libraries.
  4. 15 Projects: non-blocking systemsA crossroads driven by a state machine, a multi-sensor dashboard, a device controlled by serial protocol, and two-gate timing with interrupts.
Level 4 · Advanced embedded programmingEmbedded C++, memory, registers, signals, real time, robustness, energy. 7 modules · 25 lessons
  1. 16 Embedded C++Pointers, character strings, structures, classes, compiling and linking, and your first library.
  2. 17 A microcontroller's memoryFlash, SRAM and EEPROM, the stack and the heap, saving RAM, and keeping data when the board is switched off.
  3. 18 Registers and hardwareBits and masks, the DDRx, PORTx and PINx input/output registers, reading a datasheet, and what the Arduino functions hide.
  4. 19 Measuring properly: sampling and filteringHow often to measure, what aliasing is, how to filter noise, and how to calibrate a sensor.
  5. 20 Real time and robust softwareMeet deadlines, be wary of inputs, and restart cleanly after a failure.
  6. 21 Using little energyDraw up the energy budget of a battery-powered device, and make it sleep as much as possible.
  7. 22 Projects: advanced embeddedA logger that survives power cuts, monitoring that tolerates sensor failures, an LED chaser driven by registers.
Level 5 · Connected devicesNetworks, Wi-Fi and BLE, MQTT, APIs and JSON, security, logging. 2 modules · 10 lessons
  1. 23 Connected devicesThe ESP32, IP networks, wireless links, MQTT, JSON APIs, and the security and monitoring of a connected device.
  2. 24 Projects: connected devicesA complete telemetry node on the Uno, checked in the lab, then a real weather station on an ESP32, to build.
Level 6 · Engineering designRequirements, hardware, software architecture, testing, instruments, documentation, reliability. 1 module · 8 lessons
  1. 25 Designing like an engineerRequirements, hardware and software design, testing, measuring instruments, documentation and reliability, then a complete system.
Level 7 · Capstone projectsGreenhouse, access control, measurement station, energy, robot, and your own project. 1 module · 11 lessons
  1. 26 Capstone projectsCarry out a project from start to finish - need, schematic, program, tests, explanation.