Arduino & Embedded C

What you'll learn

• Explain what microcontrollers are and build and upload Arduino sketches with the IDE or arduino-cli.
• Use digital and analog I/O, PWM and non-blocking millis() timing to read buttons and sensors and drive LEDs.
• Connect devices over UART, I2C and SPI and use peripheral libraries responsibly.
• Drive motors, relays and servos safely with transistors, drivers, flyback diodes and a sensible power budget.
• Write embedded C with fixed-width types, bit manipulation, direct register access, volatile and interrupts.
• Structure projects as state machines, connect an ESP32 to the network without leaking secrets, and debug and test embedded code.

Syllabus

Embedded Foundations

1. Embedded Systems and Microcontrollers
2. The Arduino Ecosystem
3. Sketch Structure and the Build/Upload Flow

Digital Input and Output

1. LEDs, Buttons and Pull-ups
2. Debouncing Buttons
3. Non-blocking Timing with millis()

Analog Input and PWM

1. analogRead and the ADC
2. PWM with analogWrite
3. Reading Sensors and Voltage Dividers

Communication Protocols

1. Serial (UART) for Debugging and Data
2. I2C with the Wire Library
3. SPI and Using Libraries Responsibly

Actuators and Power

1. Driving Motors and Relays Safely
2. Servos and Stepper Motors
3. Power Supplies, Current Budgets and Common Ground

Embedded C Under the Hood

1. Data Types and Fixed-width Integers
2. Flash, SRAM, EEPROM, PROGMEM and F()
3. Bit Manipulation, Registers and volatile

Interrupts, Timers and Low Power

1. External and Pin-change Interrupts
2. Hardware Timers Overview
3. Low-power and Sleep Modes

Building Real Projects

1. State Machines for Embedded Logic
2. IoT with the ESP32
3. Debugging and Testing Embedded Code
4. An Embedded Project Checklist