Study guide — what to focus on

This module is curated — the teaching is a top free course (linked in the card above); our job is to point you at the right things, make you prove it, and certify you.

The plan

1. Watch the course (the card above). You don't need to memorise it — aim to understand the ideas below.
2. Focus on these — they're what the check tests and what you'll use for real:
   • The setup() / loop() model — what runs once vs. what runs forever.
   • Digital I/O — pinMode, digitalWrite, digitalRead, and why a button needs a pull-up/pull-down.
   • Analog input — analogRead and the 0–1023 (10-bit ADC) range.
   • PWM — analogWrite gives a simulated analog output (a fast on/off square wave), used to dim an LED or set motor speed.
   • Serial — Serial.begin(9600) + Serial.println to see what your board is doing.
   • Basic wiring — a current-limiting resistor with an LED; sensor → input pin.
3. Prove it in Forge (next section) — apply the input → brain → output pattern to a real device.
4. Take the K-Check to earn your certificate.

Why this connects to building real products

Everything above is the firmware half of a product. In Forge, when you describe a device, the same three roles show up — a sensor (input), a microcontroller (the brain running exactly this kind of code), and an output (screen, LED, motor). Knowing what the code does lets you read why Forge wires a design the way it does — and, later, write the firmware for the boards you design.

Time to apply it. The course taught you the input → brain → output pattern in code; now use it to design a real device.

Send the prompt below in Forge Design and watch it choose a temperature sensor (input), an ESP32 (the brain — the thing your Arduino code runs on), and an OLED (output) — then wire them into a design with an orderable parts list.

As you read Forge's answer, connect it back to the course: which part would your analogRead / sensor-library code talk to? Where would Serial.println help you debug? That mapping — code ↔ real hardware — is the whole point.