Intro to ESP32 Programming Make & Take

This hands-on beginner workshop introduces students to the fundamentals of programming an ESP32 microcontroller. Participants will learn how to safely power the board, identify GPIO pins, wire LED and pushbutton, write simple Arduino sketches that interact with hardware, and use the Serial Monitor as a core debugging and monitoring tool.

No prior experience with ESP32 or Arduino programming is required. General knowledge is helpful but not required. A take-home ESP32 DevkitC, breadboard, and project components are included in the tuition cost. Classroom laptops will be provided. Students should consider bringing a thumb drive to save their project files.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the basic layout of the ESP32 DevKitC dev board
• Identify 3V3, GND, and GPIO pins on an ESP32 DevKitC dev board
• Understand how to build a circuit with the ESP32 on a breadboard
• Use Arduino IDE 2.x to compile and upload sketches
• Configure the ESP32's GPIO pins using pinMode()
• Drive a digital output (LED) with digitalWrite()
• Read a digital input (button) using digitalRead()
• Understand and use internal pullupresistors using INPUT_PULLUP
• Print diagnostic messages to the Serial Monitor