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Week 1 - Electrical / Software

Electrical / Software (WIP)

Overview

Welcome to the Electrical & Software Onboarding for the 2026-2027 school year!

Goals

  • Learning

    • What is a Schematic / How to read a Schematic

    • How does a microcontroller control hardware?

  • Practical

    • Breadboarding a circuit

    • Running and debugging Arduino/ C++ code

    • Managing software dependencies and reading software documentation

Circuit Breadboarding

Reading a Circuit Schematic:

You can find the schematic for the circuit you will be working on here. A schematic is just a logical and visual representation of the circuit. Below are a bunch of circuit symbols you may see on your schematic:

embedded-image-282jkw8y.png

Use the schematic to construct the circuit on your breadboard. Once completed, you should have something similar to below:

Finished Breadboard.jpg

Downloads

Arduino:

Go here and download the version of the arduino IDE for your operating system (Windows, OSX, linux).

embedded-image-wojzykyi.png

Pico board support:

We'll be using the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 for onboarding. To develop on the pico, you need to add an additional board manager URL to the Arduino IDE.

Go here and scroll to the installation section. Follow the short directions there.

 

 

In the boards manager tab, search for these two libraries and install them

Compilation

Select the Pico 2:

Use the Arduino IDE to select the Pico 2 as the compilation target.

 

Connect the Pico 2 to your computer using a micro-usb cable. You should see this drop down turn bold.

 

Verifying Source Code:

Copy this skeleton code into an arduino sketch file.

This file contains #defines for the Pico 2's inputs and outputs as well as a function to drive both motors forward.

Edit the setup() function and add the line

digitalWrite(LED1_PIN, HIGH);

Click the check mark at the top left of the IDE to check for compilation errors. If your program compiles correctly you should see this output.

 

Flashing Pico 2:

Click the arrow at the top left of the IDE to flash the Pico 2. If flashing doesn't work, you may need to unplug the Pico 2 and hold the BOOTSEL button while reconnecting the micro-usb cable.

 

If your flash is successful, you should see this output, and LED1 should be turned on.

 

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