College and university

Run a microcontrollers lab with no kits

An Arduino Uno, an ESP32, a Raspberry Pi Pico or an STM32, with the circuit around it, in every student’s browser. Students write C++, it compiles in their tab, and the class feature grades each lab.

A traffic light on an Unolive0.000 s 0.00x
Hold the button
A pedestrian crossing on pins 8 to 11, with an interrupt on the button. Click it to open it in the editor.

Where Mokxi fits

A microcontrollers course needs a board for every student, a cable, drivers, and a way to see what the pins are doing. That is a lot of hardware to buy, lend and replace. In Mokxi, every student has the board, the breadboard and the parts in a browser tab.

The code is real Arduino C++, built by a real compiler in the browser. It runs on a model of the chip, with its timers, PWM, interrupts and serial port. Each board page lists what is modeled and what is not.

Students can debug too. The editor has breakpoints, a serial monitor, a serial plotter and a logic analyzer. The STM32 Blue Pill page shows how to drive a pin through its registers.

Labs are graded by checks: a pin blinks at a rate, a pin carries PWM, the serial monitor prints a line, or a pin changes after a button press. A student’s edited sketch is compiled before it is graded.

Where it does not fit

  • Nothing is uploaded to a real board from here. Students move their code to hardware with the Arduino IDE or another tool.
  • Checks measure the simulation. Timing is ideal, there is no electrical noise, and parts do not burn out. Test on real hardware before you rely on a design.
  • There is no MicroPython and no block coding. Code is C++ written for the Arduino core.

Labs you can assign today

Each lab starts from a template in the class page’s Assign work form and comes with checks that grade it. The checks are tested on the simulator against the starter and the answer.

Students use the simulator free. With a school email address, Pro is half price: see the student discount. For a department or a large course, get a written quote.

Questions

Do students need to buy a board?

No. Every board is on the free plan. Many courses simulate first and buy a few shared boards for the build weeks.

Can I grade code, not only circuits?

Yes. A check can read a pin, a blink rate, a PWM signal or serial output, and one check asks that the sketch builds. It grades what the code does in the simulation.

Which boards are there?

The Arduino Uno, Nano, Mega and Leonardo, several ESP32 boards, the Raspberry Pi Pico and Pico W, the STM32 Blue Pill and more. The boards page lists them all.