Source: https://mokxi.com/teachers/university-microcontrollers Updated: 2026-10-03 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. The labs, by topic What it cannot do 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. ## The labs, by topic Each row is a topic, the week of the 12-week course that covers it, a circuit that runs now and the pages that explain it. Topic | Course week | Lab to open | Read more Digital output and timing | Week 2 | Traffic light | Blink an LED with Arduino: Wiring and the Resistor · Arduino Blink Without Delay: Two LEDs, Two Rates Inputs, pull-ups and bounce | Week 3 | Reaction timer | Pull-Up Resistors and the Floating Input They Fix · Arduino Button Debounce: See the Bounce, Then Fix It PWM and analog output | Week 9 | Breathing LED | PWM: Faking an Analog Voltage on a Digital Pin · Arduino PWM Fade: analogWrite, Pins and the Curve More outputs with a shift register | Week 8 | LED bar chaser | Shifting a Byte In, One Edge at a Time Serial, I2C and SPI | Week 10 | Two boards, one wire | UART Serial Explained: Baud, Frames and the Wire · I2C Explained: Addresses, Pull-Ups and a Scanner · SPI Explained: Clock, Data and Chip Select Interrupts and state machines | Week 11 | Traffic light | Interrupts vs Polling on Arduino, Side by Side · Arduino State Machine: A Four-State Reaction Game Registers on an STM32 | Extra lab | The circuit on the reading page | STM32 Blue Pill Blink with Registers, Not pinMode Debugging a sketch | Extra lab | The circuit on the reading page | How to Debug Arduino Code: Prints to Breakpoints · Microcontroller Lab Experiments With No Kits Every week has a one-page PDF lesson plan. They are all on the teacher resources page. ## 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. Microcontroller lab experiments, ready to assign Try a class free for 30 days 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. ## More for this course Setting up a class for a university course · Simulate an Arduino without hardware · Mokxi and Wokwi, compared · Mokxi and Tinkercad, compared · All the free teacher resources · The 12-week course · IT setup for schools · Chromebook readiness test Other course pages: High school engineering and CTE: digital electronics · Middle school STEM: first circuits · Intro and AP physics: circuits · College and university: digital logic · College and university: circuits 1