Getting Started with Embedded Systems

If you're a software engineer curious about hardware, embedded systems are the best entry point. You get to write code that directly controls physical things — LEDs, motors, sensors, communication buses.

What You Need

At minimum:

Your First Program

The "Hello World" of embedded is blinking an LED:

#define LED_PIN 13
 
void setup() {
  pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);
}
 
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW);
  delay(500);
}

Simple, but powerful — you're now controlling hardware with code.

What's Next

Once blinking works, try:

1. Reading a button input with digitalRead()
2. Reading an analog sensor with analogRead()
3. Communicating over Serial (Serial.println())
4. Driving a motor with PWM

The rabbit hole goes deep. Enjoy it.