New to Arduino & ESP32

[Nexus04]

Hi everyone!

I have some programming experience, mostly in FPC/Lazarus, and I’m now starting to explore embedded systems with Arduino and ESP32. I’m not familiar with C++ yet, but I learn quickly and enjoy building things step by step.

I recently got an ESP32-S3 Zero because it’s small, cheap, and cute . I’m excited to start playing with it and learn the basics of programming microcontrollers and making simple projects.

I’m curious if you have any first tips or tricks that could make my learning journey more enjoyable and smooth.

Looking forward to learning from you all and hopefully contributing once I get more experience.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Martaine2005]

Welcome aboard @Nexus04
I’m not sure if you are aware, but there are a plethora of code for pretty much anything on the Arduino site and GitHub.
If you’re a good programmer, you can simply alter some parameters to make the code do exactly what you want rather than starting from scratch.

 

[olivia_49]

Welcome! Since you already have programming experience, the ESP32-S3 Zero is a great board to start with and the Arduino framework will make learning C/C++ much easier. Begin with simple things like GPIO, serial output, and small hardware tests, seeing quick results really helps keep the learning fun.

[Removed advertising]

 

[danadak]

A fast way of programming is block languages, like Tuniot (C++) or MPYblockly (Micropython) or Flowcode (C++).

Takes GUI block configurations and generates code from them. Great for visual learners. Once you learn one its
easy to use others as they each have common and specific capabilities.

Bring up a client or server in a couple of minutes, example :

---

If you wind up using Arduino IDE be aware of constant changes in libraries and a lot
of examples on web that need lib changes or updated versions. After all its open sourced.
Authors come and go, patience and persistence. Note ESP32 dual core, terrific way in
getting clean code, multiple process running "relatively" independent from each other,
but interacting, thru messaging, public variables, semaphores. So serial spaghetti code
to keep timing in order of multiple processes that are interdependent easy to handle.
Note Tuniot supports blocks for configuring either core.

I took a project written in classic 1 core and redid it to run on two cores and code became
so much cleaner, roughly half code length of single core design.