About PiForge
Created by Michael Loucks
PiForge was created by Michael Loucks — a maker, developer, and electronics enthusiast who believes everyone should be able to learn hardware prototyping without spending hundreds on components they might fry.
Why PiForge Exists
Learning electronics is expensive and intimidating. You buy a Raspberry Pi, a breadboard, some LEDs, resistors, sensors — and then you are terrified of wiring something wrong and destroying a $75 board. Or worse, you never start because the barrier to entry feels too high.
Michael built PiForge to eliminate that barrier entirely. The idea is simple: what if you could prototype any Raspberry Pi circuit — complete with realistic wiring, real Python code execution, and instant visual feedback — entirely in your browser? No hardware. No risk. No cost.
PiForge is not a toy simulator. It is built to be as realistic as possible: accurate GPIO pinouts for Pi 4 and Pi 5, proper breadboard topology where components must be wired correctly to work, real Python execution via Pyodide, and circuit validation that catches short circuits and missing ground connections — just like real life.
The Vision
PiForge is becoming the ultimate virtual electronics lab — with AI-assisted circuit design, programmable touchscreens, guided tutorials for beginners, a community of makers sharing projects, and eventually full IoT simulation including WiFi, MQTT, and camera feeds. All open source. All in the browser.