Basic Arduino Beginners Kit - V2.0
What is this?
There are often attendees at Arduino U who are just starting out and have not yet invested in any hardware. This kit is intended for these folk. The kit has been developed to meet the following criteria:
- CHEAP A Genuine Arduino or official clone is around $45. This is a quite an investment when you don't even know what the thing is yet!
- Basic but adequate. The kit should have a wide enough selection of VERY BASIC parts to allow construction of SIMPLE circuits for most of the “example” programs that come with the IDE.
- Fruit is Fun! There should be at least a few “complex” components to allow at least a glimpse of what the platform is capable of.
- Available NOW! Cheap components and parts are readily available from various Chinese websites, but these usually take a month or more to arrive. In any case, beginners will generally not know what to order from such sites.
Kit V1.0 was a small batch produced in 2015. Although popular, it barely covered costs and took a lot of time to prepare. Parts were sourced from multiple vendors with the aim of securing the cheapest available parts but the cost of postage and supplying accessories like fixing screws - as well as the amount of time required - was underestimated. This time, the aim is to identify and purchase a kit that is essentially pre made and then improve it with additional components.
Target cost for the entire V2.0 kit is between $10 and $15. Sale price will be between $20 and $30. The profit will go directly to the space. There are plenty of premium price Arduino kit products out there already - this needs to be a basic beginner “hack pack” that gives good value for money.
V2.0 Kit Contents
Initial cost of V2.0 kit components = $10. The following additional, uncalculated costs will be incured:
- supplying simple packaging (take away food container).
- supplying basic documentation.
- producing a laser cut enclosure or project board.
- supplying suitable fixings for the above.
| Component | Qty | Approx. Cost | Link | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre made kit: Chinese Arduino UNO R3 clone | 1 | $6.25 (kit) | Aliexpress | Pre packeged kit containing most required components |
| Pre made kit: USB cable | 1 | For programming | ||
| Pre made kit: 9V battery clip | 1 | Simple way to supply Arduino when not connected to USB. | ||
| Pre made kit: Breadboard | 1 | For construction of temporary circuits without soldering. | ||
| Pre made kit: 20cm jumper wires M-M | 20 | Connect from Arduino to bread board and between components on breadboard. | ||
| Pre made kit: 40 pin header | 1 | Handy for reliable connect/disconnect of semi permanent breadboard circuits. | ||
| Pre made kit: 220 ohm resistors | 10 | For current limiting simple circuits connected to Arduino output pins. | ||
| Pre made kit: 1k ohm resistors | 10 | For current limiting transistor base circuits and other loads connected to Arduino output pins. | ||
| Pre made kit: 10k ohm resistors | 10 | For digital and analogue input “pull-down” and voltage divider circuits. | ||
| Pre made kit: 100k ohm resistors | 10 | For digital and analogue input “pull-down” and voltage divider circuits. | ||
| Pre made kit: Red 5mm LED | 5 | Lots of LED's | ||
| Pre made kit: Green 5mm LED | 5 | |||
| Pre made kit: Yellow 5mm LED | 5 | |||
| Pre made kit: Pushbutton | 6 | Tactile switches | ||
| Pre made kit: LDR | 2 | Light Dependent Resistor | ||
| Ultrasonic Sensor | 1 | $1.06 | Aliexpress | From same vendor as pre-made kits |
| 9g hobby servo | 1 | $1.43 | Aliexpress | From same vendor as pre-made kits |
Wish list and add ons
One part overlooked is a potentiometer (variable resistor). This is somewhat necessary and will be added to the next order.
A selection of parts remaining from the kit V1.0 stock will be added TBA (as soon as replacment cost can be established). Available parts include:
- 74HC595 shift registers
- M-F jumper wires
- BC337 NPN transistors
- 4 x 7 segment LED arrays
Resources
Documentation, links and other resources can be found at the bottom of the kit V1.0 page here..