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Ask HN-Beginner Arduino Kits

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Re: Ask HN-Beginner Arduino Kits

#11

Post by fckthisguy »

Most of the maker companies have their own Arduino-compatible devices nowadays, along with their own ecosystem.

Here's a couple that I found from companies I've experience with and enjoyed.

Seeed Studio has their Grove ecosystem. They have a starter kit here: https://www.seeedstudio.com/Grove-Beginner-Kit-for-Arduino-p...

Adafruit have an Arduino-compatible called Metro. They have a starter kit here: https://www.adafruit.com/product/170

SparkFun have a pretty straightforward LEDs and buttons kinda kit here: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/18577

Honestly, they're all a good start.

Alternatively, I'd consider an RPi 400 if you want a more Commadore 64 (all-in-one PC to tinker with) approach.

Re: Ask HN-Beginner Arduino Kits

#12

Post by MarkusWandel »

For this, you really want to aim for high quality kits with high quality documentation. The typical Ali Express cheapy kit is a box of stuff with no instructions at all; you're expected to use google-fu to figure out what all the bits and pieces do and how to connect them and where to find the libraries. Which is no problem once you know what you're doing. But that's too daunting for a beginner.

Another angle is robot/robocar kits powered by Arduino, with available source code and documentation. I sent an Elegoo Penguin Bot kit to a nephew, and wrote up a blurb to get him started on hacking the software; you can see the blurb here:

https://wandel.ca/misc/robot/

The code is pretty advanced for an Arduino project, but it's trivial to tinker with and immedately see the results.

Re: Ask HN-Beginner Arduino Kits

#13

Post by fckthisguy »

dontbenebby wrote: post #3

I'd focus on finding something extremely simple, paired with making sure he learns to solder so you don't have to buy marked up components he could have made himeself. (I never bought into a space where it'd be safe to generate those fumes, so I stuck to... cyber stuff.) Try finding a shop that sells them locally. Don't buy any of it online. Be sure to use cash or a gift card paid for in cash to frustrate the people…

Honestly, finding a brick-and-mortar store is getting harder these days. You might be lucky in a big city but I personally don't know anywhere with a good ramge and comparable pricing to online. Prices for microcontrollers is really good online.

Re: Ask HN-Beginner Arduino Kits

#14

Post by fckthisguy »

auxym wrote: post #10

Unless he has a specific interest/project in mind already, I'd look into something like this to start with: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/18577 It's from sparkfun so you generally get better support and docs than a random box of stuff from Aliexpress. The QWIIC ecosystem means that you can daisy chain a whole bunch of sensors easily and without soldering. It includes a small but nice selection of sensors, actuato…

Plus one for QWIIC. Choosing an ecosystem that's easy to buy (not always sold out) and cheap can make a big difference.

Re: Ask HN-Beginner Arduino Kits

#17

Post by rocktronica »

Agreed with other commenters' advice to err towards good documentation. Don't just go for cheap.

Another consideration is community: I think the Adafruit guides (https://learn.adafruit.com/) are really great, especially for folks just starting out / who are more project-focused. Poke through there with your kid and see if anything sparks interest.

Shameless self-promo, if he's into music: I make an Arduino-compatible "synth" electronics kit. It does require soldering (so maybe isn't the best choice just yet) but is a nice step towards making something that looks like a real, finished product. https://www.oskitone.com/product/scout-synth-diy-electronics...

Re: Ask HN-Beginner Arduino Kits

#19

Post by e-_pusher »

I would go with kits from Adafruit and Sparkfun. Avoid stuff of off aliexpress. Like others said cheap kits from Aliexpress come with scant documentation and even I have a hard time using dev kits I bought from there and have to rely random internet posts etc (and I do electrical engineering for a living)

Re: Ask HN-Beginner Arduino Kits

#20

Post by giraffe_lady »

Check out the bbc microbit, it's intended for exactly this. It has an array of leds, a couple buttons, some useful sensors. Web-based graphical editor based on scratch (visual programming language targeting kids) that smoothly transitions to python if you outgrow it.

This will avoid potentially a lot of frustrating code-adjacent things that professional programmers and serious hobbyists will be used to. In my experience teaching programming to beginners, you want to get them actually making changes to the thing as quickly as you can with as little friction as possible. Things like soldering, library dependencies, build process are all things to avoid at the beginning.

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