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Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

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Re: Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

#31

Post by jschveibinz »

alabhyajindal wrote: post #19

Is getting a kit like this the recommended way to learn electronics? I don't know anything about it! I would like to get to the point where I can light up a LED bulb programmatically and understand how it's happening.

You could probably spend less and learn more about electronics by buying a few key components like a transistor, a LED, a 9v battery, a switch, a few resistors, a few capacitors and some insulated wire. You don't even need a breadboard--you can tape or clip things together just to see what's happening. There are tons of simple circuits and tutorials for just these components.

Re: Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

#32

Post by proee »

rs186 wrote: post #12

My biggest problem is that you get excited for the first few days, then you realize that there is very little you can learn from these toy projects, and then there isn't a project that is meaningful (to yourself) enough to persue. If you look at all those motors and sensors -- you need to think hard enough to come up with a project that makes good use of them. I browsed maybe 50 of the most viewed project on arduino…

This is actually a very sad comment to read. My childhood was spent buying up every Forrest Mims circuit book I could find at my local Radio Shack, and then trying to figure out which circuits I could bring to life given a very limited amount of components I could source.

I'm not sure what it would take to make these kits more exciting, because I find them ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

I could rattle off 100 cool projects to make with these dev kits, especially coupled with a 3d printer.

Re: Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

#33

Post by Yenrabbit »

This is going to be my go-to reference for 'how should I get started with electronics' - getting to see various capabilities (sense things, move motors, flash LEDs) without having to purchase parts while not knowing what you don't know is fantastic. Props for pushing through all the projects - I look forward to seeing what you make with these new skills :)

Re: Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

#34

Post by dekhn »

hnuser123456 wrote: post #30
dekhn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there is much value in the arduino hardware and the value of the arduino software is mainly in it being a standard SDK that works across a wide range of microcontrollers.

But if you want the software to continue getting updates and support more chips, and support the people doing that work, buying an official one is a good idea.

I have really mixed opinions on whether I want to support the Arduino folks with my money. When I use tools like PlatformIO and the ESP32 ecosystem with FreeRTOS, I begin to wonder if we can evolve away from Arduino, or treat it as some sort of legacy backwards API while porting all the drivers to FreeRTOS with platform-specific details.

Re: Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

#35

Post by tmaly »

proee wrote: post #32
rs186 wrote: post #12

My biggest problem is that you get excited for the first few days, then you realize that there is very little you can learn from these toy projects, and then there isn't a project that is meaningful (to yourself) enough to persue. If you look at all those motors and sensors -- you need to think hard enough to come up with a project that makes good use of them. I browsed maybe 50 of the most viewed project on arduino…

This is actually a very sad comment to read. My childhood was spent buying up every Forrest Mims circuit book I could find at my local Radio Shack, and then trying to figure out which circuits I could bring to life given a very limited amount of components I could source. I'm not sure what it would take to make these kits more exciting, because I find them ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I could rattle off 100 cool projects to m…

I still have those books from Radio Shack. Have done a few projects with my kids.

Re: Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

#37

Post by bityard »

dekhn wrote: post #34
hnuser123456 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you want the software to continue getting updates and support more chips, and support the people doing that work, buying an official one is a good idea.

I have really mixed opinions on whether I want to support the Arduino folks with my money. When I use tools like PlatformIO and the ESP32 ecosystem with FreeRTOS, I begin to wonder if we can evolve away from Arduino, or treat it as some sort of legacy backwards API while porting all the drivers to FreeRTOS with platform-specific details.

Who is "we"? There are many options for working with microcontrollers at the hobbyist level and that's because there are many different needs. It sounds like you don't need/use Arduino and that's fine. My comment was targeted at folks to do or are just getting started.

Re: Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

#38

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

hi_hi wrote: post #5

These starter kits are great. I'm a complete electronics newbie but was always interested, but found the sheer choice of equipment on offer, and the fear of buying a bunch of kit that wasn't compatible to be a barrier to getting started. I came across a kit for the Micro:bit which I purchased as a Christmas gift for my young daughter. It's really captured that delight in working with technology for me again. Even sta…

> but it turns out power requirements vary depending on wavelength of light being generated.

[pedantic]

It's actually because of the different forward voltages of the blue LED vs red, not the overall power

[/pedantic]

Clearly, I knew what you were getting at, but I made that comment because it's useful to understand that LEDs are primarily current controlled devices, not voltage controlled. Had you driven both LEDs with e.g., a 10mA constant-current driver, they would both be solidly visible.

For a regular indicator LED, this isn't really an issue (other than a too-low voltage will cause the flickering you observed), but for high-power illumination LEDs, or especially laser diodes, current management can be the difference between reliable operation or letting the smoke get out.

Re: Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

#39

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

JayNitram wrote: post #17
hi_hi wrote: post #5

These starter kits are great. I'm a complete electronics newbie but was always interested, but found the sheer choice of equipment on offer, and the fear of buying a bunch of kit that wasn't compatible to be a barrier to getting started. I came across a kit for the Micro:bit which I purchased as a Christmas gift for my young daughter. It's really captured that delight in working with technology for me again. Even sta…

Are there any particular simulators you would recommend?

Wokwi seems to be the most popular Arduino-based one.

I'm not a huge fan of simulation for cases like this. The arduino forums are full of "it worked in simulation, but not on my breadboard..." complaints.

Also, simulation won't teach you not to connect a 10ohm resistor across a 12V supply and then touch it. Or that capacitors may explode when connected in reverse polarity, or just how to be careful in general. There's a lot of stuff that should become second nature, but you'll only learn by connecting physical circuits.

Re: Inside the box: Everything I did with an Arduino starter kit

#40

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

bityard wrote: post #27

It's great that these kits are available and fairly cheap. But as it turns out, the kit that TFA links to is a Chinese clone of Arduino and none of the profits made on that kit contribute to further development of Arduino hardware, software, documentation, community, and so on. I'm not saying don't buy this kit, what I am saying is if you find yourself needing or wanting a second dev board, consider purchasing an off…

The majority of arduino hardware, software and community development is now outside the "official" Arduino project. We definitely owe them a debt of gratitude, but the framework has moved on.

Every major microcontroller vendor now has development boards that have the standard Arduino Uno pinout so you can add cheap "shields" for prototyping. There are entire companies like M5Stack, SeeedStudio and LilyGo whose business model is providing high-integration platforms (CPU, touchscreen, I/O and sometimes an enclosure) that use the arduino framework but run on 32-bit chips instead. And so on.

These days, when you say "arduino" you're almost always referring to a framework and a hardware abstraction layer, instead of the Arduino company itself (sorry, mbanzi).

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