Seeed Studio Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino - STEAM Teaching Starter Kit All-in-One With UNO Compatible Board, 10 Sensors, 12 Projects and Free Course

I bought this kit to help learn about Arduino. The Grove Beginner Kit is a really neat little box that has a lot of goodies to get started learning how basic sensors and inout/output devices work, and how they interface with a microcontroller. The box has everything needed. Just attach it to a USB power source. When the box arrives everything is attached on one circuit card with an Arduino Uno compatible unit in the middle. There is already a program loaded into processor to demonstrate the various devices on the board. Instructions on how to get started creating your own Arduino sketches are printed on the box. You can program in the Arduino integrated development environment and download additional support as needed from Seeed Studio. Just plug in the Grove Beginner Kit to PC/Mac/Linux USB with the software and you’re good to go. As you customize your sketches, you can separate the peripherals in the kit from the main board and attach them as needed with the included qiic connector cables. You can package a finished project with just the processor and peripherals required. Not too much experience and skill is required, but a little adult supervision of younger experimenters will help them to avoid getting stuck and frustrated.

I've been tinkering with Arduino in its various offshoots and incarnations, over the past 15 years, and this little kit caught my eye, so I decided to give it a go. I really like the mix of sensors & outputs, which put this device almost on par with the Arduino Esplora, in terms of out-of-the-box usability. My only minor gripe is over the lack of an RGB led. Lessening the sting, somewhat, is the welcome inclusion of an OLED display. Especially nice is the fact that while all of the components are attached, as shipped, the board is preconfigured in a reasonable way that allows beginners to focus on coding, without worrying about learning electronics at the same time. I feel this would be an excellent courseware item for teaching entry level microcontrollers. ADDENDUM: New hobbyists should be warned that Grove-friendly sensors are often much more expensive than their generic Arduino counterparts. Even Grove cables are expensive enough that those needing more cables would get their best value out of purchasing another Grove Beginner's Kit.

When I initially ordered it for my son, I ordered an Arduino to work with it, but once we got it, I realized it has an Arduino built in! Great kit to explore different interfaces with super easy connections.

I ordered this because I got these for my classroom, or so I thought. I didn't realize the Arduino is built-in. It turns out the ones I bought for school, which are more expensive, need an Arduino attached to the pins in the center. This product works great. You only need the jumpers if you disconnect the parts from the board. The reason I took one star off is the temperature/humidity sensor was a bit of a pain. It shipped with a sensor with a black cover. You have to dig through a bunch of tabs to find the code to run this one. I found the same issue with the ones I bought at school. Once you add the library. You also have to take one section out and replace it with another. It took a while to get everything straight. I would think the company would make a separate library option or something to streamline this process. I wrote my own instructions for my students because most would not have figured out how to get this sensor working. I like this version better than the one that needs a separate Arduino and the price is great. I would like to see Seeed and/or Arduino either ship these with the sensor it was designed for or adjust the instructions and library to accommodate this change. I definitely recommend this product, though.

It work as advertised. Simple and complete. Source code so you can see what the designers did to make it work!

Not for beginners

I love this setup. It's great for learning how to code and after one learns what they can, this whole board is set up to be able to be disassembled into separate shields for creating your own, custom designed microcontroller. The grove connectors are compatible with the single wire DuPont connectors as well. This unit costs less than if one was to purchase the shields separately, making this a good bargain for advanced users needing small shields for their work. I can't believe how easy it is to use once I got the coding skills down. And the instruction manual was of great value in learning. Great for ages 8 to 80!

As in the picture

The product arrived on time and the product delivered as per specification