Official Arduino Starter Kit [K000007] - Beginner-Friendly Electronics Set with Board, Components & English Project Book

This is genuine Arduino item - extremely well packaged and presented - and as far as I can see by doing comparisons supersedes the original Arduino UNO starter kit. I bought this in preference to the clones which are significantly cheaper primarily because I felt that I ought to give myself the best chance of success - time to use the clones once I know what I am doing :-) Altho a fully qualified engineer I decided to work my way thro the projects in the book (an age thing-I never used to !!) as I have not played with these particular devices before - and I found the book was very useful - even though I knew the theory behind the ccts the practice of setting up etc as advised was very good and it shows both a cct diagram and a picture of the completed board. If you are a cct designer - you will probably find it a bit simple - but this is a starter kit. It also introduces you to the programming of these devices - if you have MicroSoft Basic" programming experience you should have no problem programming this device - the languages are not the same but there are obvious similarities. There are also many on line tutorials but I can already see some very useful ideas/projects that I can implement on my model railway.!! Some beginner comments (cognoscenti look away now!!) Check all the components before doing anything else - It is worth having a simple multimeter to check the resistors as some are 4 band and some 5 - get it wrong and you might blow the LEDs or the cct may not work - if you are knocking on a bit it is also worth having a magnifying glass to see some of the bands - particularly the yellows! - I actually labelled each section (not each resistor !!) on the resistor strip with the value to save time later. Note in doing setup the wooden mounting plate is now plastic I found it useful to put in a small (3mm deep) 4mm o.d. collar between the plastic mounting board and the Uno itself on each fixing bolt as the soldered connections on the back of the board can otherwise interfere with the level seating of the Uno on the board - not essential but.....it does allow you to tighten up mounting bolts without distorting the UNO PCB. Additional tools I found useful are tweezers for picking up components, and a pair of narrow (snipe) nose pliers - some of the holes in the breadboard are a wee bit tight and the component legs need to be pushed in quite firmly to seat properly - the pliers are for the fumbly-fingered among us - they allow you to grasp the leg very close to the hole so the leg doesn't buckle as you push. Finally the LEDS - note once installed you cannot tell which is the long leg and which the short because unlike the diagrams the LED legs are straight - I put a kink in the long leg - if you do do this make sure you hold the leg adjacent to the LED and put the kink on the open leg side not the LED side - DO NOT bend or strain the leg at the point it joins the LED - you may well break the LED !! All in all I am very happy with my seriously discounted purchase ( :-) )and am already plotting which add-on shields I need.

High quality packaging and products within. To definitely get your moneys worth on this one. With the book included it makes it nice and easy to follow and outlines the fundamental basics of how and why the product is used. For me the book is the reason for the high review. It is of a high quality. Very detailed and down to the basic level. First project in parallel circuit. Takes a litttle while for me as I have sausage fingers. So placing the wires can be fiddley. Only gripe was the box was a little torn. So I’ve had to repair with some tape. But hey that’s life and it’s only a box. I have seen reviews online about the starter book being wrong with technical data but I’ve yet to notice them. My education level is of HNC in mechanical engineering (UK) I work in a mechanical/electrical maintenance job. Would highly recommend to anyone looking to learn some electronics and code.

bought as present for 86 year old with no previous experience of electronics or computer coding. I also bought the 'Dummies Guide'. He loves it. he created a mother board then asked me to download software to his laptop (he is still learning how to use a laptop) that would allow him to use the standard codes to cause the light on the motherboard to start flashing. A look of pure joy on his face when it worked. You can use it to learn how electronics work or how computer code makes things happen in the real world. The instruction book is of very high quality and very, very easy to follow. I would encourage every parent to purchase this for their children and children to purchase it for their parents to keep their minds active. Highly, highly recommended. The instruction book is written for a number of laptop languages including Windows XP and Windows 8 but not Windows 10. Didn't find it a problem.

Amazing kit - everything you need to get started with microcontroller electronics. Well packed and with a very good projects book to get you started. If you're already in to programming, and use Visual Studio, you can also get a free Arduino plugin from Visual Micro, and do all your Arduino programming from there (the Arduino programming interface is OK, and works well, but might seem a bit limited if you're used to something with more functionality, like Visual Studio). And there's lots of other free stuff out there as well - make sure you check out the main Arduino web site, as a good starting point. All in all, well worth the money, and could be the start of a lifetime's obsession!

I purchased this kit as I had a little electronics experience but had managed to miss out on Arduino entirely so wanted something to get me in to it quickly and maybe hand over to the kids afterwards. I'm happy to say it did the trick and I'd easily buy it again or recommend for anyone starting out. The only niggle would be with a couple of the components not really being suitable for breadboard use and awkward to keep in place when there are equivalents that would fit better. This doesn't prevent you from carrying out any of the exercises but for a well thought out and presented kit it just seemed odd that they couldn't put a tiny bit more effort in to perfect the experience.

If you want to get into the mystical amazing world of Arduino, then don't buy anything other than this golden product. It is so definitely worth the money and its book of useful projects it outstandingly awesome; very easy to follow, interesting projects with a lot of cool components such as a servo and dc motor too! I particularly love the wooden base and breadboard setup! Massively adds to the enthusiasm for each project. One of the best purchases I've made in a long time.

The book included with this kit is great! All the projects are fun and it is easy to follow along with them. This is an amazing way to get to grips with electronics. All the code needed is in the book, so don’t worry if you have no experience. Also, if you are stuck, the Arduino IDE has the sketches (programs) for these projects built in. Please be aware that you will need a PC/Laptop in order to program this.

Very good kit. Chose this due to other reviews. The instruction / project book is very good and clear. Had UNO board connected to the PC and first program working within a couple of hours. Would recommend this for both beginners wanting to learn about electronic principals and for the more experienced wanting to create projects. The components are of a reasonable quality. The UNO board is clever and versatile, very useful that it will continue to run its program without the PC being connected so could be set up to interface with all kinds of 3rd party equipment that require logic. (would require power source though). Looking forward to playing around more with it.

Sin duda un kit muy cuidado. Es perfecto para iniciarse en el mundo de la electrónica, los microcontroladores e incluso la robótica. Trae muchos materiales y un libro muy bien presentado con unos 15 proyectos interesantes y sencillos. Algunos requieren de una pila de 9V no incluída. Se hecha en falta algo más de Teoría de Circuitos pero cumple con lo que aporta. Muy recomendado!

Arduino Starter Kit is amazing microcontroller for beginners. All the electrical components are included in the packet for projects. I liked the projects and programming environment both. The starter kit gives a good hold to understand execution of electronic projects. Sooner or later intermediate and advanced kits may be available - I will definitely like to buy them. Update on 3rd October 2015: I have placed another order. The 170 page manual is printed on good quality paper - the reading experience was good. I prefer to have a pdf file - I am unable to obtain it online. Could I get a link to download ?

All perfect. Recommended product

This kit is awesome. I highly recommend this to anyone that has an interest in electronics and/or programming. While I am a seasoned programmer, I had no electronics experience prior to purchasing this kit. Recently I've found myself yearning to build electronic projects and figured this would be a good place to start given it's a fairly comprehensive starter kit. First, I'll start with the packaging. The packaging on this kit is very sexy, much like an Apple product. The design and style are simple and beautiful, the various items included in the kit are all nicely packaged in their individual boxes, and everything fits together very nicely. The unboxing feels like an experience. I realize some people may not care about the packaging, but if you're considering giving this kit as a gift, it makes a difference and will have an impact. As far as all the components included in the kit, I'm not an expert but it feels like a great starter kit and has a lot of very useful components in it, as well as lots of goodies and extras. There's enough in this kit to tackle a lot of projects and it feels like a solid base to start from. Some people have mentioned that you can purchase all these components cheaper if you source them out individually. I highly doubt the hours one would waste tracking down everything individually would justify the savings. After all this kit is not terribly expensive for what you get. Not to mention, one of the best things in this kit is the book. It's got lots of great projects in it that teach you both electronics and programming in the process. It's well written and easy to understand, even for a novice to electronics such as myself. As a programmer I do have to speak to the programming side of the book which in my opinion could be a bit more detailed for those who do not have experience with programming. That said, it's better than average and I do feel you'll learn to code in the process of going thru these projects. Overall, it feels like a well thought out and thurough course, with each chapter building on the next. In sum, this kit is really fun. I have no hesitation recommending this product. I guarantee you will thoroughly enjoy it, have a lot of fun, and learn some things in the process. This kit would make a fantastic gift for anyone interested in programming and/or electronics, and would also be a great thing for parents/grandparents and their kids to do together.

I like it very much