Electronics kits

Arduino

Surely many of you have come to HardwareLibre through Google or through social networks, something very typical. Many of you will have been hooked on the topics that we mention here and others have already been hooked on other blogs and it is that the DIY phenomenon and Free Hardware causes hooking and many begin to learn this world to create their own projects.

Although this learning is long and tedious, the truth is that the benefits are many and can be well understood as a hobby. That is why there are many ways to learn electronics, but all of them always go through acquire a good book or mentor to teach you and one or more electronics kits with the basic parts for basic and simple projects that teach us how things work so we can take it to other projects. Below I will show you 5 electronics kits that will help you take your first steps in this world. Some of these electronics kits are difficult to come by since they are more in demand than created units and others are very expensive, but in any of them you can easily learn any electronic process and the good thing about it is that once you are experts, you they can recycle for professional project. So, let's start with the list:

Raspberry Pi Starter Kit

Raspberry Pi Starter Kit

Was born as a kit for the little ones And now, after its third version, Raspberry Pi Starter Kit has become a great solution for those who want to learn to program and use Free Hardware at the same time. The kit consists of Raspberry Pi 3, a 32 Gb microsd card, a 2,5 A microusb cable, a case for our Raspberry Pi, an hdmi cable and several guides to handle the board and its GPIO, the great potential from Raspberry Pi. The price of this kit is about $ 75, but in return we have everything you need to get started.

Related article:
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Arduino Starter Kits

Arduino Starter Kits

Inside the kits, The Arduino Starter Kit is by far the most acclaimed about the reStock of electronics kits and the one with the most distribution problems. In addition to its good guides, one of the best to learn how to handle Arduino, Arduino Starter Kit includes a board of Arduino UNO and a briefcase that includes a multitude of pieces to create and develop our own learning projects and even damage them. The kit is a briefcase that includes resistors, connectors, buttons, jumpers, batteries, lights, motors, etc ... everything you need to know all the power of Arduino Uno and its platform, also learning through annoying components, something with which one learns a lot. No products found. It has a price of 70 dollars, but the problem, as we say, is in getting it not in its price.

Related article:
How to change the Pi username and password on our Raspberry Pi

BQ Zum Kit

BQ Zum Kit

One of the most interesting projects that Arduino has created or has allowed to create is BQ's Zum platformThis platform is based on Arduino boards, but unlike other projects, BQ has inserted its peculiar way of seeing electronics and Free Hardware. In this case we have a great kit that will teach us electronics to train robots. These projects will be totally personal but will also be guided for the newest. But the Bq Zum Kit may have one of the best guides that exists for a novice user since in addition to accurately counting everything, each component of the kit is registered with a color and a number, the guide refers to that and also there is a drawing of the piece, so recreating the projects in the guide is child's play. This BQ kit consists of a battery holder, a BQ Zum plate, servomotors, sensors, push buttons and led lights to create interactive projects. The Bq Zum Kit It is one of the most expensive kits on this list of kits but the difference in price is well justified by its quality and training.

Retropie starter kit

Retropie Starter Kit

The Libe Hardware has found a vein in the world of video games and that many of you know, that is why I have included this kit, a kit that many will surely like, although the truth is that it could look like another kit that we have mentioned previously. Retropie Starter Kit is based on the Retropie project but it also includes components necessary to turn a Raspberry Pi board into a powerful game console. In this kit we will not find the latest Raspberry Pi model, but we will a model B +. We will also find other important components such as the power cable, the memory card and a case, in case we want to make a few customizations. But the most interesting thing is that it comes with several control buttons, of different colors that will allow any user to create a remote control to be able to play as if they were with an old game console. Something that is achieved thanks to its great initiation guide.

Touch Board Starter Kits

Touch Board Starter Kits

The Touch Board Starter Kit is not an ordinary kit but it is a good kit for novice users. This kit uses a touch panel on which you can write with electric paint and create functional designs and erase them without any problem. This kit is aimed at extremely novice users which means that once we get out of these projects, the user cannot use it for advanced projects. However, it will make any user discover how to connect their iPod to the motherboard to listen to music or connect any device to a speaker to listen or simply create new sensors. The intention of Touch Board Starter Kit is for the user to learn and love Free Hardware through three simple projects that will play with electric paint and the touch panel. In addition to the components mentioned, the kit contains elements that the user will need to carry out the indicated projects like a mini speaker or velcro stickers.

Lego Mindstorms

Lego Mindstorms

In many places in Spain, the only possibility that the little ones have to know the Free Hardware and learn to use it is through the classes of Lego MindStorms electronics kits. These kits are based on publicizing and teaching electronics and Free Hardware with robotics as the main thread. So they not only learn electronics but also programming or how to use a 3D printer, to end a robot battle.

Lego MindStorms kits are not as cheap as Raspberry Pi or Arduino ONE, but it is true that can be bought in large stores or on Amazon. These kits are the most complete option for children as they contain everything necessary for children to build their own robot. Another positive point of these kits is that in certain parts use Lego blocks for the frame or the construction of certain parts, blocks that everyone has and therefore can be replaced without having to buy another similar kit.

Kano Computer Kit

Kano electronic kit

The Kano company has become very popular for its mounting kits. In this case, he has created a mounting kit based on Raspberry Pi whose purpose is to build a pc or laptop. This kit does not seek to teach how to create a robot to the little ones but it does teaches the operation or mechanism of a computer, something easy to know but that still many people (including children) do not know.

Kano also has kits to create tablets, laptops, and even 2-1 computers. In them we can find everything necessary to build these gadgets although in some of them the Raspberry Pi board is not included. These kits can be found either through the official Kano website or on Amazon.

Adafruit ARDX v1.3

ARDX Starter Kit

Adafruit ARDX v1.3 is a starter kit that focuses on Arduino UNO. This pack is very similar to the Arduino Starter Kit, although unlike this one, the Adafruit kit is always available. The price of this Adafruit ARDX v1.3 is another positive element, its 85 euros are more than affordable if we take into account all the components of the kit, more than 130 accessories that together with a color guide will allow us to carry out almost any project with Arduino UNO, which is also included in the kit.

The big difference of Adafruit ARDX v1.3 with respect to other Arduino starter kits is the availability, even we can find it on amazonwhile other kits, like the official kit, are harder to come by.

Micro: bit Complete Starter Kit

MicroBit_StarterKit

The most famous starter kits on the market always focus on leading projects such as Arduino or Raspberry Pi, however they are not the only Free Hardware projects. It has recently been released a starter kit related to Micro: Bit, a plaque designed by the BBC for children in the UK. This board, which tries to be the Raspberry Pi of British schools, was recently opened to everyone through its official website. This Micro: Bit Complete Starter Kit is a kit with all the necessary components to create the well-known projects of this board. Above all, it is based on teaching the user to use their communications, ports that go beyond the famous GPIO or Bluetooth. This kit consists of a micro: bit board, a microUSB-USB cable, a AAA battery-based power supply, two AAA batteries, and a project guide.

The number of projects related to Micro: Bit is still small but sufficient and interesting to learn the fundamentals of Electronics and Free Hardware. You can No products found.

Funduino Starter Kit

Funduino Starter Kit

This latest kit, like the previous starter kit, is based on a little-known project: the Funduino project. Funduino is a fork of Arduino. The plates are almost the same but modified for certain projects or for certain components. In this case we can say that the Funduino Starter Kit is a kit also modified for certain aspects of Free Hardware.

Thus, in this kit we can find various components for the multimedia world such as LCD panels, LED lights or speakers that can be attached to the Funduino board, which is also in the starter kit.

Conclusion on these electronics kits

The truth is that the world of Free Hardware is very wide and varied. That is why these 5 electronics kits do not have many components in common and any user can cause fuss and doubt, but it is only at first glance. If we really want to dominate or know in depth the world of Free Hardware and Electronics, we have to touch all technologies, therefore I recommend that you start with any of them and then move on to the next. So you can start with the Raspberry Pi Starter Kit and when you know everything about the raspberry computer, you can get to know Arduino, or if you see that it is very difficult and wide, you can choose the BQ Zum Starter Kit and your Diwo website, where the projects are in Spanish and well explained.

Unfortunately this is not cheap and many of you will demand just one. In that case, I would personally opt for the Arduino Starter Kit, not because of anything special but because has a multitude of components that if you don't use it in your learning, you can always reuse it for other things. In any case, it is appreciated that There are these starter kits for the novice people and so that not only children can immerse themselves in these technologies.


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  1.   Cesar Arias said

    How can I get it?