[SGVHAK] Arduino Kit - recommendations?

[Jeremy Leader]

On 02/21/2013 10:58 AM, Mic Chow wrote:
> I am thinking about getting into Arduino when I get back to the states.
> Regardless I am interested in getting a kit and getting started.  Any advice on
> where to get one and which kit to start with?

Last December, I decided fairly last-minute to get my 12 year old son an Arduino 
kit for Christmas. Because I decided so late, I decided it was simpler to walk 
into Radio Shack and buy an Uno kit off the shelf at full price, rather than 
paying less on-line and then paying a premium for express shipping.

He loves the kit. It came with a breadboard and jumpers, USB cable, a 9v battery 
pack for stand-alone operation, some resistors and LEDs (including one LED that 
has 3 colors in one package, very fun!), some switches, etc. I dug around in my 
garage and added some more resistors (to show him more examples of the resistor 
color code), an analog joystick that I probably bought 30 years ago at C&H 
(someone once claimed it was a balance control from a quadraphonic audio system, 
it has 2 potentiometers on each axis), and some other odds and ends. Which 
reminds me, this weekend we should see if we can get a junk-box speaker to work 
as a "knock sensor", as he was intrigued by some designs we've seen for a lock 
box that opens when you knock on it in the correct pattern.

Next I'm thinking of digging up some junk motors (from broken toys, small 
appliances, etc.) or maybe buying a couple cheap RC servos.

So I'd say the Uno seems to be a good choice, you need a PC and a USB cable in 
order to be able to program it. A breadboard is very useful, especially if you 
want to try lots of different things and re-use parts.

-- 
Jeremy Leader
jleader at alumni.caltech.edu