Arduino starter kit

[George Herold]

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.
I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)
I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.
I was looking at this,
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit
I can get it for $100 from newark.
(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)

Is there something better?
I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.
Has anyone bought one?

Thanks,

George H.

 

[Michael Black]

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, George Herold wrote:

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.
I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)
I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.
I was looking at this,
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit
I can get it for $100 from newark.
(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)

Is there something better?
I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.
Has anyone bought one?

You can get a Raspberry-Pi for $35 US or so. It is a full blown system,

can run Linux, but also has some I/O.

You should watch those "starter kits". They balloon the price up badly,
and are really for ultrabeginners or for making the public believe they
need the extra stuff. Whatever else is in the kit likely is readily
available, and found used will make things cheaper. And likely any book
that might come with the kit, the information is online anyway.

Why would I spend money on an AC adapter to put out five volts when I can
get them at garage sales for 25 or 50 cents? A lot of this "Maker
Movement" is about telling people how cool they'll be if they build
things, and then selling them what they need at profit, rather than
helping them learn and make do. And then the projects use microntrollers
(prebuilt so they are more expensive than some scrap parts) instead of
wiring up some discrete components. It's great for the brain dead masses,
awful for those who want to learn. And awful for those without money, who
have the brains to make do.

Michael

 

[Rich Webb]

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 15:53:59 -0700 (PDT), George Herold
<gherold@teachspin.com> wrote:

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.
I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)
I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.
I was looking at this,
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit
I can get it for $100 from newark.
(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)

Is there something better?
I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.
Has anyone bought one?

Or this similar one from Sparkfun
<https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11236>

I'd recommend either over the Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone if the goal
is electronics. Linux-based systems are great but they are abstracted
far from the bare metal.

I haven't used the Sparkfun kit but you can get a sense of it from
reading the comment threads over there.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

George Herold wrote:

On Friday, June 28, 2013 7:17:43 PM UTC-4, Michael Black wrote:
On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, George Herold wrote:



Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.

I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)

I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.

I was looking at this,

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit

I can get it for $100 from newark.

(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)



Is there something better?

I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.

Has anyone bought one?



You can get a Raspberry-Pi for $35 US or so. It is a full blown system,

can run Linux, but also has some I/O.



You should watch those "starter kits". They balloon the price up badly,

and are really for ultrabeginners

Grin, my son certainly qualifies as an ultra beginner.
We were looking at tutorials on ohms law last night.

As for the raspberry, sure maybe someday.

or for making the public believe they

need the extra stuff. Whatever else is in the kit likely is readily

available, and found used will make things cheaper. And likely any book

that might come with the kit, the information is online anyway.



Why would I spend money on an AC adapter to put out five volts when I can

get them at garage sales for 25 or 50 cents? A lot of this "Maker

Movement" is about telling people how cool they'll be if they build

things, and then selling them what they need at profit, rather than

helping them learn and make do. And then the projects use microntrollers

(prebuilt so they are more expensive than some scrap parts) instead of

wiring up some discrete components. It's great for the brain dead masses,

awful for those who want to learn. And awful for those without money, who

have the brains to make do.

Wow, I really set you off, sorry.
I'm looking for something he can work through semi-independently.
He'd like to do some robotics stuff, wheels and gears and make something move around.
I've got all sorts of 'junk' that we can make stuff with.

If you haven't used the arduino starter kit, or something similar, then I'm not sure you can help me with this question. But thanks for your thoughts.
I guess when I was younger I had lots more time than money. And now it's the other way... that sounds sad. I've got plenty of time...
Gotta run, picking up the boy from a parade.. he plays in the band... :^)

Arduino is a lot cheaper on Ebay. AVRfreaks is a good forum, and
there are plenty of projects online for the various Arduino boards &
'shields'. You can even buy them at Radio Shack.

 

[Rheilly Phoull]

On 29/06/13 06:53, George Herold wrote:

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.
I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)
I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.
I was looking at this,
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit
I can get it for $100 from newark.
(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)

Is there something better?
I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.
Has anyone bought one?

Thanks,

George H.

I reckon you would be better off putting the dosh into some good books

like Margolis's "Arduino Cookbook" etc. and a grab bag of the various
Arduino boards from ebay. Since you can provide support with components
as required the lad would set his own pace and preferences. There is a
tremendous amount of info on the net for him to absorb as well, there is
a dedicated forum and reference site too.

 

[George Herold]

On Friday, June 28, 2013 7:17:43 PM UTC-4, Michael Black wrote:

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, George Herold wrote:



Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.

I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)

I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.

I was looking at this,

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit

I can get it for $100 from newark.

(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)



Is there something better?

I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.

Has anyone bought one?



You can get a Raspberry-Pi for $35 US or so. It is a full blown system,

can run Linux, but also has some I/O.



You should watch those "starter kits". They balloon the price up badly,

and are really for ultrabeginners

Grin, my son certainly qualifies as an ultra beginner.
We were looking at tutorials on ohms law last night.

As for the raspberry, sure maybe someday.

or for making the public believe they

need the extra stuff. Whatever else is in the kit likely is readily

available, and found used will make things cheaper. And likely any book

that might come with the kit, the information is online anyway.



Why would I spend money on an AC adapter to put out five volts when I can

get them at garage sales for 25 or 50 cents? A lot of this "Maker

Movement" is about telling people how cool they'll be if they build

things, and then selling them what they need at profit, rather than

helping them learn and make do. And then the projects use microntrollers

(prebuilt so they are more expensive than some scrap parts) instead of

wiring up some discrete components. It's great for the brain dead masses,

awful for those who want to learn. And awful for those without money, who

have the brains to make do.

Wow, I really set you off, sorry.
I'm looking for something he can work through semi-independently.
He'd like to do some robotics stuff, wheels and gears and make something move around.
I've got all sorts of 'junk' that we can make stuff with.

If you haven't used the arduino starter kit, or something similar, then I'm not sure you can help me with this question. But thanks for your thoughts.
I guess when I was younger I had lots more time than money. And now it's the other way... that sounds sad. I've got plenty of time...
Gotta run, picking up the boy from a parade.. he plays in the band... :^)

George H.

Michael

 

[George Herold]

On Friday, June 28, 2013 9:00:39 PM UTC-4, Rheilly Phoull wrote:

On 29/06/13 06:53, George Herold wrote:

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.

I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)

I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.

I was looking at this,

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit

I can get it for $100 from newark.

(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)



Is there something better?

I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.

Has anyone bought one?



Thanks,



George H.



I reckon you would be better off putting the dosh into some good books

like Margolis's "Arduino Cookbook" etc. and a grab bag of the various

Arduino boards from ebay. Since you can provide support with components

as required the lad would set his own pace and preferences. There is a

tremendous amount of info on the net for him to absorb as well, there is

a dedicated forum and reference site too.

Thanks, An "Arduino Cookbook" I love it. Any other good books?
I guess what I like about a kit rather than 'free lance' is that free lance is full of frustrating mistakes, where the kit gives him something that works, and then he can try moding it. And then go onto free lance.

George H.

 

[George Herold]

On Friday, June 28, 2013 8:15:04 PM UTC-4, Rich Webb wrote:

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 15:53:59 -0700 (PDT), George Herold

gherold@teachspin.com> wrote:



Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.

I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)

I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.

I was looking at this,

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit

I can get it for $100 from newark.

(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)



Is there something better?

I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.

Has anyone bought one?



Or this similar one from Sparkfun

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11236



I'd recommend either over the Raspberry Pi or Beaglebone if the goal

is electronics. Linux-based systems are great but they are abstracted

far from the bare metal.



I haven't used the Sparkfun kit but you can get a sense of it from

reading the comment threads over there.

Thanks Rich, we were looking at the spark fun site too.
There seemed to be lots of comments about mistakes in the manual.

Making a good manual is a lot of work,
(Even a bad manual is a lot of work.)
and somehow it doesn't get a line item in the budget.

George H.

 

[Rheilly Phoull]

On 29/06/13 09:27, George Herold wrote:

On Friday, June 28, 2013 9:00:39 PM UTC-4, Rheilly Phoull wrote:
On 29/06/13 06:53, George Herold wrote:

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.

I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)

I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.

I was looking at this,

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit

I can get it for $100 from newark.

(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)



Is there something better?

I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.

Has anyone bought one?



Thanks,



George H.



I reckon you would be better off putting the dosh into some good books

like Margolis's "Arduino Cookbook" etc. and a grab bag of the various

Arduino boards from ebay. Since you can provide support with components

as required the lad would set his own pace and preferences. There is a

tremendous amount of info on the net for him to absorb as well, there is

a dedicated forum and reference site too.

Thanks, An "Arduino Cookbook" I love it. Any other good books?
I guess what I like about a kit rather than 'free lance' is that free lance is full of frustrating mistakes, where the kit gives him something that works, and then he can try moding it. And then go onto free lance.

George H.

Well I reckon he would get both from the "Cookbook". It lays out the

projects in a 'hybrid' dwgs (Shows symbols and component layout).
There is "Getting started with Arduino" written by one of the
co-founders of the Arduino.
Take a look at http://tronixstuff.wordpress.com/tutorials/ and check
out the reference and forum
http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/HomePage?from=Reference.Extended. There's
just so much stuff there you could even cheapskate and forget the books

 

[asdf]

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 15:53:59 -0700, George Herold wrote:

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.
I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)
I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.
I was looking at this,
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit I can get it for $100 from
newark.
(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)

Is there something better?
I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project
book.
Has anyone bought one?

Take a look here.
http://www.mikroe.com/

 

[Bill Gill]

On 6/28/2013 6:55 PM, George Herold wrote:

Gotta run, picking up the boy from a parade.. he plays in the band... :^)

George H.
If your boys in the band why are you on the internet?

Bill

 

[George Herold]

On Friday, June 28, 2013 11:05:29 PM UTC-4, Rheilly Phoull wrote:

On 29/06/13 09:27, George Herold wrote:

On Friday, June 28, 2013 9:00:39 PM UTC-4, Rheilly Phoull wrote:


I reckon you would be better off putting the dosh into some good books



like Margolis's "Arduino Cookbook" etc. and a grab bag of the various



Arduino boards from ebay. Since you can provide support with components



as required the lad would set his own pace and preferences. There is a



tremendous amount of info on the net for him to absorb as well, there is



a dedicated forum and reference site too.



Thanks, An "Arduino Cookbook" I love it. Any other good books?

I guess what I like about a kit rather than 'free lance' is that free lance is full of frustrating mistakes, where the kit gives him something that works, and then he can try moding it. And then go onto free lance.



George H.



Well I reckon he would get both from the "Cookbook". It lays out the

projects in a 'hybrid' dwgs (Shows symbols and component layout).

There is "Getting started with Arduino" written by one of the

co-founders of the Arduino.

Take a look at http://tronixstuff.wordpress.com/tutorials/ and check

out the reference and forum

http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/HomePage?from=Reference.Extended. There's

just so much stuff there you could even cheapskate and forget the books

Great, nice sites. thanks! I like books, I ordered the cookbook. (How coud I refuse with the great reviews on amazon.)

George H.

 

[George Herold]

On Saturday, June 29, 2013 6:53:54 AM UTC-4, asdf wrote:

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013 15:53:59 -0700, George Herold wrote:



Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.

I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)

I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.

I was looking at this,

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit I can get it for $100 from

newark.

(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)



Is there something better?

I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project

book.

Has anyone bought one?



Take a look here.

http://www.mikroe.com/

Wow.. OK maybe in the future.
George H.

 

[George Herold]

On Saturday, June 29, 2013 9:21:09 AM UTC-4, Bill Gill wrote:

On 6/28/2013 6:55 PM, George Herold wrote:

Gotta run, picking up the boy from a parade.. he plays in the band... :^)



George H.

If your boys in the band why are you on the internet?

He was insistent that I not go and watch him march.
I tried asking him why on the way home,
So some partial answers,
he thinks the uniform is 'dorky' (not his wording)
he feels self conscience if someone he knows is watching,
But I'd guess the real reason is he's at that stage where he's embarrased by his Dad..
(Maybe I can sneak into the next parade :^)

George H.

Bill

 

[David Eather]

On Sat, 29 Jun 2013 08:53:59 +1000, George Herold <gherold@teachspin.com>
wrote:

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.
I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)
I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.
I was looking at this,
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit
I can get it for $100 from newark.
(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)

Is there something better?
I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project
book.
Has anyone bought one?

Thanks,

George H.

Arduino is the way to go - R-Pi is a bigger hill to climb and further
splits the effort between software and hardware. Yes, Arduino has
software and firmware but everything you do is about making the hardware
sing - not putting pretty pictures on a screen and learning a new
operating system and learning a new language and then thinking about how
to drive hardware.

The maul will be a bit short on theory but for a starter that is probably
OK

 

[Ian Field]

"Michael Black" <et472@ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:alpine.LNX.2.02.1306281913130.13360@darkstar.example.org...

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, George Herold wrote:

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.
I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)
I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.
I was looking at this,
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit
I can get it for $100 from newark.
(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)

Is there something better?
I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project
book.
Has anyone bought one?

You can get a Raspberry-Pi for $35 US or so. It is a full blown system,
can run Linux, but also has some I/O.

You should watch those "starter kits". They balloon the price up badly,
and are really for ultrabeginners or for making the public believe they
need the extra stuff.

Between the Arduino & Raspberry, it looks like horses for courses.

Raspery seems to lean toward media applications while the Arduino is a sort
of open source embedded micro platform.

 

[Rheilly Phoull]

On 02/07/13 08:47, George Herold wrote:

On Monday, July 1, 2013 5:41:44 PM UTC-4, Ian Field wrote:
"Michael Black" <et472@ncf.ca> wrote in message

news:alpine.LNX.2.02.1306281913130.13360@darkstar.example.org...

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, George Herold wrote:



Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.

I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)

I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.

I was looking at this,

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit

I can get it for $100 from newark.

(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)



Is there something better?

I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project

book.

Has anyone bought one?



You can get a Raspberry-Pi for $35 US or so. It is a full blown system,

can run Linux, but also has some I/O.



You should watch those "starter kits". They balloon the price up badly,

and are really for ultrabeginners or for making the public believe they

need the extra stuff.



Between the Arduino & Raspberry, it looks like horses for courses.



Raspery seems to lean toward media applications while the Arduino is a sort

of open source embedded micro platform.

I guess I'd compare the arduino to running the picaxe with basic.
(maybe I should have gone that route? I know basic better than C.)

George H.

You'll have no probs with Arduino, it's high level like basic and even

simpler to code.

 

[George Herold]

On Monday, July 1, 2013 5:41:44 PM UTC-4, Ian Field wrote:

"Michael Black" <et472@ncf.ca> wrote in message

news:alpine.LNX.2.02.1306281913130.13360@darkstar.example.org...

On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, George Herold wrote:



Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.

I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)

I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.

I was looking at this,

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit

I can get it for $100 from newark.

(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)



Is there something better?

I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project

book.

Has anyone bought one?



You can get a Raspberry-Pi for $35 US or so. It is a full blown system,

can run Linux, but also has some I/O.



You should watch those "starter kits". They balloon the price up badly,

and are really for ultrabeginners or for making the public believe they

need the extra stuff.



Between the Arduino & Raspberry, it looks like horses for courses.



Raspery seems to lean toward media applications while the Arduino is a sort

of open source embedded micro platform.

I guess I'd compare the arduino to running the picaxe with basic.
(maybe I should have gone that route? I know basic better than C.)

George H.

 

[Michael Black]

On Mon, 1 Jul 2013, Ian Field wrote:

"Michael Black" <et472@ncf.ca> wrote in message
news:alpine.LNX.2.02.1306281913130.13360@darkstar.example.org...
On Fri, 28 Jun 2013, George Herold wrote:

Hi all, My 12 yr old son had a nice report card.
I ussually get him a gift ~$20. (video game or something)
I was thinking of instead getting him an arduino starter kit.
I was looking at this,
http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoStarterKit
I can get it for $100 from newark.
(Well I'd get to play with it too so half the gift's for Dad :^)

Is there something better?
I guess I'd be most interested in the quality of the manual, project book.
Has anyone bought one?

You can get a Raspberry-Pi for $35 US or so. It is a full blown system,
can run Linux, but also has some I/O.

You should watch those "starter kits". They balloon the price up badly,
and are really for ultrabeginners or for making the public believe they
need the extra stuff.

Between the Arduino & Raspberry, it looks like horses for courses.

Raspery seems to lean toward media applications while the Arduino is a sort
of open source embedded micro platform.

It depends on what you want. The Pi was actually created to be a "play

space" for learning to program. Like the COmmodore 64 of 30 years ago, or
even my KIM-1 that I got in 1979. But the Pi is way better, and way
cheaper. It allows for play since nobody is worrying about messing up the
hard drive.

And yes, Linux is overkill, but the cheap hardware runs it. And you can
get all kinds of resources for programming and debugging on Linux. LIkely
any programming language exists for Linux.

When I got the KIM-1, I'd try single instructions, the monitor made it
easy to do so, see the results, see how the registers looked after the
instruction. A much more concrete learning process than reading a book.
Then I'd string some instructions together, again that was easy to try
since I could get the monitor to take over when the code was finished. No
need to fuss with how to display things (which with GUI programs has a lot
of overhead), you can deal with that later when you get to that point.

And it had some limited I/O, so I could play with turning LEDs on and off,
or controlling that GI sound generator IC. It was a whole process, not a
project. I was learning, not trying to make something.

"Leaning a new operating system" isn't a hardship for kids, it's exactly
what they want. It's no different from when I got a ham license when I
was 12, I never did much deliberate study for it, I was soaking up all I
could read about electronics and radio. The license was no barrier, not
just in terms of it being easy to pass (when the Canadian license was not
a beginner's license) but that it was just part of the process.

I went through all the books on "electronics" at the children's library
when I was ten, in quotes since most were really books about electricity.
And then I started work on the books in the adult library. When I found
the hobby electronic magazines when I was 11, I couldn't understand them,
but I stuck with them, and because I was interested, I learned from them.
The first few projects didn't work (in retrospect I can see lots of
reasons, but at the time I wasn't yet skilled enough) but ironically the
first things I built that did work were made from parts I'd pulled of
scrap electronics. I had gained enough knowledge to see what was needed,
and what would work.

When I got the KIM-1, not until 1979 because I couldn't afford a computer
before that, I used the seme process of learning through experience. I
didn't read a book ahead of time, I read them in parallel.

Adults seem to forget that. If someone is interested, they'll learn.

Michael