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Arduino Starter Kit Comparison Chart
Posted in (News, Useful) by Aaron on 30-11-2010
Tagged Under : Arduino
So you want to get started with the Arduino, and a starter kit sounds like a good idea. We agree. The Arduino is an awesome platform, and with the right kit, you can really go places. It’s a tough job to go find all the kits out there and compare them, so we thought we’d make the job a little easier on you.
The following table puts everything in an easy, readable setup. You can show or hide reviews, toggle explanations of (most) components and hide kits you’re not interested in looking at.
Kit Makers: Did we miss something? Get something wrong? Don’t feel we gave you a fair shake? Shoot us an email (info@conductiveresistance.com). We want to provide the best information possible, and you can help us do it!
Update August 2014: Unfortunately, the Kit chart has not been well maintained, so it remains down being in such a deprecated state.
[…] After lots of work and a lot of long days, I’ve finally got something that I think will be a real help: The Arduino Starter Kit Comparison Chart. […]
THANKS for your work on this! It is very valuable!
Regards, Terry King ..On the Red Sea at KAUST.edu.sa
terry@terryking.us
This is a great resource for curious types like me trying to decide what is best for students. Thanks!!!
Thanks Doug,
I’m not sure I’d recommend kits for a class. If you’re planning on 2-3 students working at a time, a kit probably makes sense. Beyond that, I would say you ought to buy a class set of Arduinos, breadboards, and jumper-cables, and buy all the other components ala carte from an electronics site like Digi-Key or Mouser. I’d also recommend you get a Arduino/Breadboard holder for each set, it’ll make things much easier for your students.
Good Luck!
Many thanks — very useful.
Wow. Lots of great info here. I’ve never used an arduino and am trying to buy a kit for a very smart 14 yo who’s never used one either and is just getting started on programming. Which kit do you think would be simplest for him to start with. Money is not the issue in this range, considering how important we think hands-on computer knowledge is. Thx!!
Hi Dan, I’m not sure which kit would be best for your 14-year-old. What are his interests? In general, I’d recommend one of the kits that has some sort of material coupled with it. I would steer you towards either Adafruit’s Starter Pack, SparkFun’s Inventor’s Kit, or MakerShed’s Getting started with Arduino. All 3 of those come with good materials for learning. Stick with the kits that have projects in mind, unless you have some specific projects you’d like to do. Unless it’s a surprise, you might share this page with your 14-year-old and have him look at the different kits, figure out which things he’d like to pursue and go with that kit.
Hi Aaron, Are you adding new kits to your reviews?? Please take a look at: http://arduino-direct.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=146
which is very good for beginners due to the very solid connections and wide variety of sensors and actuators provided.
Regards, Terry King ..On the Red Sea at KAUST.edu.sa
terry@terryking.us
[…] […]
Have to say it, but been waiting for kit from Earthshine Electronics now for over two weeks. They sent me a dispatch email then claimed they dispatched it a week later?????
Still not here cancelling order, rubbish customer service.
[…] With the relative inexpensive Arduino chips, you can build to keep. This for me would be the reason I will soon buy myself a starter kit. I’ve already found a site that has a comparison chart on many starter-kits available out there: [LINK] […]
Nice info. Just a note of a possible glitch on the reviews. If you toggle on reviews and then later hide a kit the review remains. And even more of a problem is that if you toggled on a review for kit and then deleted the kit the review remains and slides up against the kit above it. If the review isn’t on for that kit then the review from the deleted kit takes the place of a review for a kit that wasn’t toggled on. But I love the reviews! I loved that I could slowly remove kits I didn’t like end up with my 2 or 3 finalist. Thanks!
Hi Chuck,
I’m glad you found the chart useful! Thanks so much for the finding this bug and passing it along. I’ve gone into the code and fixed it. Reviews are now removed along with their associated kits. I hope you enjoy whichever kit you ended up choosing. Thanks again.
[…] Via and source: Conductive Resistance […]
I can’t find the chart! Am I crazy?!? Thanks
Hi Jon,
You’re not crazy. It looks like the kit plugin and database didn’t make the transistion several months back and traffic was low enough that I didn’t notice. Whoops. I’ll have this back online this weekend. It may also give me the opportunity to update it to match what’s out there.
Excellent, thank you.
Any luck with getting the chart link fixed? It sounds like great info. Thanks!