suggestions for starter electronics kit

[Melvang]

Hey guys, I am looking to pick up a starter electronics kit for messing around learning electronics, and programming.  I have a couple teensys, going to get Arduino IDE with the Teensyduino addon, breadboard, and a good amount of male to male jumper wires.

Looking for suggestions for a kit to pick up.  Wouldn't mind if it had a buzzer to mess with that sort of thing on keystroke.

[ghostjuggernaut]

Hey guys, I am looking to pick up a starter electronics kit for messing around learning electronics, and programming.  I have a couple teensys, going to get Arduino IDE with the Teensyduino addon, breadboard, and a good amount of male to male jumper wires.

Looking for suggestions for a kit to pick up.  Wouldn't mind if it had a buzzer to mess with that sort of thing on keystroke.

Radio shack used to sell some diy kits that you build.  Really simple stuff, and cheap, but is pretty neat once you start learning more fundamentals.

What type of stuff are you planning on doing?  If hobby stuff, i'd suggest arduino or a raspberry pi.  Depending on the specific stuff you plan on doing, there are more addons you would probably need in addition.

[Melvang]

Hey guys, I am looking to pick up a starter electronics kit for messing around learning electronics, and programming.  I have a couple teensys, going to get Arduino IDE with the Teensyduino addon, breadboard, and a good amount of male to male jumper wires.

Looking for suggestions for a kit to pick up.  Wouldn't mind if it had a buzzer to mess with that sort of thing on keystroke.

Radio shack used to sell some diy kits that you build.  Really simple stuff, and cheap, but is pretty neat once you start learning more fundamentals.

What type of stuff are you planning on doing?  If hobby stuff, i'd suggest arduino or a raspberry pi.  Depending on the specific stuff you plan on doing, there are more addons you would probably need in addition.

The issue with RS, is I don't think there is one in the state, I know there isn't one inside of an hour drive. 

End game goal, learning specifics and details to control leds with momentary switches with the firmware.  Trying to keep the budget down for now and already have a couple of teensy controllers and a couple bread boards with jumped wires.

At this point wanting to experiment with keyboard related stuff one aspect at at time, all the way up to buzzer and solenoids.

[ghostjuggernaut]

Hey guys, I am looking to pick up a starter electronics kit for messing around learning electronics, and programming.  I have a couple teensys, going to get Arduino IDE with the Teensyduino addon, breadboard, and a good amount of male to male jumper wires.

Looking for suggestions for a kit to pick up.  Wouldn't mind if it had a buzzer to mess with that sort of thing on keystroke.

Radio shack used to sell some diy kits that you build.  Really simple stuff, and cheap, but is pretty neat once you start learning more fundamentals.

What type of stuff are you planning on doing?  If hobby stuff, i'd suggest arduino or a raspberry pi.  Depending on the specific stuff you plan on doing, there are more addons you would probably need in addition.

The issue with RS, is I don't think there is one in the state, I know there isn't one inside of an hour drive. 

End game goal, learning specifics and details to control leds with momentary switches with the firmware.  Trying to keep the budget down for now and already have a couple of teensy controllers and a couple bread boards with jumped wires.

At this point wanting to experiment with keyboard related stuff one aspect at at time, all the way up to buzzer and solenoids.

I think to start, one of the arduino starter kits would be good to go with. They are a bit pricey, $100-150, but will give you quite a bit to play with. I'm not sure if they come with relays, but a relay board would be good as well. Last I looked you can get low voltage ones with 6 on a board and are pretty affordable. I'm not too familiar with the arduino specifics, but know the RPi outputs pretty low voltage on the gpio pins, and a relay is needed for just about everything. Plus it's offers circuit isolation from the board.

I'll have more time to give you proper info tomorrow if you want. I'm also not very familiar with how extensive the teensy capabilities are.

[tp4tissue]

Um... the pre-assembled Kits are usually for kids, who are satisfied with turning a light on and off.. maybe a little motorized cart, that sort of thing..

As an adult,  you'd probably get bored of all that stuff after reading the instructions how to build them..


So....... I 'd recommend analyzing some of your day to day redundancies that can be automated,   And build into that..

[Melvang]

Um... the pre-assembled Kits are usually for kids, who are satisfied with turning a light on and off.. maybe a little motorized cart, that sort of thing..

As an adult,  you'd probably get bored of all that stuff after reading the instructions how to build them..


So....... I 'd recommend analyzing some of your day to day redundancies that can be automated,   And build into that..

I don't need/want a pre assembled kit to make one thing.  I am looking for an assembled kit of a bunch of random **** not designed for a specific task.  Most of what I want to learn isn't on the hardware specifically, though I do need to learn the specifics when dealing with mosfets, transistors, that sort of thing, as I have never used them myself.  And how to control them from a teensy/arduino.

Doing this from a bread board is much faster than trying to solder wires together without a PCB, so thats why I am choosing this route.

Remember I have next to no electronics experience outside of taking stuff apart, and removing/replacing diodes, leds and switches, zero programming experience.

[Spopepro]

It sounds like you're not looking for an "electronics" kit, but rather a microcontroller kit. You should check out adafruit's offerings, like this one: https://www.adafruit.com/products/170

Not "cheap", but a little nicer than having to assemble junk boxes. Especially since it doesn't sound like you're near an electronics surplus store.

[Melvang]

It sounds like you're not looking for an "electronics" kit, but rather a microcontroller kit. You should check out adafruit's offerings, like this one: https://www.adafruit.com/products/170

Not "cheap", but a little nicer than having to assemble junk boxes. Especially since it doesn't sound like you're near an electronics surplus store.

Pretty much, but I already have a couple teensys, breadboards, and male to male jumpers.  Money is a bit tight, so I wouldn't mind just buying a few basics a la carte, probably be cheaper.

The one electronics store I have local is https://farnsworthelectronics.com/

[Spopepro]

Other places to check are: pjrc have some kits themselves, teensy not included, usually broken up by specific learning project. Jameco also has some kits, and they also sell grab bags of random parts. But beware: you will spend hours of your life sorting any grab bag. And then still maybe not find the exact thing you're looking for.

[tp4tissue]

It sounds like you're not looking for an "electronics" kit, but rather a microcontroller kit. You should check out adafruit's offerings, like this one: https://www.adafruit.com/products/170

Not "cheap", but a little nicer than having to assemble junk boxes. Especially since it doesn't sound like you're near an electronics surplus store.

this is what i'm talking about though,

it's got a servo, a motor, and some leds..


I mean, ,what are you going to make with that , which won't immediately be uselessly boring.

hahahahahaha.....


It makes sense for kids, because they can turn a little flag to 30 degrees, 47 degrees,  and they could watch that for hours.. all on the same $85...


Are we going to have our pal Melvang a grown ass man, watch a little flag turn exactly 30 degrees for hours ?

[Spopepro]

It sounds like you're not looking for an "electronics" kit, but rather a microcontroller kit. You should check out adafruit's offerings, like this one: https://www.adafruit.com/products/170

Not "cheap", but a little nicer than having to assemble junk boxes. Especially since it doesn't sound like you're near an electronics surplus store.

this is what i'm talking about though,

it's got a servo, a motor, and some leds..


I mean, ,what are you going to make with that , which won't immediately be uselessly boring.

hahahahahaha.....

Show Image

It makes sense for kids, because they can turn a little flag to 30 degrees, 47 degrees,  and they could watch that for hours.. all on the same $85...


Are we going to have our pal Melvang a grown ass man, watch a little flag turn exactly 30 degrees for hours ?

I still start with "hello world" and **** jokes for every new language I learn. Been the same way since I was 10. Well, maybe more **** jokes as I got older...

[Melvang]

It sounds like you're not looking for an "electronics" kit, but rather a microcontroller kit. You should check out adafruit's offerings, like this one: https://www.adafruit.com/products/170

Not "cheap", but a little nicer than having to assemble junk boxes. Especially since it doesn't sound like you're near an electronics surplus store.

this is what i'm talking about though,

it's got a servo, a motor, and some leds..


I mean, ,what are you going to make with that , which won't immediately be uselessly boring.

hahahahahaha.....

Show Image

It makes sense for kids, because they can turn a little flag to 30 degrees, 47 degrees,  and they could watch that for hours.. all on the same $85...


Are we going to have our pal Melvang a grown ass man, watch a little flag turn exactly 30 degrees for hours ?

The tuning a flag exactly 30° 47" 25' would be a precursor to setting up CNC control with stepper motors, so that would have a practical application.  The testing with little stuff in a kit is to learn to do it properly before moving to expensive stepper motors sized to move 18"x46" cast iron bridge port beds.

[tp4tissue]

The tuning a flag exactly 30° 47" 25' would be a precursor to setting up CNC control with stepper motors, so that would have a practical application.  The testing with little stuff in a kit is to learn to do it properly before moving to expensive stepper motors sized to move 18"x46" cast iron bridge port beds.

Um...
not quite... hahahaha...

For Cnc, you're not going to diy the driver / controller via arduino,  YOU CAN...  but it's not a good idea.. because to really build a PRECISE driver,  you need a high end oscilloscope to watch the pulse shape..

In the end, it's cheaper to just buy the driver and hook it up to pc on mach3 instead of building one from scratch... Especially if you don't have an oscilloscope..

This is with steppers.. and at best, you can probably eek out enough precision to do a 3d printer with the arduino.. (a really slow printer)

If you want arduino to control a servo...  ermmm... that's just not going to happen for the servo size you'd be using for cnc-milling..


Arduino could control something more simple (and reliably), like a solenoid valve for air evacuation of cutting chips.


Not trying to discourage you from explorering.. but there is alot of reinventing the wheel that's going to happen if you take certain routes with no clear purpose in mind..

[noisyturtle]

There are these cool LED light boxes you can build and program. It comes as a kit of LEDs on leads and you either plug them in or solder them onto a base pcb, depending on the kit. The you can do some very light programming to create your own 3D light show and pictures. A great and fun introductory tool for burgeoning engineers.

[tp4tissue]

There are these cool LED light boxes you can build and program. It comes as a kit of LEDs on leads and you either plug them in or solder them onto a base pcb, depending on the kit. The you can do some very light programming to create your own 3D light show and pictures. A great and fun introductory tool for burgeoning engineers.

Show Image

I will interject and say.. DO NOT attempt one of these..

It's not that it's hard.. or boring..


BUT omg.. you will rip hairs out soldering this thing together..

It looks easy on the internet,  but jesus it is super super tedious..

You will also need a jig to bend the leads perfectly straight, otherwise it'll look crummy and non-cubic..

Even 8*8*8*2 = 1024 solder points


Now imagine 16x,  8192 solder points..

Now imagine 16x @ 3x leads for rgb, 12288  solder points