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The Ultimate Project Kit?

dougw

The question is what constitutes an ideal project kit?

Of course it is going to be impossible to come up with a universal set of building blocks that covers every application, but given a fairly generic set of basic building blocks, what would be the most common solution that you would propose - to fit more applications than other solutions?

Assume a generic project would include a microcontroller, a sensor, an actuator, a user interface, and a power supply.

What else? Would you include signal conditioning circuits or amplifiers? Would you include audio components? Would you include LEDs?

To get the ball rolling, I would suggest 2 scenarios - a high end kit and a lower end kit.

For the high end kit I would go with an Arduino Giga with its touch LCD, a ToF Laser Ranging Sensor, a servo motor, and a USB C power module. The Giga could use a small powered speaker as a nice option.

For the lower kit I would go with an Arduino Nano R4 and a 1" OLED display instead of the Giga but keep the ToF sensor, servo and USB C power.

I expect others will prefer a Raspberry Pi to a Giga, but we will find out in the comments.

Leave a comment to elaborate on your thinking.

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  • I do a variety of projects without sticking to specific realms like electrical or mechanical engineering. 
    never the less there are design patters, with over 200 drawing machines, custom tools and custom programs for drawing... I think I see a pattern emerging. 

    kits are great! but you know an IPC (industrial PC) frequently has exposed IO, a case, and numerous other features that amount to and are comparable to 
    a kit PC development system. Quality controls, actuators, and sensors are always helpful. I have a suspicion that numerous beginners don't even know that 
    there are higher quality parts than what comes in those cheap sensor kits. 

    Theres always a big quality difference between a project where you used what you have vs planned for and spec'd out quality parts. 
    you can get 10 encoders for 10$ or pay for 10$ for 1 decent Rotary encoder with integrated eeprom for example. 
    but if youre not even certain something exists, then you cant plan.

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  • I do a variety of projects without sticking to specific realms like electrical or mechanical engineering. 
    never the less there are design patters, with over 200 drawing machines, custom tools and custom programs for drawing... I think I see a pattern emerging. 

    kits are great! but you know an IPC (industrial PC) frequently has exposed IO, a case, and numerous other features that amount to and are comparable to 
    a kit PC development system. Quality controls, actuators, and sensors are always helpful. I have a suspicion that numerous beginners don't even know that 
    there are higher quality parts than what comes in those cheap sensor kits. 

    Theres always a big quality difference between a project where you used what you have vs planned for and spec'd out quality parts. 
    you can get 10 encoders for 10$ or pay for 10$ for 1 decent Rotary encoder with integrated eeprom for example. 
    but if youre not even certain something exists, then you cant plan.

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  • in reply to SensoredHacker0

    When doing commercial projects at work, quality and reliability are important, and specific.

    When building projects for home , its a compromise depends on the benefits of the build. 

    When projects are built for fun or for demonstration at a school or library, cheap sensors are fine. In the last 10 years, most failures were caused by me. Useage is single digit hours a year.