Please help me in buying an Arduino starter kit

That is all very nice.

Here's an idea.  Spend some time in their support forums and report your findings in your next post.

It should give you a better idea who will be the most and best help to you and that is where you should spend your money.

An honest unbiased opinion given and one expected in return.

Blackmon

The bottom one is missing a lot.

The top one is at a great price and will serve you as a starter.

I would be tempted to add an I2C LCD display (16x2) http://www.sainsmart.com/arduino-compatibles-1/lcd-module/sainsmart-iic-i2c-twi-1602-serial-lcd-module-display-for-arduino-mega2560-uno-r3.html

as you'll be wanting to display things before too long.

you may also want to control other things and a relay board is also useful. This one uses optocoupled relays, so is simialr to a led.

http://www.sainsmart.com/arduino-compatibles-1/relay/2-channel-relay/arduino-pro-mini.html

Mark

We recently purchased the Sparkfun Inventor's Kit (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11236) and it has been a big hit with me and my son. The clear instructions, great pictures and project sketch library really make this kit.I also picked up PIR & Ultrasonic sensors off of Amazon to supplement the kit. We're total beginners with Arduino and we've been very happy with the kit so far.

If budget is tight, you can probably source the pieces separately to create your own kit for less cost.

As a starting point, I've always liked this Oomlout tutorial: http://www.oomlout.com/a/products/ardx/

It's open source, and you can go through the tutorial online for free. So you could look at the parts they use for the circuits you want to try and then just buy the pieces separately.

You might save a bit by scavenging parts too. Things like toy motors are easy to get from battery powered toothbrushes, for example.

I'll second Mark's advice above for the 16x2 display, and a relay board would be much easier to use than the separate relay the tutorial shows, for not much more cost.

eBay can be a cost effective place for electronics too, but stuff there usually doesn't come with much support.

Good luck, and enjoy!

Cheers,

-Nico

Thank you for your suggestion. I did seach their forum and google them. It seems that the one from Sparkfun has good reputation, and good tutorials, but a little over-priced for me.  While the one from Sainsmart is less mentioned, only found this video.

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RE: Please help me in buying an Arduino starter kit

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Luckily, I can understand French, the tutorials are good enough to get started.
So this seems to be a good choice as well.  The one from Sainsmart will be more suitable for me for the budget. And I can spare some money to go for a distance sensor and an LCD display.

Thank you for pointing that out. I do need an LCD display and a distance sensor. I was searching these two websites for more, and I found a starter kit that includes the 1602 LCD and the sensor. http://www.sainsmart.com/starter-kit/uno-r3-starter-kit/sainsmart-uno-r3-distance-sensor-starter-kit-with-19-basic-arduino-projects.html

But I don't know if the LCD included is the same one as you mentioned: http://www.sainsmart.com/arduino-compatibles-1/lcd-module/sainsmart-iic-i2c-twi-1602-serial-lcd-module-display-for-arduino-mega2560-uno-r3.html

As you may know, some of the LCD on ebay, which is too cheap to believe, and finally I found that they are lack of the I2C adapter. That would be a huge difference. I will ask their support to see if the lcd in the kit comes with the IIC adapter or not.

Your suggestion is good for my budget, but this may take more time and effort. I will prefer to have a quick start first. If I am into it, I will try to create my own kit in the future.

I must admit this is definitely a good kit, but for someone, like me, who is just starting out and doesn't know if they like this hobby or want to stay with it, $100 for a starter kit is a huge expense. If I can be get starter for under $50, why not? I can consider upgrading when I advanced and when funds allowed.

I understand and respect being on a budget. Good luck finding a kit that works for you. I think you'll find it hard not to get hooked. It's amazing all the things you can do even as a beginner.

SKU:20-013-100