Is it necessary to get a case when starting out with an Arduino uno?

hi,

Im just starting out with arduino and I just bought an uno. Should I get a case?

thx!

No.

And since the case may be the most expensive single component, getting one is probably a bad idea un til you are sure you know exactly what you want - if any.

thx

A case will protect your table top and prevent being yelled at.

You don't need to use the top.

.

I use a cloth towel - to avoid (scratches, and) the inevitable situation of placing the arduino down on any wire scraps or other metal pieces that might short the copper side of the board.

I bought a 10 pack of mouse pads on ebay. They work great to set the boards on.

If you need to do something like that, replies #4, #5 sound much smarter than getting a case, particularly that sucker-bait from Sparkfun.

Actually that case looks pretty nice - and it's only 8 bucks. I don't use any case though. I coil the USB cable and set the board on top of that. It works, protects the fine finish of my desk, and costs nothing.

Just don't put the bare board on top of a mac. PC's are mostly plastic and less of a concern. I wish there were nice heavy cases so my arduino will slide and get dragged off the table by the weight of the USB cable.

I put standoffs for feet on the couple of non-breadboard friendly Arduino's that tend to live on my workbench, not to prevent scratches since I don't care about that and have one of those anti-static mats on there anyway, but to avoid the short issue lastchancename mentioned. I've definitely done that before with component lead offcuts. The only problem is some of the mounting holes don't have enough clearance so I had to cut part of the head off those screws.

I also won a bunch of those screw on spikes that punks put on their jackets at 10pcs/$0.07USD on eBay auctions when I was running an Arduino Pro Micro based automated bidding machine to get positive feedback for my seller accounts. They make some pretty cool feet for circuit boards, though the pointier ones aren't so friendly to the surface they sit on.

I would get one if I had to transport it regularly.

If you are clumsy like me, you will probably one day place the board on a leftover cut-off leg of a resistor while experimenting and cause a short. A case or standoffs will prevent that.

PS
I actually did it years ago with tweezers and a 220V triac circuit and the result was absolutely spectacular :smiley: