Other brand kits as an alternative to Arduino brand Starter Kit?

All,

Thanks for your time and looking at my post. I have been checking regularly to see if the Arduino Starter Kit would be in stock so I could order one. However, it has become an exercise in futility. Are there any retailers that have packaged an Arduino board with other electronic components to make their own "starter kit"?

If there are no kits for beginners, what components could I purchase separately to make a kit? What are your recommendations for a book to purchase as a project guide?

Again, thanks for your time and advice.

/R,

NearBeer

Nearbeer,

I, myself, just got into programming and Linux based applications via the arduino or raspberry pi. One kit i saw that really caught my attention was the SparkFun Arduino kit, available for just $100 USD. (SparkFun Inventor's Kit for Arduino with Retail Case - RTL-11236 - SparkFun Electronics). Unfortunately, as of posting this it is currently back ordered if ordered directly from Sparkfun however I was able to find it in stock on Amazon for $100 USD as well (http://www.amazon.com/Sparkfun-Inventors-professional-Arduino-retail/dp/B005FMNJ3S/ref=pd_cp_e_3)

I wasn't able to grab a Arduino yet, but I did get myself a Raspberry Pi Model B. I hope someone else has another kit in mind because I really wanted to buy a starter kit with a getting-started style booklet included.

Cheers!
Dylan

Nearbeer:
All,

Thanks for your time and looking at my post. I have been checking regularly to see if the Arduino Starter Kit would be in stock so I could order one. However, it has become an exercise in futility. Are there any retailers that have packaged an Arduino board with other electronic components to make their own "starter kit"?

If there are no kits for beginners, what components could I purchase separately to make a kit? What are your recommendations for a book to purchase as a project guide?

Again, thanks for your time and advice.

/R,

NearBeer

I answered a similar question in the General Category section of this forum recently: cost of arduino - #6 by MichaelMeissner - General Discussion - Arduino Forum.

Robotshop also has some other kits, so be sure to check out the alternatives.

There are many different kits out there. I would suggest buying kits from people that have tutorials on their sites of the parts they sell for Arduino. Also, if you aren't comfortable soldering components together, for a first kit, I would recommend going with a kit that doesn't need soldering (i.e. skip the sparkfun and adafruit kits).

I'm not sure of books. I bought the Radio Shack reprint of the make book (RadioShack.com Official Site - America's Technology Store), glanced at it a few times, and mostly have learned by reading this forum, and browsing the learning section. However, I've been working as a professional programmer for 33 years now, so the programming side is fairly simple for me, though I can understand how it is frustrating to people who haven't been doing it for awhile.

You also might check out if your local Makerspace is offering classes. In the Boston area, Artisans Asylum will be doing a intro to Arduino class in January and February: Artisans Asylum

I started off with an Oomlout kit. I've still not tried all the experiments listed in the book that came with it!

The Arduino starter kits are a convenient way to get things bundled but you pay
a premium for that convenience.

Microcenter has quite a bit of Arduino supplies.
Here are few "starter" kits:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/402085/899262000367#
http://www.microcenter.com/product/392618/KIT_Workshop_-_Base_Level
http://www.microcenter.com/product/389942/Getting_Started_with_Arduino_Kit_V20
http://www.microcenter.com/product/389816/Inventor's_Kit_for_Arduino
http://www.microcenter.com/product/389954/Ultimate_Microcontroller_Pack_-_Netduino_Version

Adafruit:

Radioshack:

Once you have an Arduino board - which is available from many suppliers,
(Microcenter has them on sale right now for $18 - I just bought one yesterday)
you can put together your own kit by buying parts using suppliers like tayda
( http://www.taydaelectronics.com/ ) or ebay merchants
and spend less or get additional components for the same total cost.

Here is a good link to some educational materials.
http://learn.adafruit.com/
The Arduino lessons are pretty good for someone just starting out with Arduino.
You can bring up the lessons or download them in PDF.
Each of them has a parts list for the lesson which you can order
from (the web lessons have links to order parts from Adafruit)
or your favorite online supplier.

--- bill