I'm very glad to have the Arduino Starter Kit. I've built half of the projects so far and I'm going to complete the rest in the nearest time. But I've found several a bit frustrating mismatches between cool and shiny manual (that's piece of art!) and kit's electronic pieces:
Male pins strip has too short pins from one side - I can't attach them both to servo motor connector and breadboard. I used usual wires to connect the servo motor to the breadboard. Also, it wasn't written in the manual that I should cut 3 pin from the strip.
Potentiometer doesn't fix on the breadboard by itself, so I fixed it with additional wires in each hole.
Tilt switch's pins are too short to connect to anything. I see no way to connect it without soldering, so I used ordinary switch.
There're several other mismatches, but I suspect that it has to do with the real quality of modern electronic pieces:
a) servo motor rotates only 0 - 174 degrees. If I set >174 degrees, it buzzes constantly;
b) RGB led doesn't shine with white light - it has some pink tint.
I've noticed some of the same issues. Here's what worked regarding the male pins and the tilt switch...
Male pins - you can do one of two things. Either remove the male pin from the plastic entirely or slide the plastic to the midpoint of the pins. Should provide ample room for connecting the servo to the breadboard.
Tilt switch - if you place it in on the breadboard using only two pins and leave the other two in the gap down the center, it stays in place. It's a snug fit, but it works.
Male pins strip has too short pins from one side - I can't attach them both to servo motor connector and breadboard. I used usual wires to connect the servo motor to the breadboard. Also, it wasn't written in the manual that I should cut 3 pin from the strip.
Potentiometer doesn't fix on the breadboard by itself, so I fixed it with additional wires in each hole.
Tilt switch's pins are too short to connect to anything. I see no way to connect it without soldering, so I used ordinary switch.
There're several other mismatches, but I suspect that it has to do with the real quality of modern electronic pieces:
a) servo motor rotates only 0 - 174 degrees. If I set >174 degrees, it buzzes constantly;
b) RGB led doesn't shine with white light - it has some pink tint.
I'll add other mismatches to this post.
Maksym
Hi, just briefly cause I also recently faced your same issues:
You can adjust the lenght of each side of the male pins simply sliding the small, black plastic strip.
It's rather hard and you need to apply enough force (take care to don't bend the pins), but it works smooth.
Yeah it does, or at least in my case.
Didn't try it so far
a); b) same for me, I still want to find some time to figure out why.
In general, I'm more than satisfied with the kit.
I've started with 0 (zero) competences in electronics and coding, and I'm slowly improving my skills.
Of course, I always keep in mind that components are produced from different providers, and I'm prototyping on a breadboard, therefore, IMO, you should always take into account minor flaws and incostistencies, which doesn't affect at all the overall goal of the Starter's kit.
I found that the best way to fix the male header pins is to put them against a table and put your fingers on either side of the black plastic part and just push, then they end up sliding down towards the center.
also I found that my potentiometers would work in some holes on the breadboard and on most holes it would just pop out and would refuse to go in