Our University has purchased 60 starter kits and I have just started using it in classroom to teach programming. The book that comes with the kit is very useful. The link for this kit is Arduino Starter Kit Multi-language — Arduino Official Store
Does anyone know if this book is available in electronic form either under creative commons or for purchase? This will immensely help us in classroom. Also is the code for projects mentioned in book available for download?
The videos for the book have now been released under creative commons, so I am guessing the book will be available as well.
I would be very careful to use that book in higher education. There are far to many errors in it to be useful for that purpose. Especially as the errors are on basic physics and electronic theory.
I would be happy to help out with correcting it, but it is not in public domain so it is hard to do.
PacoP:
Why don't start to share the mistakes on this forum ?
The most obvious one is on page 30, where Ohms law is misused. They totally neglect the voltage-drop over the LED, which at this voltage levels is a big error. The calculations are thus wrong, and the conclusions in error.
The text also uses non-standard terminology, such as "the amperage used by the LED", which is at best strange and at worst wrong. All through Project 01 the concepts of voltage, current, power and energy are mixed up. The definitions of current and voltage on page 21 are wrong. The explanation of a resistor on page 25 and how it affects the light from a LED is wrong.
In addition there are lots of smaller things, such as that sensors convert energy into electrical energy, which very few of the sensors we use today actually does. And that a piezo element vibrates when it "receives electricity", which sounds like an explanation from the 18th century.
There are also a number of strange definitions in the Glossary.
hello... I just plain cannot read the book due to the color of the text. I must use a magnifying glass which is quite cumbersome. Has anyone found a free downlaod (since I've already paid for the book within the kit). Old people need love (and darker text) too! Thanks!
barbara75214:
hello... I just plain cannot read the book due to the color of the text. I must use a magnifying glass which is quite cumbersome. Has anyone found a free downlaod (since I've already paid for the book within the kit). Old people need love (and darker text) too! Thanks!
Hear, hear! - I feel exactly the same... and I don't consider myself all that old. It's like the author only considered young eyes would need to read it. And the colours! Coding and doing something new with your kit doesn't need to be blinged-up with odd-coloured pages or Tiny, grey text - PLEASE, Arduino, PLEASE! produce a PDF copy and/or a PDF plain text (min 12-point text), version.
I blame Wired magazine for the whole "black text on dark blue" and "light grey text on medium red" thing. I see a lot of websites that are difficult to read.
I don't want color behind text. Just make it black text on white! I don't need style to obscure the information.
AndersJJ:
The most obvious one is on page 30, where Ohms law is misused. They totally neglect the voltage-drop over the LED, which at this voltage levels is a big error. The calculations are thus wrong, and the conclusions in error.
The text also uses non-standard terminology, such as "the amperage used by the LED", which is at best strange and at worst wrong. All through Project 01 the concepts of voltage, current, power and energy are mixed up. The definitions of current and voltage on page 21 are wrong. The explanation of a resistor on page 25 and how it affects the light from a LED is wrong.
In addition there are lots of smaller things, such as that sensors convert energy into electrical energy, which very few of the sensors we use today actually does. And that a piezo element vibrates when it "receives electricity", which sounds like an explanation from the 18th century.
There are also a number of strange definitions in the Glossary.
I was sad to read about how the Arduino project book is riddled with errors. I recently got the complete kit and I'm now afraid to read it knowing there's errors. Would anyone happen to have any other book recommendations for the complete newb to all things arduino and programming?
I should mention that my interests lie specifically in dynamic LED lighting.
I think it's disgraceful that the book should be printed so badly - small faint type, hardly legible. I received my kit today but am very disappointed because I can hardly read the instructions.
Why doesn't someone in charge reply to these complaints and tell us where we can download the book?
Would like a digital version as well. Dividing my attention between the board, the hard-to-keep-open book and the board was annoying. If I could have just had it on my screen next to the IDE I would have been much happier.
Well this is just great, the book has errors and I find out after I buy it.
This is why Im getting confused with this stuff. I want to learn about electronics but get a crapy bok. Its a good things there no pdf. First they should fix it. Open source, yeah right. All about saving money
Can anyone recommend a good simple beginner book I can learn all I need to about the basics and maybe a bit more.
Thanks
Try 'Mastering Electronics', written by John Watson, published by MacMillan / Palgrave. You can pick up a second hand copy cheaply on the used book web sites, personally I use www.abebooks.co.uk but obviously there are others.
I have the book too, and the reason (obvious) that the authors picked such a color for printing tells me they did not want peope to copy freely and distribute. Gray and light colors do not scan too well.