liudr:
At some point the newbies will have to realize plug and play has a limit and a perfboard/breadboard is needed for every project.
You know, I was going to post something about this (ie - newbies wanting plug-n-play electronics) last night, but gave it up and canceled the post as it just didn't seem like it would add anything to the conversation that hasn't already been said (not like this does either).
liudr:
Maybe that's it! Arduino forum should have a list of minimal equipment for every newbie, like one UNO, one 10K potentiometer, one small breadboard at least 30 rows prefer with buses, one bag of random resistors and LEDs, one set of jumpers, at least include 5 colors and 30 pieces, one simple multimeter. What do you guys think?
Couldn't hurt, but I doubt it would quell any of the questions; instead, we'll just be pointing at that post. That said, if someone wanted to create it, it should have:
- A list of parts to have on hand -immediately- for beginners (the basics)
- A list of tools the beginner should have (breadboard and multimeter at minimum, micro pliers and wire strippers too)
- A list of free online PDF books and such for beginners (like the Earthshine Electronics Arduino book and such)
- Links to Grob's "Basic Electronics", Horowitz's (et al) "Art of Electronics" and Forrest M. Mims III's "Engineer's Mini Notebooks"
- Links to "trusted" suppliers of pre-built kits
- Links to "trusted" suppliers of new parts for such kits
- Links to "trusted" suppliers of surplus parts for such kits
I came up with something akin to this for the "$100.00 Workbench Challenge" in Nuts and Volts magazine in 2008; I was mainly focused on the idea of a "robotics workbench", but I think an Arduino version could be done (keeping it around $100.00 would be difficult, though - unless you went with something like an RBBB; keep the Arduino "separate", and building a beginner's kit for $100.00 or less is easily doable, provided you shop mostly surplus and discount).