The Most Complete Arduino Uno R3 Starter Kit from Elegoo – great STEM gift!
In this post I’d like to review a product from a company that’s been making tons of products for makers, engineers, students and tinkerers like me. Elegoo, a company from Shenzehen(China), is known for its commitment to open source, a variety of products for STEM students, detailed guides in multiple languages and very low prices.
They are now selling some of their products on Amazon in multiple countries, including the US, making their products fast to ship.
In this post I’m going to review an item from Elegoo that I think would be a great tech gift for anybody starting with Arduino: “The Most Complete Starter Kit Uno R3“.
Kit Contents:
The kit includes an Arduino Uno R3 compatible board and a wide variety of components that can be used to learn electronics, programming and engineering (full list is at the bottom of the post):
- Sensors: temperature, light, motion, sound, moisture, RFID, etc
- Output devices: motors, servo, relays
- LED displays: Seven segment displays, LED array
- Input devices: keypad, buttons, joystick
What’s also important, the kit comes with a CD full of tutorials and code for over thirty(30+) different projects. The code and tutorials can also be downloaded from Elegoo’s website: https://www.elegoo.com/download.
The box of the super starter kit
Kit Review:
I have been developing with Arduino for over 10 years now, and throughout the years I’ve accumulated a good idea of what would work for people starting with Arduino as far as components necessary to be creative, learn and enjoy learning. It appears that Elegoo’s kit indeed contains such a great and thought-through variety of components that would be enabling for kids and adults learning Arduino.
From the power supplies, breadboards and wires, to passive, active, digital and analog components, the kit is very well-rounded and contains everything you need to get started and to keep being busy with Arduino for a while!
I was especially impressed with the amount of sensors and output devices included in the kit. Even such things as PIR sensor, MPU6050 accelerometer/gyro and RFID sensor are in the box, making the kit appropriate for those interested in smart devices and later, the Internet of Things.
I took some close up pictures of the kit contents and created a gallery here:
Of course, I couldn’t resist making a few circuits to test the components and check out the quality of the sensors. I quickly put together two circuits: one for an analog joystick and one for DHT-11 temperature / humidity sensor.
The joystick worked well for an analog (potentiometer-based) joystick, here’s a screenshot of the neutral position:
Analog Joystick with push button
The DHT-11 Temperature and humidity sensor was also working well (be sure to consult the PDF of the kit to correctly connect it), but the sensor lacked connection markings on the PCB itself. Here’s the connection diagram I used for it (from the PDF of the kit):
DHT-11 connection diagram
And here is the output of the sensor reading (about 1C deviation from actual temperature in the room)
DHT-11 Temperature and Humidity sensor
Here’s a list of projects that comes on the CD (or can be found via Download link):
- Lesson 4 RGB LED
- Lesson 5 Digital Inputs
- Lesson 6 Making Sounds
- Lesson 7 Passive Buzzer
- Lesson 8 Ball Switch
- Lesson 9 Servo
- Lesson 10 Ultrasonic Sensor Module
- Lesson 11 Membrane Switch Module
- Lesson 12 DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor
- Lesson 13 Analog Joystick Module
- Lesson 14 IR Receiver Module
- Lesson 15 MAX7219 LED Dot Matrix Module
- Lesson 16 GY-521 Module
- Lesson 17 HC-SR501 PIR Sensor
- Lesson 18 Water Level Detection Sensor Module
- Lesson 19 Real Time Clock Module
- Lesson 20 Sound Sensor Module
- Lesson 21 RC522 RFID Module
- Lesson 22 LCD Display
- Lesson 23 Thermometer
- Lesson 24 Eight LED with 74HC595
- Lesson 25 The Serial Monitor
- Lesson 26 Photocell
- Lesson 27 74HC595 And Segment Display
- Lesson 28 Four Digital Seven Segment Display
- Lesson 29 DC Motors
- Lesson 30 Relay
- Lesson 31 Stepper Motor
- Lesson 32 Controlling Stepper Motor With Remote
- Lesson 33 Controlling Stepper Motor With Rotary Encoder
I went ahead and built the project involving stepper motor and remote control (from lesson 32). I followed the following diagram which is in Elegoo’s reference materials:
Connecting remote with stepper motor and driver
After connecting everything together, I uploaded the code (also included in Elegoo’s documentation and voila! I was able to control the stepper motor like this:
In my opinion, the components were working well enough for somebody learning Arduino, especially if the PDF instructions (which are excellent) are followed.
Overall, I highly recommend getting this kit if you are starting with Arduino or are looking to get an affordable kit that contains few dozens of components commonly used to teach concepts in electronics and basics of connected devices.
Component listing of the kit:
1pcs UNO R3 Controller Board
1pcs LCD1602 Module ( with pin header)
1pcs Breadboard Expansion Board
1pcs Power Supply Module WARNING: Pls. do not use the voltage higher than 9V
1pcs Joystick Module
1pcs IR Receiver
1pcs Servo Motor (SG90)
1pcs Stepper Motor
1pcs ULN2003 Stepper Motor Driver Board
1pcs Ultrasonic Sensor
1pcs DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Module
1pcs 9V Battery with DC
1pcs 65 Jumper Wire
1pcs USB Cable
1pcs Active Buzzer
1pcs Passive Buzzer
1pcs Potentiometer
1pcs 5V Relay
1pcs Breadboard
1pcs Remote
1pcs Accelerometer and Gyro (MPU6050)
1pcs Tilt Switch
5pcs Button (small)
1pcs 1 digit 7-segment Display
1pcs 4 digit 7-segment Display
5pcs Yellow LED
5pcs Blue LED
5pcs Green LED
5pcs Red LED
1pcs RGB LED
2pcs Photoresistor
1pcs Thermistor
2pcs Diode Rectifier (1N4007)
2pcs NPN Transistor (PN2222)
1pcs IC 74HC595
120pcs Resistor of different values
10pcs Female-to-male Dupont Wire
Buy the kit:
If you wish to buy this kit, please use the links below.
You can get 20% off by applying this coupon:
Disclaimer: I have received this product from Elegoo in exchange for this blog post.
