The Arduino Starter Kit is the perfect set of components to start learning electronics and coding, coming with a book containing a number of short projects and all the bits necessary to build an array of different circuits and programs, it creates a fantastic foundation. I recently picked one of these Starter Kits up with an Arduino Uno board in, and ran through the projects, recording a walkthrough of each as I went.

YouTube Playlist

Individual Episode Observations and Links

I didn’t encounter many problems throughout the projects; for the most part, the book was extremely informative, but there were a couple of issues with the documentation and tools.

Project 01 – Get To Know Your Tools

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 01 – Get To Know Your Tools
Github Link: N/A (No Code)

No issues to report.

Project 02 – Spaceship Interface

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 02 – Spaceship Interface
Github Link: Project_02.ino

There is no differentiation between the number 0 and letter O in the book, the font displays these as the same. I only realised this on failing to compile an integer of “AO” instead of “A0” (I should have realised that “AO” is not a number, but for some reason I didn’t make the connection until after the compilation failed).

The cardboard accompaniments to the projects are not very good, so I opted not to use them in future projects to their full extent.

Project 03 – Love o meter

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 03 – Love o meter
Github Link: Project_03.ino

The temperatures as per the guide were too low for my office, I had to tweak the baselineTemp constant to be more fitting for the room, other than this it worked as expected.

Project 04 – Color Mixing Lamp

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 04 – Color Mixing Lamp
Github Link: Project_04.ino

The green aspect of the RGB LED is considerably dimmer than the other two aspects, this may be a faulty component. I tried dialling up the intensity of the green aspect, but it didn’t have much of an effect.

Project 05 – Mood Cue

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 05 – Mood Cue
Github Link: Project_05.ino

No issues to report.

Project 06 – Light Theremin

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 06 – Light Theremin
Github Link: Project_06.ino

The light theremin itself is extremely sensitive, otherwise the circuit works as expected.

Project 07 – Keyboard Instrument

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 07 – Keyboard Instrument
Github Link: Project_07.ino

No issues to report.

Project 08 – Digital Hourglass

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 08 – Digital Hourglass
Github Link: Project_08.ino

The tilt-switch component does not stay connected to the breadboard, the connectors are too short, meaning that it pops out of the breadboard when you try to attach it. This means you can’t rely on the tilt-switch as a component in the breadboard itself which is a shame, I had to hold the component in-place when testing this project.

Project 09 – Motorized Pinwheel

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 09 – Motorized Pinwheel
Github Link: Project_09.ino

No issues to report.

Project 10 – Zoetrope

YouTube Link: Arduino Project 10 – Zoetrope
Github Link: Project_10.ino

No issues to report.