1 Five Euro Arduino Kit¶
Author: Andrea Manni Copyright: Public Domain Version: 1
Generated on 2017-03-22.
List of electronic componets to assemble a basic Arduino Kit for 5 euros. This kit sould suffice for the needs of a basic course for the Arduinos microcontroller family, it gets to DC motors (transistors and diodes for an H-briidge) but there’s no servo or step motor. You can always buy those too for some extra euro.
This kit is meant for educational purpouse: the organization, Champions, Mentors or the parents of kids attending a CoderDojo are going to buy a order (20-100) kits for the students, this is not for individuals looking for a single kit (see `Pre made kits in Europe`__ ).
For each componets you will find what to buy and a link to vendor on Aliexpress (yes we are buyng all from China with free shipment, that’s how we keep it cheap). As many components are way cheaper in large quantities you’ll find how many of those are supposed to go in each kit.
So for example you may have: - 1x 5mm RGB LED Common Cathode Tri-Color
This means that you buy a pack of 100peaces of RGB LEDS and put just 1 of those in each kit. Disclaimer: we have no affiliation to any vendor: you should search each time for the component name on Aliexpress in order to find the best deal at the very time you are placing the order.
1.1 Order size¶
This list is a plan for something like 100 kits but you don’t have to buy everything (so pay 500 euro in advance!) for all of those.
Relax.
The most expensive parts are the Arduino Boards and the BreadBoards: you may just starts buyng like 20 of those and then order some more as needed. The remaning components are usually very very cheap (and take limited space to store) so you can buy like 500 LED for 3euro and then you have enough for 25 kits as long as you put 20 of those in each kit. Make a plan for how many kits you are going to have to build for the next 3/6 months and then get a adequate amount of LEDs for them, this list is a starting point for ~100pieces batch.
1.2 Hints¶
Keep an eye on shipping times as some times the cheaper the price the longer the shipping time: you may want to compromise in order to have everything avaialble in the same time frame.
Some times few units of an item are free shipping but for many more of those you have a shipping fee: just make a bunch of small orders, usually the selles will ship those in just one pack anyway. Remember: you want free shipping.
Custom diuties: these are different for each country and you should take care of that. In my country (Italy) you are not supposed to pay for small shipments under a small price so as long as I make different small orders (hey it’s free shipping) I don’t have to pay any IVA / VAT / Custom Duties. Your custom office may work differently: do check or you may face a significant increease in price when you recive the items.
1.3 Pre made kits in Europe¶
These kits are premade and available in Europe, so we are talking about a one week time shipping and no custom duties. That’s a decent choice for individuals that are not able to manage a large amount of kits.
- Kit with breadboard
- `Components Kit without Arduino board<http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Starter-Beginner-Kit-Set-Compatible-Breadboard-Resistor-Module-LCD-For-Arduino-TE266/32472680495.html?ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_7,searchweb201644_4_79_78_77_82_80_62,searchweb201560_1>`_
- Full Kit:
1.3.1 Microcontroller Board¶
- 1x Arduino Uno PcDuino I usually con’t buy a batch bigger of 10 / 20 units in order to avoid custom duties.
1.3.2 Bradboard¶
1.3.3 Components¶
- 20x 5MM LED Diode Kit Mixed Color Red Green Yellow Blue White It’s 4 unit of each color in this case. OR instead: 20x Free shipping 1000pcs 3mm Red LED light emitting diode These are cheaper and all at the same voltage (2v, coloured LED are ~3v) yet borings: just red.
- 1x 5mm RGB LED Common Cathode Tri-Color
- 10x 10K OHM 1/8W 0.125W 5% carbon Film Resistor
- 10x 150 Ohm Carbon film resistor 0.25W 150R 1/4w
- 10x Tactile Push Button Switch Momentary
- 1x 10K Linear Potentiometer
- 1x Photoresistor 5mm
- 1x Buzzer / piezo 5v
- 2x Transistor NPN 2N2222
- 2x Transistor PNP
- 2x Rectifier Diode
- 1x Shift register 8 bit 74HC595
- 1x Motor DC 1-6v 0.4Amp Beware: this is just for educationa purpose: it’s a very weak motor.
1.4 Commodities¶
You may find usefull to get some plastic bags for the components:
I recommand a cardboard box for the whole kit: you can get the material for free as waste from local stores and it’s enviroment friendly. We make a box 17 x 6 x 9cmm , that doubles as a good project in design and making for the kids of a CoderDojo.
1.4.1 Doc for each component¶
When you have the kit you usually need some reference for each component: you can search on line but it’s quite userful and educative if the students keep a Wiki for this. An example is: http://wiki.piffa.net/index.php/Kit_studenti where students gather some common intelligence on the items they share.
This is important to teach them how to work in a sharing enviroment: free software and open hardware is about sharing. Si consiglia l’utilizzo di un Wiki per permettere agli studenti di raccogliere specifiche e risorse utili per l’utilizzo dei componenti. Un esempio puo’ essere il http://wiki.piffa.net in cui studenti e staff oltre ad informazioni sui componenti hanno condiviso progetti da loro sviluppati con questi. In questo modo gli studenti possono esercitarsi ad utilizzare strumenti per la condivisione del lavoro, preparare documentazione e’ un ottimo modo per consolidare le conoscenze che si stanno costruendo.
1.4.2 The process¶
That’s to give you an idea about how we deal with the process:
- The teacher / Mentor check the list of the items to buy to see if there’s something in particular he’s gonna need
- The Class organizer / Champion makes the actual order on Aliexpress, the staff / parents can advance the money
- When all the components are delivered you have a “Building Party” (that sounds like to a Linux Installation Party) to assemble the kits. For a CoderDojo you want to have the staff / parents to take care of that, maybe you can leave the cardboard boxes to the kids. For and adult class the students will take care of that.
- As the kits are given to the kids the Champion orders some more Arduino boards, BreadBoard and cables to keep a cache supply available for each event.
So as you can see the point is to buy more in order to pay less, keep a cache of the kits to avoid the one month shipping time.
You can understand how important it is for kids and students to have an Arduino Kit in theyr hands as they return home for a session: a sporadic event can turn into an educationa path.
