Pico Starter Kit

Posted on
  • It was suggested in another post that a starter kit would be a good idea. It's something I'd always intended to do but that I've neglected recently...

    So I'd like to get started with it again - I'd like to find a selection of parts that were relatively cheap and easy to source and that were good for a bunch of little projects, that I could put in an affordable kit that's quite compact (so easy for me to post out).

    The last kit had a relay module that I'm not sure people really used much and that really pushed the weight/size up.

    This time I'm thinking:

    • 1x Pinned Pico
    • 1x breadboard (a small one)
    • Jumper wires
    • 1x LCD/OLED
    • Screw terminals that can plug into breadboard (maybe not?)
    • 4x WS2812-style pinned LEDs
    • 47uF capacitor (for LEDs)
    • FET
    • Red LED
    • IR receiver
    • IR transmitter
    • LDR
    • 100 Ohm, 10k Ohm Resistors
    • Piezo speaker
    • 2 Pushbuttons
    • Vibration sensor

    Any thoughts for other things that could be included?

    Perhaps the kit could be slightly bigger/more expensive and could include:

    • small servo motor (things that move are good :)
    • ESP8266 WiFi module on a pinned board
  • i would change IR to Bluetooth, almost everyone has it and it would be cool if the kit matches tutorials (shiny web ui with led/switch, make a sound, etc.)

  • Pin matching is one thing... but that needs adapter / shims. I was thinking more of cables in multip pin sockets that can connect two pinned entities easily... a more luxury variation could be an exchange/switch shield like a prewired breadboard, onto which an Espruino goes and in predefined location the periperal/communication/sensor/action modules.

  • IR? That's just the little Infrared LED and sensor... or did you mean WiFi?

    IR's quite fun for making things work from your own TV remote control. It's actually quite cheap - in volume those parts will cost under £0.5, but Bluetooth (especially on a board that plugs into the Pico) would cost nearer £5 I'd guess.

  • If you put power LED and/or esp8266 in the kit, I will suggest adding a 5V/2A power block has those can be problematic on a standard USB port.

  • Post a reply
    • Bold
    • Italics
    • Link
    • Image
    • List
    • Quote
    • code
    • Preview
About

Pico Starter Kit

Posted by Avatar for Gordon @Gordon

Actions