SunFounder Ultimate Starter Kit with Original Arduino Uno R4 Minima, 3 in 1 IoT/Smart Car/Basic Kit with Online Tutorials, for Beginners to Enthusiasts (Original Arduino Uno R4 Minima Included)

The kit arrives in a box containing a dizzying array of bits and pieces. By nature, documentation is everything!One could imagine shipping a product like this with a book. It would have to be a big book to span the wide range of components as well as an experience level ranging from beginner to expert.Better yet, this product is tied to a long list of online documents. The documentation set is well structured, the default being a series of easy steps to educate the newbie, but with links everywhere for cross-reference, for browsing, or for skipping sections of no immediate interest. I count as a newbie myself, and am just working through it, pretty much in document sequence.Documentation topics have been written by different authors, but the general quality is very good. Even sections written by non-native English speakers are easy to understand, with only a few exceptions. Occasionally the documents show components at rev levels that differ slightly from the kit, but it hasn't been a problem.Even an experienced user ought to at least scan through the documentation. For example, the pump included in the kit is an immersion pump; the documentation warns against other configurations on grounds of overheating. That's probably not obvious to someone who hadn't read the description.As to the kit itself, I'm impressed by the range of goodies included at a very reasonable price point.I'll update this review as I get further into the process. Looking forward to it!Update 10/26/23I've just been working through the tutorials and their documentation. Overall, I'm still impressed, especially by the range of components included at a very reasonable price point.I have found, however, that the code and/or description provided is wrong in a number of places. Conceivably, this is intentional as an incentive for the student to figure out why and what to do about it. Or conceivably, it's just wrong.Advice: enjoy, use the code, but not blindly. Question everything.Update 11/06/23The online projects now assume the availability of a transistor, used specifically to drive the buzzer. But the kit does not include a transistor. I presume it has been added because the current demand of the buzzer might be high enough to damage the onboard chip. So you have about four choices:1. Don't build the buzzer projects.2. Buy a general-purpose NPN transistor somewhere. Type 2N2222 should be fine, but the range is wide.3. Wire the Arduino output directly to the buzzer (+ side, for polarized buzzer) and take your chances. Wire the other side of the buzzer to GND.4. My approach: wire the Arduino output to the buzzer, but add a series resistor to limit the current draw. I'm using a 1k resistor, which is probably far more than necessary, and which limits the buzzer to a small squeak, but that's ok. I don't need a loud squawk anyway.Update 11/25/23The motorized projects pretty much only work when the device is USB-powered. The battery, fresh and a full 9V, just doesn't get enough power through the converter to drive the motors, much less the sensors that are part of the various projects. So you can demonstrate cool effects as long as you're tethered to USB, but not so much otherwise.To address this, I added on a small portable USB power pack and powered the system via USB.

I finally got to start doing some of the projects in this box. Lots of parts for several projects. I wanted to make a ticking clock as my first project. I started going through the box pulling out the parts. Most were easy to find except for the transistor (S8050). I went through the parts several times sure that I had overlooked it. Nowhere to be seen so the project is on hold until I can get the transistor.It was a disappointment because the kit seems really cool otherwise. I will get back to it after I get the clock ticker working.

Sunfounder kits are always great, and this one is no exception. It comes with the new Arduino Uno R4 Minima, which is a pretty significant upgrade from the R3, offering about 4 times the overall performance (speed, memory, etc.) The main differences of the R4 minima (vs R3) are:1) It’s a 32 bit processor, at 46 Mhz (3x speed) with 32k SRAM (16x more)2) The ADCs are now 14 bit, instead of 10 bit3) It has a real 12 bit DAC, instead of no DAC (or trying to use PWM)4) It has an onboard op amp that you can use (though I wish it had more)5) The GPIO pins can only source/sink 8mA now, instead of 20mA6) It should work with most older R3 shields, except for the current limitations mentioned above.Other than those differences, it’s very similar to the old R3. And the kit comes with most of the standard accessories that you’d typically see in one of the R3 kits (so I’m not going to repeat them here), with two very noteworthy differences.1) This kit has everything you need to also build a simple robot car!2) It also comes with an ESP01 module, which provides WiFi. This doesn’t turn it into an R4 WiFi board, but it comes close by providing the most essential missing piece – the WiFi!As usual, this SunFounder kit comes with a LOT of really great tutorials and code to get you up and running in as little time possible on the R4. There is download for a 351 page pdf tutorial, and example code for how to operate all the sensors, operate the robot car, and do some IoT projects (like pushing/pulling data from blynk), including how to operate the robot car via blynk. SunFounder never leaves you confused about what to do with these kits, and all the sample codes are excellent.Final Rating: 5 stars! A great kit with a new Uno R4 Minima, wifi module, and robot kit. Enjoy!

This is a great project kit to help jumpstart your Arduino experimentation. Unlike many starter kits, this one has two notable selling points: a genuine Arduino Uno R4 Minima in original packaging, and a comprehensive set of online documentation about each of the sensors.While the online documentation is great for folks with a bit of engineering knowledge, I think it's probably a click or two too technical for many people looking for a general introduction to electronics and programming. It's super helpful for me, as I've got background in both areas, but if you're looking for simple cookbook plug and play recipes, you might find yourself a little lost from time to time. As long as you're willing to stick with it and do some outside searching when you get stuck, you should be able to make some really great progress, though.I reviewed both this kit and another SunFounder kit which focused more on sensors. I think for beginners I actually prefer this one: it includes a variety of passive components like resistors, LEDs and capacitors that were left out of the other kit. I also really like the inclusion of the car chassis; while it's not much more complicated than a laser cut baseplate and a pair of wheels, I think the tangible nature of writing code to move a physical car around and interact with the environment is a really valuable learning environment. If you're already familiar with the Arduino platform and just want an R4 board with a lot of useful sensors, you might prefer the other kit they offer instead.