Freenove Ultimate Starter Kit for ESP32-WROVER

With all the parts you need and a library of examples showing how to hook up to and control each, this is a great opportunity to learn what you need to know to automate your home with IoT or make your own projects in robotics or just learn to interface a microcomputer to external hardware. One thing, if you want to use this to learn the electronics part of interfacing (dropping resistors, etc.) this isn’t the kit for you and it’s not intended for that. This kit is for learning how to write code in C or Python to control external hardware, and it does a good job of it. You really should know C, C++, or Python first—it’s not a programming course either. But if you want to get into IoT or robotics, this is a great starting (and finishing) point. Note that this review is for the ULTIMATE kit, not the BASIC kit—the Ultimate Kit has MANY more experiments with much more advanced hardware that you’ll need, especially displays and motors. I would also recommend the ESP32 version over the RASPBERRY Pi version—the ESP32 is more powerful and has built-in WiFi and Bluetooth that Raspi doesn’t have (because of the chip shortage if you have to “settle” for the Raspberry Pi version, don’t worry, everything you learn is applicable to any micro, and you can get external modules for wifi and bluetooth). I strongly recommend this kit to anyone wanting to control the world! (Or your little corner of it anyway.)

This kit is great. So many different modules and different implementations you can do. Relatively easy to set up with VS Code using the Platform IO extension. When I got it everything was on the board and in the process of trying to remove one of the controllers I broke a pin. I emailed them and they replaced it free of charge! Great customer service as well. Be careful with those pins! Follow the directions on how to remove stuff from the board safely.

Good value, with the ESP32 WROVER board, common parts, breadboard, etc. The breakout is nice to have, as the ESP32 does not play well with breadboards due to its width. (If you have two breadboards, you can remove the power rails, snap them together and bridge the ESP32 across the two boards to expose connections for pins on both sides of the ESP32.) Code examples are clear and easy to follow. Would not suggest this for the absolute beginner, but is great as a "what's next" after the Arduino Uno/Nano. No quality issues of any kind. Check out the Dronebot Workshop on YouTube for a couple of excellent "getting started" videos.

A good kit with projects to run. Good entry level into coding and using coding IDE.

This a really good value because the documentation contains 2 tutorials. An Arduino/C++ Tutorial and a Thonny/Python tutorial. I chose the Python tutorial which made learning more difficult because most YouTube videos use the Arduino IDE (probably because there are so many examples). I had to contact Support more times than usual but they were always responsive. The projects hardware is mostly the usual components. Nothing was defective. I recommend enclosing the code in try/except Exception as e: print(e) for those times when nothing happens.

This kit comes with a wealth of boards/sensors/motors/etc to experiment with. The ESP32-WROVER is compatible with the Arduino IDE and Freenove includes a bunch of example sketches in their kit (available on GitHub or on their website). If you were to buy the individual pieces you would end paying a lot more than what the kit costs and the fact that they include a 385 page tutorial with 34 sample projects to go along with all the components makes this kit very easy to get started with. Most (if not all) of the components are compatible with Raspberry Pi's GPIO as well as Arduino's. Also, their technical support is very easy to work with. In another kit I purchased (to get started on Raspberry Pi), one of the components arrived damaged. It still worked, but the LCD had bleeding and a scratch on the display. I contacted their support by email, sent a picture and description of the situation, and they sent me a response by the next morning so they could work on getting me a replacement part. I would definitely recommend Freenove and this kit for anyone getting started or anyone looking to add a wide range of components to their existing projects/collection.

This is an INCRED(IBLE value and a great package. The processor here is WIDELY used in wifi and bluetooth projects. If you have most any appliance (clock, lamp) that connects via WiFi, this chip is probably in there. If you want a TON of I/O, then keep looking at the Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Both excellent platforms, but with a different focus. This kit has everything you need, plus much more. You can code in Python or C, the BSP is available, all the dev tools work, their tutorials are excellent. There's nothing bad to say about this package. HIGHLY recommended!

I have 20+ years experience in various software engineering fields, including a background in instructing interns and I would not recommend this product for teaching, or for beginners who want to learn on their own. Tutorials are vague, and does not come with a parts list. Most components do not have model numbers, and what little writing you find on parts is Chinese so researching specific components to know their function and how to properly use them is very difficult. This isn't to speak of the kits overall quality, each component works and is fairly well made, but definitely not a kit for starters.

The starter kit has many different components allowing a plethora of different projects to have a go with. The module itself is well-made and has a camera already connected. There is a useful expansion board with a voltage regulator on, allowing it to be powered by an external source, which also connects onto the supplied breadboard. I had some trouble running the basic LED blink code (the "hello, world" of embedded development), which I believe is due to the default strapping state of some of the ESP-32 pins but Freenove were very quick to respond to my email and their suggested remedy worked so I am now able to proceed with my project. The camera web server example also ran without a hitch. I found the Arduino IDE with the 'sketches' worked fine but it hides a lot of stuff. It is great for beginners but I am more used to a professional environment like Eclipse and VsCode, so will have a go at setting those up.

Este kit está muy bien para empezar, porque es muy barato para todo lo que trae. Tiene componentes originales, de alta calidad... Un manual muy detallado con explicaciones, también viene el software, drivers, ejemplos... Todo genial para empezar, como he dicho anteriormente. El único pequeño defecto es que mi caja (la de plástico) venía un poco rota por fuera, pero al menos no tiene roturas internas. Por lo demás genial. Gracias.

My son like it really much. It helps kids to understand how technical things work.

You get everything and more you need to learn and have fun. I have only done the Python courses, they are easy to follow. A lot of stuff to play around with. A good buy for anybody wanting to learn more about either ESP32 or/and Python.

Has good tutorials and code sketches included for all the sensors. Nice. **It's funny how fast Amazon will put up a good reveiw. But my critical reviews are still not posted! 😂