Pico Starter Kit

[gfwilliams]

Posted at 2015-09-17 by @gfwilliams

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

[espruino-discuss3]

Posted at 2015-09-17 by MichaelPralow

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.)

---

Posted at 2015-09-17 by @allObjects

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.

---

Posted at 2015-09-17 by @gfwilliams

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.

---

Posted at 2015-09-17 by fdufnews

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.