KITS AND PARTS
Getting Started with Arduino Kit v2.0 $74.95 Product Code MSGSA
Say
You Want
a Revolution
makershed.com
The Maker Shed store carries hundreds of DIY kits, tools, components,
and books for electronics and robotics, but the hottest category is
definitely Arduino-related kits. A simple search for “Arduino” results
in more than 60 different products ranging from the ever-popular
Getting Started with Arduino kit, to the vast array of shields that allow
you to connect sensors, log data, blink more LEDs than you ever
thought possible, and even connect to the internet. Each product is
hand selected and tested by the staff of MAKE. If it’s maker-made
and plays nice with the Arduino, chances are we carry it in the
Maker Shed. —Marc de Vinck
Projects Pack
for Arduino v2.0
$99.95 Product Code MSAPK
A-Blocks
a-blocks.org
Simon Says Solder
sparkfun.com/products/9883
Ethernet Power
makezine.com/go/poe
Dutch company A-Blocks produces
ready-to-use, easily combined
Arduino building blocks ($5–$62).
The A-Blocks system consists of
an interface board on top of an
Arduino, to which you can connect
both A-Block modules and Phidget
sensors. The coding is minimal:
a bit to “glue” the blocks together
and, sometimes, to add some
specific behaviors. It’s a timesaver.
For example, to build a home
alarm that has on/off RFID tags,
a door open/closed detector, and
wireless transmission to the internet, it might take days on a regular
Arduino, but with A-Blocks, it takes
a few hours. It’s ideal for teaching.
—Laura Cochrane
SparkFun brings the iconic 80s into
the 21st century with the through-hole soldering version of the Simon
Game kit. Great for beginners
and beyond, the kit comes neatly
packed with the preprogrammed
ATmega328 microcontroller, all electronic components and hardware,
inspirationally clear instructions, and
even batteries (gasp!) — all for $25.
(Seriously, check out the downloadable instructions on the product
page: clear beyond belief. You
couldn’t mess up if you wanted to.)
Spend less than an hour building it,
and countless hours trying to beat
the machine.
—Goli Mohammadi
Do you like making Ethernet-enabled Arduino sensors but hate
running wires to power them? Well,
rather than building a complicated
energy-harvesting system or relying
on batteries, you might want to take
a look at powering them using the
same Ethernet cables used to
transmit data to them.
This can be a bit messy to
implement, but luckily the folks
at Freetronics have cooked up the
Ethernet Shield With PoE ($43)
to do the dirty work for you. Just
plug it in, hook up a single power
supply at your router, and you’re
good to go!
—Matt Mets
78 Make: Volume 25
