Let’s get up to speed with Genuino before we talk about its starter kit. Simply put, Genuino is Arduino’s sister brand, and it is used for products from the company that are sold outside of the US. This name spreads to all the Arduino boards, so the Arduino Uno becomes the Genuino Uno, the Arduino Micro becomes the Genuino Micro, and, most importantly, the Arduino Starter Kit becomes the Genuino Starter Kit.
This complication comes from some legal matters regarding name rights, but isn’t too much to worry about. Apart from the name, everything else is the same. In fact, think of “Arduino” and “Genuino” as being interchangeable.
So, on offer here we have an official starter kit for the Genuino Uno. Starter kits are a dime a dozen with everyone and their maker-loving mother having their own version of it, but the official ones are always nice to see.
The Genuino Starter Kit costs €79.90 (R1 202) from the official Arduino store, and contains the following:
- 1 Genuino Projects Book (170 pages)
- 1 Genuino Uno
- 1 USB cable
- 1 Breadboard 400 points
- 70 Solid core jumper wires
- 1 Easy-to-assemble wooden base
- 1 9v battery snap
- 1 Stranded jumper wire (black)
- 1 Stranded jumper wire (red)
- 6 Photoresistors
- 3 Potentiometer 10 kilohm
- 10 Pushbuttons
- 1 Temperature sensor
- 1 Tilt sensor
- 1 alphanumeric LCD (16×2 characters)
- 1 LED (bright white)
- 1 LED (RGB)
- 8 LEDs (red)
- 8 LEDs (green)
- 8 LEDs (yellow)
- 3 LEDs (blue)
- 1 Small DC motor 6/9V
- 1 Small servo motor
- 1Piezo capsule [PKM17EPP-4001-B0]
- 1 H-bridge motor driver [L293D]
- 1 Optocouplers [4N35]
- 2 Mosfet transistors [IRF520]
- 5 Capacitors 100uF
- 5 Diodes [1N4007]
- 3 Transparent gels (red, green, blue)
- 1 Male pins strip (40×1)
- 20 Resistors 220 ohm
- 5 Resistors 560 ohm
- 5 Resistors 1 kilohm
- 5 Resistors 4.7 kilohm
- 20 Resistors 10 kilohm
- 5 Resistors 1 megohm
- 5 Resistors 10 megohm
The included projects book includes instructions on how to to assemble 15 different projects, which can all by made using the kit.
These kits are, as always, great for beginners as there’s practically a world of making inside of one box. The only question now is South African availability and pricing. We’ve asked around, and when our sources get back to us we’ll update this story.