Documentation

Overview

The Super Starter Kit is a complete on-ramp to embedded electronics, built around the Arduino Uno R3 platform — the board that taught the world to blink an LED. Everything needed for the first dozen experiments is in the box: the Uno R3-compatible board and USB cable, a solderless breadboard, jumper wires, and a spread of components and modules that cover inputs, outputs, and the wiring habits in between, with tutorial guidance to walk you through them in order.

The learning arc is deliberate. You start by making the board itself do something (Blink), then make electricity flow through your own circuit (an LED and resistor on the breadboard), then close the loop between input and output (a button, a knob, a sensor driving what you built). Those three steps — output, circuit, input — are the whole of physical computing in miniature; every project after is a bigger version of them.

Because the Uno is the most-documented microcontroller ever made, the kit also plugs you into a bottomless supply of follow-on material, including the tutorial-length walkthroughs on our own blog. This manual gets you through setup (including the one driver gotcha), your first circuits with exact wiring, four graduated code examples, and answers to the questions every beginner meets in week one.

At a Glance

Specifications

Wiring Guide

Code Examples

1. Blink — Prove Everything Works

// The "hello world" of hardware - uses the LED built into the board
void setup() {
  pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);   // pin 13 on the Uno
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);
  delay(500);
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);
  delay(500);
}

2. External LED with Fading (PWM)

// LED + 220 ohm resistor on pin 9 (a PWM pin, marked with ~)
const int LED = 9;

void setup() {
  pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  for (int b = 0; b <= 255; b += 5) {   // brighten
    analogWrite(LED, b);
    delay(20);
  }
  for (int b = 255; b >= 0; b -= 5) {   // dim
    analogWrite(LED, b);
    delay(20);
  }
}

3. Button Controls the LED

const int BUTTON = 2;   // to GND, using the internal pull-up
const int LED = 8;

void setup() {
  pinMode(BUTTON, INPUT_PULLUP);  // reads HIGH until pressed
  pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  if (digitalRead(BUTTON) == LOW) {   // LOW = pressed
    digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);
  } else {
    digitalWrite(LED, LOW);
  }
}

4. Read the Knob on the Serial Plotter

// Potentiometer: outer legs to 5V and GND, middle leg to A0
// Open Tools > Serial Plotter at 9600 baud and turn the knob
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  int raw = analogRead(A0);              // 0-1023
  float volts = raw * (5.0 / 1023.0);
  Serial.print("raw:");
  Serial.print(raw);
  Serial.print("\tvolts:");
  Serial.println(volts);
  delay(50);
}

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Tutorials