The Arduino UNO is the best board to get started with electronics and coding. If this is your first experience tinkering with the platform, the UNO is the most robust board you can start playing with. The UNO is the most used and documented board of the whole Arduino family.

Arduino UNO Rev3

The Arduino Mega is great if you need a bit more processing power, memory, and input/output (I/O) pins. One of the significant advantages of Arduino Mega is its increased memory capacity. It has 256 KB of flash memory and 8 KB of SRAM, compared to Arduino Uno's 32 KB of flash memory and 2 KB of SRAM. This makes it more suitable for larger and more complex projects that require more storage space and can handle more data.

Arduino Mega 2560 Rev3

The Arduino Nano is a small, complete, and breadboard-friendly board based on the ATmega328 (Arduino Nano 3.x). It has more or less the same functionality of the Arduino Duemilanove, but in a different package. It lacks only a DC power jack, and works with a Mini-B USB cable instead of a standard one.

Arduino Nano

From Adafruit's website: this adorable little board will come in very handy whenever you need a good amount of 5V power. It's the size of a linear regulator, but it's actually a mini-booster! Input 2-5VDC on one side, and get 5V at up to 1A supply on the other. Perfect for use with battery-powered projects with 2 or 3 Alkaline, or a single Lithium battery.

Boost Converter

(2-4V to 5V, 0.3-1.4A) MiniBoost 5V @ 1A - TPS61023

From Adafruit's website: The PN532 is the most popular NFC chip, and is what is embedded in pretty much every phone or device that does NFC. It can pretty much do it all, such as read and write to tags and cards, communicate with phones (say for payment processing), and 'act' like a NFC tag. If you want to do any sort of embedded NFC work, this is the chip you'll want to use!

NFC/RFID Reader

NFC/RFID controller breakout board - v1.6

You're hot and you're cold. Well, now you can measure it. You need a pull-up resistor for the signal. Also the arduino software library to use it.

Temperature Sensor

High Temp Waterproof DS18B20 Digital temperature sensor + extras

This little sensor looks an awful lot like the popular DHT11/DHT22 temperature and humidity sensors, but unlike classic DHT sensors, it has an I2C interface! That's right, you do not need to use a bit-bang timing-specific protocol to talk to the AM2320, it uses plain-old-I2C. Whew, that makes things a little easier, doesn't it?

Temperature & Humidity

AM2320 Digital Temperature and Humidity Sensor

Reed switches work like a regular switch but is activated by MAGNETS! When a magnet is close by, the switch is 'closed' and the circuit is completed. When there is no magnet, the circuit is disconnected.

Reed Switch

If you need a simple and bright display for your project. Control the matrix of LED with onboard multiplexing (MAX7219) chip. Comes in three different sizes.

8x8 LED Matrix 

High-torque standard servo that can rotate 180 degrees (not 360). You can make stuff move without a motor controller. 

Non-Continuous (180) Servo

Light-duty 360 degrees servo, great for simple motion and light object. For higher torque requirement, check out TowerPro MG959.

Continuous Servo

Stepper motors are a great choice for actuation in toys due to their precision and control. Toys that incorporate movement (like a robotic pet!) can benefit from the accurate positioning and smooth movements provided by stepper motors. Additionally, the ability of stepper motors to hold their position without feedback makes them ideal for toys that require repeatable actions or specific movements.

To use this motor, you'll need to source an appropriate stepper motor driver. Check on the Adafruit website before ordering these! You'll also need a 12-volt power source.

Small Stepper Motor

A stepper motor driver is a necessary electronic component that is responsible for controlling the movements of a stepper motor. The driver converts incoming electrical signals from the controller into the appropriate power output for the motor

Stepper Motor Driver

Got to go fast. Here is a standard DC hobby motors, you need to have a motor driver to control current and voltage to the motor which controls the torque and speed of the motor.

DC Motor

From Adafruit's website: Voltage goes in, rotation goes out! A bit slower than regular DC, but more torque! You cannot drive these from a microcontroller, a high-current motor driver is required. 

Geared DC Motor

The motor driver we keep mentioning? Here it is! Use it to supply the current it takes to drive the DC motors! You would still need to have the required power supply!

DC Motor Driver

Fully assembled pan-tilt kit for a full(ish) range of motion. 

Pan-Tilt Kit

I feel there is something between us. Simple way to detect if something passed between the emitter and the receiver. You need to align the emitter and receiver in order for the sensor to work propertly. You need a pull up resistor to read the signal!

Presence/Motion Sensor

Now you can also be a bat, with ultrasonic Sonar distance sensors. Great for measuring motion in the range of 10cm-250cm. 

Distance Sensor

HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sonar Distance Sensors

Sunlight warning for Vampire? Sure, you can use this photoresistor. Works like a resistor when there is light resistance is about 1KΩ, when it goes dark it is about 10KΩ. We recommend using it as a voltage divier with a 10KΩ resistor.

Light Sensor

Flexing your electronic skill. The resistance of the sensor changes based on how much you bend it! Comes from unflex 25KΩ to full flex 100KΩ Comes in 2 different length! Fun fact: they were used in the Nintendo PowerGlove. 

Flex Sensor

Measure the power of the force. From Adafruit's website: FSRs are sensors that allow you to detect physical pressure, squeezing and weight. FSRs are basically a resistor that changes its resistive value (in ohms Ω) depending on how much its pressed. Don't attempt to solder directly to your FSR unless you are absolutely sure you have the skills to do so.

Force Sensor

Square Force Sensitive Resistor Alpha MF02A-N-211-A01

Obliterate batteries with a reliable power supply for your every need (within the the current limit of course)!

Adjustable Power Brick

From Adafruit's website: Piezo elements come in handy when you need to detect vibration or a knock. You can use these for tap or knock sensors pretty easily by reading the voltage on the output.

Vibration/Impact Sensor

Great power comes with great responsibility. Relay the power to control power. Use it to turn on an doff lamps, fans, motors and more. 

Power Relay

A 2-axis, x and y axis, joystick for microcontroller input with a press in the middle to select. It act like a 10Kohm potentiometer, you would need to connect it to a 10Kohm resistor for read out analog value.

2-axis Joystick

On or off, red or blue, yes or no? Pick between two with a flip of the switch.

Toggle Switch

Button smash anywhere with this arcade button. Also comes with a LED, bonus. Make sure to pick up the connector cable!

Arcade Button

This totary encoder has 24 segments divided to click through, unlike a potentimeter which is continuous analog signal. Great if you need separate distinctive clicks. 

Encoder

Potentiometer is a variable resistor that you can turn. Great as a input for continuous, analog control! 

Potentiometer

Tootootoobers, get ready to play. The mp3 player inside your toober. You would need a SD card, a speaker, and a stable 5V power supply to use it! 

MP3 Player & Amplifier

Connect the speaker with an amp to play that funky music! 

Speaker

A simple speaker and amp for single tone beeps and boops. Most microcontroller cannot play mp3 files (with the exception of teensy 4.1+), use this setup for simple audio outputs. 

Speaker & Amplifier

WS2812b LED strips are very popular among the maker community because of their versatility and ease-of-use. A lot of similar flavors can be found in art/lighting-related installations.

Individually Addressable LED Strip

WS2812B Individually Addressable LED Strip

2.00b Electronics Library!

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