ELEGOO Mega R3 Project The Most Complete Ultimate Starter Kit Barebone PCs Compatible with Arduino IDE with Tutorial

Initial ThoughtsAs a Computer Scientist & Engineer doing teaching and research in robotics and embedded systems I’m used to using Arduino Uno’s for teaching and development work, but I found in a few recent projects, that the trust Arduino Uno’s were struggling with memory, digital I/O and a lack of serial ports, so looked at the alternatives including the MEGA 2560 R3, see below.Arduino Uno R3 Mega 2560 R3Digital I/O Pins 14 54Analogue Inputs 6 16PWM 6 15Serial Ports 1 4On Board Memory 32KB Flash 256KB FlashEEPROM 1kB 4kBSRAM 2kB 8kBAs can be seen for projects requiring more digital inputs and PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) used by servos for example, the MEGA is a significant boost in use.So I looked around for a kit that would allow me to get started with some development work and this one from ELEGOO seemed like a bold statement kit, i.e. the Most Complete Starter Kit, well how can I resist that.Unwrapping the KitUpon receiving the kit, I was pleasantly surprised with the extra packaging placed around the box stamped with an ELEGOO label, and promptly opened it to find a very slick looking kit as shown in Figure 1.The box was bigger than I was expecting and actually quite heavy, yet I still wondered how they could claim to have the most complete Starter Kit in a box of this size, so proceeded to open the box to find out.Inside I could see a familiar feel to ELEGOO kit,• CD Rom• Thank you card with direct contact details, such a relief with things bought over the internet.• A key to the component inside in the ld, and a plethora of components for doing some development work with.• All packaged carefully, as though care had been put into the kits presentation.• Rummaging around the box I located the MEGA tucked away carefully in the front of the box, in a very wise anti-static bag. The bags are useful as the human body and plastic can cause significant electrical discharge to components in the several thousand volts range that can cause unseen damage in microelectronic components like development boards.Build QualityWell build quality is a significant issue for me when buying kit, as I like to build things that can be demoed for at least a year or two. Having set up a range of small demo projects in robotics and embedded systems and seen them prematurely fail or break, I was keen to see what the quality of the main board in this kit was like.As can be seen from the screen shots in Figure 3 the board has been well made, features all the components I would expect to see, and has some very useful information silk screen printed onto the PCB including the Comm’s pins for Serial I/O and the PWM for servo control.Pins on the opposite side are labelled very clearly, and the pin headers are also printed with information on the outside which is handy when a shield is attached.Getting Started with the KITI decided to build a 3 small projects to test the board,• LCD Display• A temperature sensor• A Maze• An RFID ReaderUsing the kit in the box.LCD DisplayI wired up the 1602A LCD included with a 10K pot (included) and resistor for the LCD back light (100ohm) just in case.No problems there. A very vibrant display which was easy to read. LCD panel was pre-wired ready for use, and felt robust being inserted and removed.Temperature SensorFor the next test I decided to use the DHT11 Humidity & Temperature sensor as strangely I haven’t actually used one before, I generally use just LM35 temperature Sensor.For this one, have to confess that the DHT11 could do with labelling up of the VCC and GND as differing images on the internet have these pins in different locations, depending how the board has been wired.I started with the code on the Elegoo CD included, copied the library file for the DHT11 into my Arduino Library folder, then modified the sample code to work with the LCD as shown.As can be seen from the image, the pin closest to the “S” on the DHT11 board I connected to a digital input. The second to VCC +5V and the 3rd to 0V gnd.All worked as expected, even got my fan heater close to it to have a look at what would happen, and the temperature went up while humidity dropped, which is what I was expecting.MAZENext I decided to create a simple maze on the MAX7219 8 x 8 matrixAs can be seen in Figure 6, pretty straightforward to wire up,I wired VCC to +5V (Arduino)GND to 0V (Arduino)DIN to pin 12 (Arduino)CS to pin 11 (Arduino)CLK to Pin 10 (Arduino)Worked as expected which is always good. What can I say I like display technologies?RFID READERI decided to try the RC522 RFID card reader/writer with the mega, and to see if I could detect the tag Remember with the Arduino Mega slight changes need to occur with the Elegoo code included, or in fact any code, so heed this table that’s includedUNO MEGARST 9 46SDA/SS 10 53MOSI 11 51MISO 12 50SCK 13 52And change these of course#define RST_PIN 9 // Configurable, see typical pin layout above#define SS_PIN 10 // Configurable, see typical pin layout aboveOr it won’t work.ANYWAY worked a treat and read the card included and detected the tag type and data on it.Anyway Figure 7 shows my progress with the code included.Closing CommentsThough the kit does cost considerably more than the UNO starter kit, consideration has to be taken into account of the significant number of additional components that are included with this kit such as the RFID BOARD, MAX 7219 LED MATRIX, POWER Supply, HC-SR04 ultrasonic unit, Joystick, plus so many I struggle to list, all soldered ready for use, which is a blessing as many items bought separately are not pre-soldered and so unusable out of the box. I would have to say at this point that this kit truly does seem to be a very comprehensive kit for use with an ARDUINO MEGA 2560 (that is also included). In fairness I struggled to think of a project I normally create for teaching, that I couldn’t make with this kit alone. Lovely stuff Elegoo.

I had been curious about Arduino for a while, but to get plenty of value out of one, you need plenty of I/O devices to interface with it. Luckily this has plenty!The box it comes in is rather good actually, and packed full of goodies! If you add up the cost of everything, it would certainly come to more than what the kit costs. It's nice to see that the modules and components are very good quality, and they haven't just gone with the cheapest.I was hesitant to buy a board that wasn't made by Arduino, but this is extremely well made. I had no issues whatsoever connecting to my laptop and for the Arduino IDE to recognise the board.For my first project, I actually used a GPS module that wasn't included in the kit, but I wired it to the board and used the 16x2 LCD display to show my location. It performed just fine with no issues.I wasn't going to bother with the CD, but after browsing the projects I couldn't resist! In my opinion, it is perfectly fine for beginners with very clear instructions, and shows you where the code and libraries are and how to use them.I was curious to try the RFID module and literally had it running in less than 10 minutes. Next was the 8x8 LED display, with the code having a nice scrolling demo display. All instructions were easy to follow and diagrams very clear.As a starting point, you cannot do better for the price. It's a good stepping stone and I would absolutely encourage playing around with the code. After that, there are millions of pages full of resources to tinker with.There are no real negatives. I suppose if you're not computer literate it may take a little longer to grasp, but not out of reach. The included wires aren't the best, but they do the job just fine and you can obviously use whatever wires you're used to.One of the best and most interesting things I think I've ever bought! Well done Elegoo. You have a brilliant quality product here.

Ok, I'm no expert but I've always had an interest in electronics. Now I have more time on my hands I've decided to take electronics on as a new hobby. This box is packed with components that seem decent quality. There's enough in here to teach me the basics. Great starting point for a beginner.

Bought this to get some electronics practice with my son and it is a great bit of kit , lots to do and learn from it. Only complaint is its really hard to get the bits back in the box once you have had some out

Excellent starter kits for learning code, im a conplete novice. Better than I thought, only drawback is that Elegoo could do with updating the manual, could do with being in paper format, as I haven't got a disc drive on my PC. Had to download it on to a memory stick via my laptop, most new computers don't have disc drives. 30+projects are included, all with step by step instructionsWould definitely recommend.