Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino

How to start exploring the world of embedded systems? How to get all the required hardware at once and avoid cables misconnections?

​The Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino offers an all-in-one solution with a large set of peripherals.

The kit was sampled by SeeedStudio through the Seeed Amazon Early Reviewer Program at Amazon.fr.

Hardware 

This kit contains everything needed to get started:
  • a single board includes an Arduino Uno compatible controller ​and the ten peripherals,
  • a USB cable for power, and
  • six Grove cables.

The board is very clean. Each peripheral mentions its name and how it is connected: digital, analog or I²C. I like the idea of connections going through the board without cables.

​The originality lies in the multiple levels of use.

Twelve lessons

Just connect the USB cable for power to access the first level.

​The pre-programmed out-of-the-box example allows to discover each of the included peripherals grouped in three categories:
  • Digital: button, light-emitting diode, buzzer, thermometer and hydrometer;
  • Analog: potentiometer, luxmeter and microphone;
  • I²C bus: screen (SSD1315), barometer (BMP280) and accelerometer (MMA7660FC).

The silk-screen mentions the name and the connection for each peripheral: digital, analog or I²C.
At the next level, the wiki section offers twelve lessons to explore each of the peripherals separately. If it is available in several languages, including English, but unfortunately not yet in other European languages like French, Spanish or German, except Czech. Hopefully, the wiki is written in plain English, so the automated translators have no issue translating the instructions in plan words into non-English languages.

​The instructions are clear and progressive. They are also available as a PDF document Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino Wiki to download for off-line reading.

For example, lesson 4 about the buzzer introduces the concept of PWM, lists the components involved and the required connections, provides the code with useful comments on key functions.

Other lessons provides the links to the libraries needed. For example, lesson 9 about the barometer BME280 explains how to download, install and use the Grove BMP280 library.
Each peripheral has its own dedicated page with additional examples.​​
As a last level, the peripherals and the controller can be separated from the board and connected with fool-proof Grove cables, for more elaborated projects. 

Similarly, other peripherals can be picked and added from the Grove system, with a vast range of more than 150 compatible peripherals.
I haven't separated the different modules from the single board and tried them with the provided cables. The first batch seems to suffer from a glitch on the I²C hardware implementation for the 3-axis accelerometer. An updated batch fixes the issue.

Conclusion

Priced at less than €20 / $20, Grove Starter Kit for Arduino provides great value with hardware, software and training.

This Grove Starter Kit for Arduino is a perfect introduction to microcontrollers and embedded systems.

The availability through Amazon France opens an accessible channel for a large distribution.

Let's hope more European languages other than English and Czech will be added soon!

This board is supported by embedXcode, embedded computing on Xcode.

Pros

  • Everything to get started in one box
  • Several levels of use, from the simplest to the most sophisticated
  • ​Twelve clear and progressive lessons

Cons

  • Lessons not yet translated into European languages other than English and Czech

Wrap-Up

  • Great value

Links

​Posted: 24 Aug 2020
Updated: