Jr Prototyping/Learning System

This is a great idea, only a little too compact, which is why I gave it 4 stars, instead of 5. Things like the ultrasonic sensors are fixed directly to the board, when they could be on extensions that would allow them to be more useful and provide easy access to them for checking distances and making things happen, based on distance. Jumper wires get in the way of other things. Also documentation could be better. There could be a booklet or at least CD / DVD, rather than having to go online and find stuff. It has missions to carry out and this is another good idea but instructions aren't too clear about how to solve them all. Everything can be found online though. Otherwise it is great, convenient kit. Wish my case didn't arrive dented, but there.

Purchased it as a Christmas gift for my 9-year-old nephew. He loves it and has been using it every day since.

We purchased this for our 9 year old who has been taking apart small electronics around the house and rewiring them to make gadgets like a battery tester and LED light array. He has also had some limited exposure to coding at school. The concept is great, but executed poorly for someone who is new to wiring and coding. I agree with Oliver's review: there isn't enough basic support to get started. I won't repeat what Oliver said, but recommend reading his review. I'll note, I'm a retired engineer and I had Fortran coding way back in the day so admittedly my coding skills are very rusty. However, I'm not technology challenged. My son and I were working on this kit with my 20something niece who is very savvy. We completed the first mission, the blinking LED after downloading the software and changing the drivers, and processor like the instruction card explains. We moved on to the second mission and successfully copied and ran the program for scrolling LEDs. However, when we tried to modify the code, no dice. We modified the loop code and verified it, but could not upload it because we got an 'processor sync' error. No matter what we tried we couldn't get past this. I researched on the web and found that it is possibly a problem with the drivers and that we have to reload them. Really? A software glitch? For $150 the thing should be more robust. My main complaint though is the support materials. The first thing the kit needs is a diagram of the board with all the components labeled and a description of what each component does. For a novice it is unclear where the programs even live. Are they downloaded to the device? Do they only live on the computer? How exactly does this device work? The instructions refer you to an alternate site, codebender.cc which apparently has more user friendly drivers. Great except that they are shutting that site down and you can't download any software. Add to that stupid stuff in the documentation like the wiring diagrams. The wiring diagrams don't have the components shown with the same orientation as they are on the device! Seems really basic to me and yet when wiring you have to switch things around in your head since the wiring diagrams aren't accurate. At the end of the day, between the three of us, we could not accomplish mission #2. And when you get stuck, you are just.... stuck. You are on your own. Good luck. We will be returning it (if possible) and getting my son something else for Christmas.

Great concept but for us that is where it ends. First, the set up card that is supposed to come in it wasn't included resulting in some guess work regarding of all the options available on the arduino.cc website. Nothing that I saw specifically mentioned which download was necessary for the DKjr but our 12 yr old whom the kit is for managed to figure it. As a matter of fact I don't recall the DK Jr mentioned anywhere on the website. I do remember that the site mentioned driver issues in general (check the site yourself for more specific info). Second, with more issues he managed to get Mission 1 complete. Third, now he is stuck on Mission 2. After spending time on the internet trying to figure out how to get customer support we found the very limited DK Jr website. Fourth, we learned after several attempts that customer support is nonexistent. At the website he created an account to access the show and tell forum for help which included sending questions to the administrator but no help after a month (minimum) has been forthcoming. As a result of the lack of customer service, he is unable to move forward and so the kit sits. It has unfortunately become one of the greatest wastes of money I've ever experienced.

I purchased these kits to use in our middle school technology lab. After some initial setup and software downloads we were ready to let our students explore the concept of programmable micro-controllers using the popular Arduino platform. We started with teacher directed activities for the first few missions, after a while the students were able to independently complete about 15 - 20 missions. To save time we downloaded the code from the Duino Kit website and the students made minor changes to the code to prove that they picked up on the concept. The only criticism I have is the high failure rate for the Arduino modules, fortunately they are easily replaced at a low cost. We purchased a bag full replacements to avoid any down-time in the lab. While we used the kit in our 8th grade classes, tech savvy 6th and 7th graders could easily complete the missions with some guidance from a competent individual.

This is a great kit. You do not need to know how to code to complete the missions. You actually learn about coding by altering the code provided on the DuinoKit website. I'm a HS teacher with limited/no experience, but I've learned so much playing with this. My students have loved using it and I want to get more for our Makerspace. I highly recommend this kit, or the Essentials kit, for anyone looking to learn more about Arduino.