The big picture: If you’re new to electronics but have always wanted to dive in and build your own IoT project, Arduino has your back. The Plug and Make Kit is a comprehensive starter pack designed to ignite your IoT ambitions without the need for soldering or jumper wires.
The Arduino team, renowned for supplying electronic and microcontroller components for DIY enthusiasts since 2005, has unveiled its latest offering, the Plug and Make Kit. Tailored for beginners, this kit eliminates the need for breadboards, jumper wires, and soldering. The secret sauce is Arduino’s Modulino nodes, featuring an array of sensors and actuators that connect effortlessly to the UNO R4 WiFi board.
The Plug and Make Kit is a one-stop package to get you started. Inside the box, you’ll discover:
- Arduino UNO R4 WiFi 32-bit microcontroller: the brains of your projects.
- Seven Modulino nodes featuring sensors and actuators for diverse functionalities.
- Modulino Knob: for ultra-precise adjustments
- Modulino Pixels: eight LEDs to brighten, dim, or change colors
- Modulino Distance: a time-of-flight proximity sensor for precise distance measurement
- Modulino Movement: captures movements such as pitch, roll, and tilt
- Modulino Buzzer: to create alarm sounds or simple tunes
- Modulino Thermo: a sensor for capturing temperature and humidity data
- Modulino Buttons: three buttons for quick project controls
- The Modulino Base for mounting and organizing your project components.
- A USB-C cable with USB-A adapter for powering and uploading code to the UNO R4.
- Qwiic cables for connecting the Modulino nodes to the UNO R4.
Moreover, buyers receive seven starter projects to fuel their learning journey, encompassing a weather report, game controller, and smart lights. You can further your education through Arduino’s Cloud, a specialized content platform offering visual sandboxing for projects, a repository of pre-configured projects, and a smartphone app for monitoring and controlling your IoT devices.
The Plug and Make concept might remind you of similar products in the market. Sphero’s littleBits introduced the ‘snap and build’ concept back in 2014. So, why did it take Arduino so long to develop the Plug and Make Kit? According to Arduino’s founder, Massimo Banzi, “Innovation takes time, and you must wait for the right moment. We began creating modular electronics with TinkerKit in 2006, then advanced with the EU Project PELARS in 2014, ESLOV in 2016, and now, Plug&Make in 2024.”
Making electronics accessible and simplifying IoT project building is fantastic news for anyone eager to jump into electronics but unsure where to start. Now, I have no excuses for not creating my own food pantry inventory system.
