Peter Percival wrote:

> My apologies for an off-topic post, but there seems to be no Usenet
> group for Arduinos as there is for Raspberry Pis, and I'm confident
> plenty of readers here will have experience of them.
>
> My question is, where should one begin with Arduinos?  Just looking at
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino#Official_boards there are so many
> of them!

I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with
 - spending time solving puzzles in areas you are not familiar with,
 - writing programs, and
 - wiring up electronics

The Arduino doesn't require a lot of knowledge in either electronics or
programming; most "starter kit" packages include instructions on both that
will get you started.

/My/ recommendation is to get a "starter kit" package, and take it from
there. These kits come with an arduino, wires, a small prototyping board (to
assist with wiring), battery pack, and a few devices (like LEDs,
potentiometers, buzzers, resistors, and switches), and a booklet of simple
projects. Typically, these basic kits are low cost, and have enough
challange to tell you whether or not working with an Arduino is for you.

Once you get past the basic kit, you will be in a better place to evaluate
the benefits and drawbacks of the variety of Arduino (and Arduino-like)
devices around.

FWIW, I fiddled around with an Arduino for a week or two, then got a
handfull of ATTiny85 boards, a Raspberry PI, and a few NodeMCU boards. Now,
you can't stop me  :-)

HTH
--
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills, We Trust"

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