Kits
A kit bundles parts around an assumed connector system. Grove, Gravity and BOSON ports are not interchangeable, and not every kit includes the development board it implies.
Starter kits lock you into a connector ecosystem: Seeed Grove, DFRobot Gravity for Arduino and Raspberry Pi, or snap-together BOSON. Robot kits and hardware-only bundles make up a large share of the rest.
- The most-referenced part is compact: the SparkFun FT231X Breakout Kit pairs an FT231X USB-to-serial breakout with headers — a quick soldering exercise rather than a full curriculum box.
- Starter kits center on a connector system: Seeed's Grove Starter Kit (plus Azure IoT Edge and 96Boards variants) uses Grove ports; DFRobot's Gravity starter kits for Arduino and Raspberry Pi 2 use Gravity; BOSON kits snap together, with options including the Starter Kit for micro:bit and the Inventor Kit.
- Robot kits are a significant sub-group: micro:Maqueen and Maqueen Plus variants for micro:bit, the Pirate 4WD kit for Arduino, Picade and Picade Console arcade builds, and a range of 4WD and tank chassis kits. Check whether you are buying components, a project kit or a course before comparing prices.
- A number of entries are single-purpose hardware bundles — heatsink kits for Raspberry Pi 4B, Pimoroni's Pi Zero W Starter Kit, Seeed's Breakout Kit for Raspberry Pi B+.
