Adeept Raspberry Pi Pico Learning Starter Kit Pico Microcontroller Board with Pre-soldered Headers Based On Raspberry Pi RP2040 +Breadboard + Protective Acrylic Case + Jumper Wires

The Pi Pico is pretty good if you are just getting started learning about microcontrollers. Remember this is a simple computer board and doesn't have any video out, WiFi or networking. It's for making stuff like gadgets you control with buttons, switches and such. You load code onto it from your PC using USB and can debug and see printouts over USB, but hooking up other devices is up to you.Thankfully the Pico has a lot of pins you can use for I/O and can easily be connected to switches, buttons, LEDs and small external displays once you know what you are doing. It's not bad for things like simple robots, though if you want to be able to communicate with it over WiFi you will want to buy the "W" model instead of this one.Also, like I said this is really a getting started kit that includes a breadboard, plastic shields, jumper wires and USB. All the pins on the board to let you plug it into the breadboard are already soldered on. The price of this kit is pretty good for the stuff included, but only if you need it. If you are an electronics hobbyist already, you may have most of this already. If you do, you can buy just the Pi Pico by itself for from $4-8 without all the extras.If you are a total beginner with microcontrollers and electronics, this will give you good start, you will be able to load code on it and see the results over USB. But you may want to get some other parts like switches, leds and maybe a small display so you can play with the pico's I/O pins and build simple gadgets.

Note: This review is about the Adeept Pi Pico Kit itself. If you want a review of the Pi Pico, there are plenty on the internet.I chose the soldered variant, and the solder job is very neat and clean. Everything about this kit is great except the choice of breadboard by Adeept. Adeept did not MAKE the breadboard, they just created this bundle, and its unfortunate that they chose the worse breadboard on the planet.I got this kit along with Adeept's OLED 128x64 displays (not included in this kit), and it took me an hour of debugging trying to get the OLEDs to work, even thinking they were defective. But the problem was just the breadboard. The pin holes are super loose and I had to bend any wire I was using into a slight "S" to get it to "grip" the pins. Then my OLED test worked fine. In fact, the only thing that fits snuggly into the breadboard is the Pi Pico itself. The side breadboards for the voltage rails seems alright, but the part you will be using the most, the center, is just ridiculously loose.Aside from the breadboard, I really enjoy this kit. You get a variety of wires, different colors and lengths, different lengths of the same colors as well. The acrylic case was easy to install, and yes, you do get an extra screw as shown in the image. The 3 pin connector for debug is not soldered, even if you choose the soldered option, but I can see why they made this choice. The pins will get in the way of some applications if they are not needed.-1 star for the breadboard. In my opinion, it would be better for both the company and the end user if they chose a higher quality breadboard, even if it raised the price a couple of dollars.

This set may be good for newbies who want to try programming, or experts who already know what all this stuff is and know what they want to do with it as a microcontroller. I'm a newbie, so I used this in conjunction with the book _Get Started With MicroPython on Raspberry Pi Pico_, an official Raspberry Pi guidebook.In using the book, I was able to get to part of page 51, going in order with the projects. With the guide and this kit, both got me through installing MicroPython to the Pico, Thonny to my computer, some MicroPython programming, and to the point of getting the Pico fitted in the breadboard. I had a bit of trouble with the breadboard fit, but it ultimately fit in well. After that, there are various additional components needed to continue with most projects in the guide, such as LED bulbs and resistors. Just a few little extra components would have gone far in making this kit more helpful for those following the official guide. So I think it was a missed opportunity not to include a few LEDs and resistors. Because of this, the programming I was able to do in the official guide was limited to using MicroPython for things the Pico itself could do (relating to controlling its built-in LED), and things that were displayed on the monitor of the computer I had it attached to. (There's one project at the end that I think could work, too, but the lessons build, so I didn't skip ahead.)While I would have liked for the set to have taken me farther on its own, from what I have been able to get out of the set as a newbie, I'm happy with it. The Raspberry Pi Pico is in good working order. One of the nicest things about this set is that the pin headers are already soldered on. (If you buy a bare bones Raspberry Pi Pico, it won't come with these soldered on). So this set takes away a challenging step of soldering 40 pins, which a lot of people (including me!) may wish to skip. The case is also nice in helping to protect it, though having it on makes the BOOTSEL button a bit less easy to access. Aside from putting the Pico in the optional case, which wasn't hard since it came with a small screwdriver, this Pico is pretty ready to go.While I like it overall, I wasn't able to get as much out of this set as I would have been able to if just a bit more little odds and ends had been included. So it's a bit hard to rate star-wise, but I am happy with what I've been able to get out of it so far. Those who are more familiar with microcontrollers, and are more advanced along in their journey than the guide will take them, may find this has the components they're looking for.

This is not a kit for beginners. The Pi Pico has no typical IO, like HDMI or USB, or a camera port that beginners can learn to use without too much effort. The Pi Zeros and 400, and MC’s like the Adafruit Feathers running Circuit Python are much better for beginners. This kit is a basic kit that’s best suited for folks who have some experience with micro controllers who want to explore and exploit its novel close-to-the-metal programmed IO capabilities. These PIO capabilities are the Pico’s main contribution over other Raspberry Pis and most other MCs on the market. That fact that it’s cheap doesn't automatically make it a beginner’s best choice.As a kit for middle level and above users this kit provides them with the fundamentals: A breadboard, a Pico and a nice collection of jumpers. With a kit like this I believe the expectation is the user will find external devices they’ll want to control, using programmed IO that doesn’t require the participation of the CPUs. They can mount them on the extra space on the breadboard and use the jumpers to connect them up.I set up up the Pico using Micropython. Everything booted up fine and I was able to use a blink program to blink the on-board LED. Next I’ll be learning how to use the PIO since I have an interest in tight control of peripherals without taxing the CPUs.I agree with some other reviewers that the provided breadboard is not the best. The issue I encountered is that there were too many taps in the board where the probe simply could not be pushed in, despite wiggling and retries. I’ve never encountered that before and I’ve got a lot of breadboards that look just like this one.If you’re not looking for another breadboard this is a five star kit. (I have no use for the odd sandwich-like “cover” included in the kit, and you probably won’t either.) If you need the breadboard too then it’s a four start kit.P.S. Don’t solder the three legged header for debugging onto the Pico and then try to insert it into the breadboard. It won’t go. (And you don’t want it to.) I’m sure that’s why it’s not soldered on.

I've done a decent amount of things with normal Raspberry Pi computers, and though it would be neat to experiment with the Pico platform. It took a few weeks for the product to arrive, but it did come sooner than the original estimate.This kit comes with the Raspberry Pi Pico with soldered header pins, a Micro-USB cable, a solderless breadboard, jumper wires, a three connection header, and some sort of acrylic case.The kit was nicely packaged, with a zip tie around the jumper wires. I was able to insert the Pico into the solderless breadboard, but it too a few tries as the width was a little be wide, but I eventually got it in. I was able to hook up the USB cable and connect the device to my computer and it appeared as a USB drive.I painfully installed the Pico SDK and built the "blink" example. To put the program onto the Pico, I just dragged the .UF2 file onto the Pico's hard drive folder, and the Pico rebooted and started to flash (and disappeared as a USB drive). To install a new UF2 file, you need to unplug the USB cable, and hold down the Pico's button while plugging the USB cable back into the computer, and it will appear as a USB drive again.The jumper wires seem to be a little bit loose in the wireless breadboard, so I hope that they are making good enough connection. I tried using the tiny Adeept OLED screen with this device, but didn't get it working yet. There was an exmaple project that should work, but it didn't, so I'll have to use my meter and check that the jumper wires are actually getting power/ground to the OLED board.Overall, I think this is a good kit for playing with the Raspberry Pi Pico platform. I'm not sure about the usefulness of the included acrylic case (and screwdriver). It looks like it just covers the top and bottom of the Pico, and with headers soldered as they are, they would still be sticking out.Hopefully I'll get the hang of the development platform, so I can get the OLED display to work.