Vilros Arduino Uno Starter Kit - Includes Arduino Uno R3 Board, 190+ Electronics Components, Breadboard, Jumper Wires, DC Motor, Servo, Relay, Full-Color 72 Page Manual [190+ Pieces]

I was very skeptical of this product, especially of the Arduino board authenticity due to the fairly low price of the entire package. Luckily, I got an Amazon card for Christmas, so I wasn't going to loose out on much if this product ended up being trash. You may find my question in December (before I bought this) asking if the board is real. The price just seemed too good to be true. Well, I got my package today and to my surprise the board is 100% legit. I've checked every millimeter of it through official Arduino resources and there's nothing skeptical about it. It also works flawlessly (I've tested it with a lot of code). Everything else that came with the board appears to be of high quality. I was actually surprised, because I was expecting some junk or something to be missing, once again... because of the price. Nope - all there and of nice quality.I think my biggest shock was the printed Guide booklet. From some of the reviews, my expectation was that I'm just getting the parts, and the rest I can learn online. To my surprise, this guide is amazing. It is very detailed, has lots of visuals (I'm a visual sort-of guy, so this is perfect for me). Information appears to be very accurate. I remember reading a few reviews saying that there were translation issues or missing information -- I've yet to find any. Even the print quality is very good (I was expecting something cheaply made). The whole thing just feels like it was made by true professionals. I'm not sure if they've improved it over time, but what I got was of fine craftsmanship.I have only one gripe, and that's the holder. While it feels like it's well made, my Arduino board did not fit in between two clips. I tried everything I could and just couldn't get it to fit. I did not want to damage my board, trying to force it, so I ended up snapping the two clips off and drilling a small hole in one of the stand-offs to screw in my board. It worked like a charm. If anyone is having a similar issue, I recommend this solution. Just make sure that the screw does not make a contact with any circuitry on the board, or might damage it. I would use a very small screw and two rubber washers (one on top and one on bottom). You're not trying to screw it in for strength -- it's just to hold it in place, so don't over-tighten it.Anyways, I'm pleasantly surprised by the purchase. I did not expect much for that price and got a phenomenal Christmas present.

First of all, let me preface this by saying that I have not (yet) used all of the components that came in this kit. I've read through all the projects in the book, but so far only built the first couple before I wandered off the reservation and was doing my own tinkering, working up a simple project that will end up being a decoration at this year's Halloween party.I bought this kit instead of the standard one primarily to get the extra components, especially the Ethernet shield. I've not been disappointed yet by any part (although the soldering of the wire leads to the DC motor does look rather questionable to me), although again I haven't (yet) used them all.The quality of the code examples from Vilros is outstanding. I'm a programmer by both trade and hobby, and I've seen more than my fair share of horrible code -- and this is not that. Code is straightforward and well-documented, easily up to the quality of the examples that come with the Arduino IDE itself. Paired with the book, I would expect even a novice to be able to follow what it does.I also really like the Arduino and breadboard holder in this kit, as it means you can easily move your prototyped projects around without worrying about jumper wires falling out of the Arduino or the breadboard. (The booklet mentions that you should screw your Arduino board into the holder, however mine is a screwless one that just uses a pair of plastic clips and some plastic posts to hold the board in place.)I will say that the projects in the booklet that come with this, although each great for learning various aspects of the Arduino and its abilities to interact with the physical world, are not very numerous. A dedicated person working from one project to the next could likely complete the entire thing in just a couple of hours; if you're not someone with a background in programming or MCUs in particular, you could find yourself at the end of the booklet with no idea what to do next. While the booklet does make an effort to explain how various lines of code work, little time is spent on that, and it may be far too little for someone new to this type of experimentation. If you're a novice, this is still a great starting point, but you should expect to pick up a more complete book to learn from.My one complaint is that, although this kit includes the Ethernet shield, there are no projects in the booklet that make use of it. I would have liked to have seen at least one project each for the networking and SD card features of this shield. Not a huge drawback for me, as again I am a programmer and I have past experience with MCUs (including programming the controller my team used to control our robot in a high school competition), especially as the Arduino IDE includes examples for both, but again someone without that background could easily find themselves holding this shield and not having any idea what to do with it.