Arduino has released the beginner-friendly Plug and Make Kit which includes the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi development board, and ready-made modules called Modulino. Integrated with Arduino cloud and bundled with user-friendly guides, this kit is a must-have for beginners.
Designed for ease of use, the Plug and Make Kit eliminates breadboards and soldering, allowing users to quickly and easily build many projects.
The Brains of the Kit: Arduino UNO R4
The Arduino UNO R4 WiFi is a powerful development board in the Arduino lineup. It has onboard sensors and an LED matrix for ease of use and simplifies the development of IoT projects with seamless cloud integration. It is powered by an Arm Cortex-M4 microcontroller. The board features built-in WiFi, and Bluetooth connectivity and has a Qwiic connector.
The Qwiic Connector
The Qwiic connect system, created by SparkFun Electronics, is a small, standardized connector designed for quick and easy prototyping of I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) devices. Similar to other connectors like Seeed Studio’s Grove and Adafruit’s STEMMA & STEMMA QT, Qwiic allows for plug-and-play connections without soldering. Its popularity stems from its simplicity and reliability, particularly in the maker and educational communities.
The Modulino Modules
The Plug and Make Kit comes with Modulino nodes which are sensors and actuators featuring Qwiic connectors. Users can daisy-chain these modules to one another using just one Qwiic port on the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi board.
The kit includes the following Modulino nodes:
- Modulino Movement – powered by the LSM6DSOX 6-axis IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) for capturing pitch, roll, or tilt.
- Modulino Thermo – which uses the HS3003 Relative Humidity and Temperature Sensor.
- Modulino Distance – uses the VL53L4CD Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor to measure precise distances.
- Modulino Knob – PEC11J rotary encoder.
- Modulino Pixels – 8 RGB LEDs (LC8822-2020).
- Modulino Buzzer – Features a PKLCS1212E4001-R1 piezoelectric buzzer to create sounds.
- Modulino Buttons – Contains 3 push buttons and 3 LEDs for user input and indication.
The Modulino nodes containing buttons, buzzer, LEDs, and rotary encoder also have the STM32C011F4 MCU for I2C communication.
Explore Guided Projects
The kit includes many resources for creating seven easy projects – a weather forecast station, a gesture-controlled lamp, a digital hourglass, a temperature and humidity monitor, a game controller, a DIY synth, and smart lights.
The kit also comes with Qwiic cables and spacers, screws, and nuts for easy installation. Helpful resources are available in Arduino’s free online platform
This kit is ideal for new tech enthusiasts who want to dive into embedded systems and electronics engineering.
Also read: Make a DIY GPS Clock Using Arduino, LCD & GPS Module
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