Need help deciding.

M

manny1222

Gawd
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
732
Hi guys,
My son turns 12 a few days before Christmas and I was thinking of getting him something to get him into the world of tech, computing and programming.
I'm trying to decide between an arduino starter kit or a raspberry pi starter kit. The problem is that I don't have any knowledge or experience wit either of them so I can't decide. I don't want something that will be so complicated that he loses interest, but something that will challenge him enough.
What do you guys think?
 
arduino is for people who need a micro controller to do very specific things, but don't want to learn the intricacies of that micro controller. So you use a generic laguage to do things. There's a big community, and lots of sample projects available, but it you're not a self-starter, you'll forget the gift ever existed.

Pi is a cheap general-use computer with a Linux distribution made for it, and only requires programming experience if you want it to. I'd definitely lean that way for a 12 year old.
 
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Go for the raspberry pi 3. Since he's only 12, might want to get an age appropriate starter kit with it.
 
Pi3

I bought one for both of my nephews recently and they're both having a lot of fun tinkering around with it. I can they're still messing around with them because I will periodically get strange Linux related questions from them.
 
I have to buy a lot of tickets and on my mobile and main machine i get higher prices than on a newly cobbled up rig.
So maybe you want to play-purchase around a bit with a rig that has nothing on you on its harddrive.
 
tripledigit said:
Pi3 is good, thats my vote
Click to expand...
Yeah, considering the Pi 5 has been released, getting a Pi 3 from half a decade ago doesn't seem like a great choice, and neither does your choice in ancient threads to res to get your post count up.

Carlyle2020 said:
I have to buy a lot of tickets and on my mobile and main machine i get higher prices than on a newly cobbled up rig.
So maybe you want to play-purchase around a bit with a rig that has nothing on you on its harddrive.
Click to expand...
Clear your browser cache.
Some of these posts, just wow...
 
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