Review of the new educational set in electronics from Amperka (Matryoshka Z)

I think many have heard about the Amperka company , this is probably the only Russian company who sells sets based on Arduino.

I knew about them for a long time, but I was somehow skeptical of the business at the Arduino base, when China, e-bay, and taobao are nearby - where you can order Arduino and other components directly and fairly inexpensively.

But now a new set of “Matryoshka Z” got into our hackspace, and I realized that Amperka is not just selling Arduino - they are making high-quality educational sets in electronics for beginners.

What is inside?

Open:



We see the stickers, and the book "Abstract of the hacker":

Lay out:


we find a transparent acrylic stand (it will serve as the basis for mounting Arduino and breadboard).

A small instruction:


We lift the lid, and we see: of


course, for what it's all done - the brain .

We expand further:


we see: an LCD screen, a set of wires for connecting Arduino to a breadboard and a USB cable for connecting to a computer.

Let's see separately what is in our “brains”:



Open:


Yes! Here is our Arduino, a solderless breadboard, and all the necessary elements for mini-projects.

We look at the right box, what is inside:


This is a set of LEDs, buttons, resistors, etc. - all neatly packaged.

Development board - allows you to create circuits with connections without soldering. Here's how layout cells are interconnected:


Let's open the box with Arduino:


This is the original Italian Arduino, thus buying Amperka sets - we support the creators and developers of Arduino.

We will place Arduino and a breadboard based on:


This is the training stand , on the basis of which all mini-projects from the “Hacker Abstract” are carried out. Arduino - via USB, connects to a computer on which a free IDE for programming is installed. There is no need for programmers, soldering - in order to get a blinking LED (after unpacking the kit) - it will take only 5 minutes.

We look further, what is in the left box


:


Apparently, there is a motor, a servo motor, capacitors, microcircuits, transistors, a light sensor, a temperature sensor, etc.

Here is the complete list of the Matryoshka Z kit:

Abstract

I especially want to mention the book “Hacker Abstract” in the compendium of 20 mini-projects!


The book is very high quality made - it's nice to work with it. In addition to mini-projects, there are sections explaining the basics, without which it will be difficult to understand working with electronics.

Resistor:


Integrated circuit:


What is PWM:

Mini-projects

And of course, mini-projects, each project is decorated on one spread, where the diagram is shown on the left, the drawing of the elements on the breadboard, and the connections to the Arduino inputs / outputs is shown, the sketch is shown on the right (the program for Arduino):

Simple enough:


And gradually complicating, to such projects:


There are also projects for measuring temperature, transferring data to a computer (weather station), etc.

All mini-projects are presented in the Wiki section on the Amperka website .

How much and where to buy

Now the fun part is how much does it cost? The price of a set of Matryoshka Z is 3990 rubles , you can buy it here (and by the way, for readers of Habr, Amperka provided a discount coupon - HABR14).

3990 rub is it a lot or a little?

Perhaps for an experienced person who is involved in electronics - it will be a lot - because he himself can buy all this in the nearest radio goods store - and find information on the Internet.

But for a novice person who first sees the Schmitt Trigger, or Arduino, who wants to learn how to work with electronics (and not waste time and nerves visiting radio stores) - this will be the very thing that a couple of months (yourself, or with a child) devote to studying electronics, and personally do a dozen projects.

itinvesting in knowledge , this is the start to explore this interesting field - both electronics and robotics. From this point of view, 3.9 mp is not much at all (this is the price of a budget phone).

I would like for such quality educational sets to appear in our schools, I want them to be given for birthdays - then there will be more educated and interested in technical creativity people in our country.