Raspberry Pi 2 Starter Kit

The Raspberry Pi 2 Starter Kit is a great way to gain a solid introduction to the small, credit-card sized computer. With this kit you will be able to get your Raspberry Pi 2 connected through our SparkFun Pi Wedge to a breadboard and, by utilizing the Pi's 40-pin GPIO, control pushbuttons, LEDs, and a host of user created circuits.

The on-line guides and tutorials we provide (found in the Documents section below) contain step by step instructions of how to set up your Raspberry Pi and how to program it in a variety of languages. We have supplied some example code and detailed images on how to get started.

The kit does not require any soldering and is recommended for anyone with a drive to learn more about the Raspberry Pi and its programming. So if you are looking for a new challenge or a way to get in on the RPi craze, check out the Raspberry Pi 2 Starter Kit!

Raspberry Pi 2 Starter Kit Product Help and Resources

Raspberry Pi SPI and I2C Tutorial

October 29, 2015

Learn how to use serial I2C and SPI buses on your Raspberry Pi using the wiringPi I/O library for C/C++ and spidev/smbus for Python.

Graph Sensor Data with Python and Matplotlib

July 23, 2018

Use matplotlib to create a real-time plot of temperature data collected from a TMP102 sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi.

Core Skill: Programming

If a board needs code or communicates somehow, you're going to need to know how to program or interface with it. The programming skill is all about communication and code.

3 Programming

Skill Level: Competent - The toolchain for programming is a bit more complex and will examples may not be explicitly provided for you. You will be required to have a fundamental knowledge of programming and be required to provide your own code. You may need to modify existing libraries or code to work with your specific hardware. Sensor and hardware interfaces will be SPI or I2C.
See all skill levels


Core Skill: Electrical Prototyping

If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.

2 Electrical Prototyping

Skill Level: Rookie - You may be required to know a bit more about the component, such as orientation, or how to hook it up, in addition to power requirements. You will need to understand polarized components.
See all skill levels


Comments

Looking for answers to technical questions?

We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.

  • Member #132862 / about 9 years ago / 1

    OK, so I just got my kit and it looks pretty cool. I can't get the WiFi to connect to my network. I do not have any security in place but I have MAC Filtering enabled. I have entered the wlan0 MAC into the list. Is there any technical reason why I should not be able to make this work? I have read numerous on-line suggestions but nothing seems to apply.

    I have several other devices being assigned DHCP IP addresses.

    What I see is No DHCPOFFERS Received.

    Can anyone offer a solution?

    • Hello,

      I sent you an E-Mail. There is no technical reason it would not work. The pi side doesn't care if MACs are filtered or not. Let me know if you didn't get my response.

      Thanks

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5

Based on 14 ratings:

Currently viewing all customer reviews.

1 of 1 found this helpful:

Big bang for the buck

This is one of those rare items where a small purchase price leads to doors being opened into whole new worlds.

The Raspberry Pi 2 has sufficient horsepower to be a comfortable software learning and development tool. I am running Geany as a multipurpose programming IDE on my Pi. This free software is released under the GNU license, works with multiple programming languages including Python, C, Java, and HTML. My Pi came with several versions of Python, and I am using Geany in Python to work through the excellent (freely downloadable) Python learning books by Professor Allen Downey. The PDF downloads can be located at Downey’s site http://greenteapress.com/wp/ . Somehow, the simple uncluttered Pi environment seems more conducive to my learning Python than does the more complex and cluttered surroundings of my Windows laptop.

The Raspberry Pi 2 also has one foot firmly in the embedded computing and physical computing worlds due to the fact that it has software controllable GPIO pins. I am learning to use Python (and C) to manipulate these pins, which allows my programs to control things in the real world.

Unlike typical embedded microcontrollers, the Pi has sufficient horsepower and graphics ability to be able to create sophisticated user interfaces, an area which I have previously found to be challenging with other hardware. The Pi 2 can handle the memory and graphic intensive processes needed to allow the embedded system to communicate with that most difficult of components; the human user. And if you need a highly deterministic and jitter free element as part of your system, you just have the Pi talk to a cheap microcontroller like the Arduino or Parallax Propeller (eight 32 bit cores) for those functions.

Hooking the Pi to the Internet was a snap using the USB WiFi adaptor which came with my kit. Plug it in, set the appropriate parameters in the appropriate configuration file, and off it goes. I am already playing with controlling my Pi GPOI pins over the Internet using my android phone and a Blynk application (downloaded from the Play Store for free).

To sum up, this is probably the most bang for the buck that I can remember encountering for a very long time.

I am planning on introducing some Pi 2s to some of my tech students at our local college where I teach. It is all part of a nefarious plot to infect them also with this potentially disruptive technology which may lead to them spending large numbers of hours enjoying themselves (I mean diligently studying) while learning to write programs which control the world around them.

Dave Fedukowski Southwestern Oregon Community College

Razzabee Pi Rocks

I ordered a Raspberry Pi Starter Kit (and the RPi touch screen). It was easy to get up and running. I tried to put together a "simple simon" game using the large buttons and LEDs, but I couldn't figure out how to arrange the buttons in a square - they're too big if you're using the breadboard - so I made a linear game. It works great. I need to ramp up and get the sensor hat and a camera, do a bit of OpenCV. It's a great platform!

Rpi status

I am still working on the Arduino Kit. This will be followed by the Photon Kit, then Rpi Kit, both on hand. Progress is steady but measured. I am augmenting with more in depth investigation using oscilloscope, multimeter, and books such as "Pratical Electronics for Inventers" , C programming, and a couple of college texts on computer architecture .

I still have yet to learn all of what this can do but I have big plans for my RPI2.

Great kit, great price.

Has all the stuff you need to get going, and no "filler". When I bought it, this kit included a memory card that's twice the size of the starter kit from the competition.

A really complete way to get started

In the way back time, I bought one of the original Raspberry Pi's, and did a bunch of fiddling with it, impressed with the capabilities and what was packed into a $40 feature complete computer. A move, and other life changes caused me to put it away.

Lately, I have been on a kick to get back in touch with my tinkerer self, and after binge-ing on some Arduino goodness, I picked up this kit.

The main difference is that it makes it stupid simple to actually use the GPIO, with jumpers and the breakout "T" for the proto board. Add in a selection of switches, LED's, and other bits, and you can really begin to do some simple things, even following the excellent Simon Monk books.

This is a great starter kit, and will springboard your exploration.

Excellent Purchase

It has good support but in the box and online. Simple to get started and have all the parts i needed for my experiment.

fun kit, but...

the power supply sent with kit is CRAP! in order to get the pi to boot, I had to build my own 5v power supply. every thing else is doing great once pi booted.

Awesome kit! everything you need to get started (Almost Always)

bought a few of these now. it's a great kit to get started with, kind of a dream for little tinkerers starting out.

Add small HDMI screen (or big screen TV), usb keyboard and mouse, and your kids may not want to leave the house for the next couple of weeks. Elementary school aged children may even develop the sudden urge to learn Python (Pi Minecraft TNT wont light without it) or Ruby (for sonic Pi) Get ready to RTFM, but the breadcrumbs are out there (maybe up-to-date breadcrumbs could be collected and distilled on your site?). And If you really want to blow their minds, get one of those low res FLIR cams and plug it right into the breadboard (again, RTFM and assembly required, but your kids will be essential part of the assembly as only they can tell a MOSI from a MISO on those tiny breakout boards.

Suggestion tho to the Sparkfun elves: after you take whichever one is in charge into the keeping kit packing lists updated into the parking lot to symbolically (or not) spank them with one of those sexy red not-so-universal USB connector cables, please get them to update the packing list to hence forth include one that actually works with the Pi2. It's not a big deal, and most of us have a few lying around anyways, but it would be a nice touch, and would make this kit Always Awesome.

NOOBS issues

I'm giving this 3 stars because NOOBS SD card wont mount easily on a LINUX machine which is kinda handy for moving files and looking at things. This really isn't a Sparkfun problem but its still a problem. Here's the work around: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=105437&start=25

Great kit

Great set of items to get started with. All the needed pieces are available.

Raspberry Pi Starter Kit Exceeded My Expectations!

The Raspberry Pi Starter kit exceeded my expectations and is a great value for the price. Everything worked well together. I was up and running in no time and the Edimax wifi adaptor works great. No extra configuration was needed for the wifi adaptor. Just select your wifi network and your online. The 8G SD card is technically a NOOB card, but it came already configured with the Raspbian OS, which was fine with me because I was up and running quicker.

Very impressed with this kit. If you are just starting out with the Raspberry Pi and need the Pi, case, power supply, SD card, wifi adaptor, etc., then this is the kit to buy!