This thing went together easily. I had planned on helping an 11 year old learn programming. Found a keyboard and mouse on 'pickup day', and an early HDMI TV stored away. After downloading the software it started right up. I would not have thought to get all the extras if I were to order separately. Ordered Edimax for WiFi, plugged it in and automatically was wired. The kid is already digging into Scratch and exploring, when I turned my back for a minute. Sure the kit cost more, but I saved $20 or more than separately. RECOMMENDED. Will get to the breadboard experiments soon.

50 years ago, literally, I bought my first home computer. It had something like 1k of memory, and most of what you could do was turn lights on and off, and possibly make sounds. I was delighted, and the rest is history. This kit is the modern equivalent, and a refreshing change from the wonderful complexity of modern systems. You can feel like computing is "personal" again.

It was nice to have everything in one package in order to get started with the Raspberry Pi. My kit also came with an HDMI cable that is not shown, or mentioned here.

I ordered 25, and all arrived well. This is a great kit to start with.

I purchased this kit for my Internet of Things class. It's been challenging but the kit has been very helpful to work with. I've only gotten to use the Pi, adaptor, breadboard, wires, and SD card so far. Looking forward to using the rest of the equipment.

Things I've accomplished: spamming my classmates ASCII art through Terminal; using Terminal, Sublime Text, Cyberduck, and VNC in junction with each other; and making a servo motor move. Great stuff!

I can't get OS installed from\onto the SD card, after choosing the recommended OS to install it starts and gets about 10% in and fails with 'Error downloading or extracting tarball'....

Edit 1-8-2017 After an hour or so of pondering and double checking things and retrying like 5 times to get the same error finally the sixth attempt worked. I'm guessing that the initial setup process is attempting to download stuff and that the failure was from an invalid server response. Wondering why it is contacting the internet during the setup process, I just happened to have a network cable plugged in. It's not mentioned that a connection is needed or used during NOOBS setup.

After getting thru the above I can say I am quite impressed with this little computer. I'm a long time Microsoft developer and this is my first step into the Linux world. I've got some more Linux learning I want to get under my belt before continuing on to using the rest of the this kits parts.

Am now into the 'Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit Hookup Guide' a bit, I think it would be a nice addition to throw a couple of printed pages in the kit related to getting the OS going and properly updating it.

This is not my first Raspberry Pi and probably not my last so I knew what to expect when I ordered this. My youngest son wanted to get into programming the Pi so I figured I would buy him this great kit.

When I got the kit the AC power adapter was not working - I contacted Sparkfun about this and they simply sent out a replacement AC power adapter - no questions asked. It is so refreshing to deal with companies who understand what customer service should be like.

Michael H

I bought 2 of these kits, the first for my son in University to play with and a second one for myself. The Kit includes a great deal of things to help you get started. I only found 2 drawbacks with the kit. One the resistors supplied are 1/16 Watt which isn't an issue, but the size of the leads on them is. The leads are so small in diameter that they don't make a solid electrical connection in the breadboard. My old 1/4" ones I already had worked with no issues. The other thing is the switches supplied can't simply be plugged into the breadboard, maybe you could source some switches that would work directly in a breadboard.

My first Pi and could not be more pleased. Came with a lot of parts to really let me play and learn the world of Pi.

I was able to program it almost immediately, except for the failed SD card. That was something I had never seen before, as the card that came with the kit literally smoked. But, the tech support was excellent, and I was up and running within a week.

We used the RPI3's for digital signage. With all the helpful web hints on converting the RPI to kiosk mode and a little javascript we were able to help a senior living facility to update all digital signs in their building instantaneously. Kit was very helpful to let us know what we could use. Scaled down kit of RPI3, SD card, tin and power supply and flexible 3' HDMI cord would have helped once we got everything running.

Had everything I needed to get started.

My daughter wanted to use a Raspberry Pi for her science experiment and this set is really perfect (in fact, more) than what we needed. That gives us lots to explore after the experiment is done.

We did have a problem with the case... we put the MicroSD card in first, and then setting the Pi in the case snapped the card! We did that twice before we figured it out. I'd put it in the case reviews but I don't have permission (since I bought this kit). The case is nice, though, and lets you have access to all the ports, just make sure you take the card out, put the Pi in the case, and re-insert the card before you use it.

My high school students are using this to run a Scratch to create a digital kiosk for a museum. This kit is awesome and very easy to use.

Great way to ramp up to speed on the raspberry pi

This kit is a great platform for electronics with the RPi. The Wedge, breadboard and colored jumpers are perfectly suited for prototyping. Getting the RPi set up with the supplied microSD card was very straightforward. For interfacing with 5V circuits, a useful companion to this kit is the Logic Level Converter (BOB-12009), as the RPi uses 3.3V I/O.

This is a good producto to star with the IoT concept

Great product and price especially for one just starting out with the Raspberry Pi. Bought this for a member of my family that has seen some of the projects I have completed and was intrigued by them. Now that he has his own, I am sure he will surpass me with his skills rapidly seeing how he is 13 and I am...well his uncle and I'll leave it at that.

The only downside, why I don't give 5 stars, is that the breadboard holes aren't very tight: the LEDs and resistors wobble when inserted, and you have to move them a bit with your finger to close the electrical connection with the breadboard.

All needed parts got me up and running painlessly.

Ribbon cable is a little short when using 7in pitouch.

Glad I ordered it

Thanks, Terry!

It worked perfectly out of the box no hiccups.

The "Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit Hookup Guide" is an extremely simple and helpful way of introducing me to this beautiful kit. The Pi Wedge is the perfect accessory. Its design is brilliant. I am going to have a lot of fun learning with this kit and growing from it.

Kit worked well after we recognized that the need to use the connectors wires for 5v and ground between the Pi 3 and the board side connector. The installation went without any problem WiFi worked with out hesitations

Sparkfun did help pointing our the need to connect the auxiliary power connector

now into the camera application and Python and Processing (available for Pi 3) which allows interface to Arduino uC (Pi 3 as uC does not have the pins to deal with large project,

however it will handle the display for Arduino uC by Python (camera) or Processing (graphics) using serial cable or radio (or wifi if you can deal with channel selection to not interfere with home wifi traffic).

Even though it is a baby step in the grand scheme, it was a giant step for me. I bought the Pi starter kit and a couple of sensors from SparkFun. After only one false start (I left the red box with the parts in a bathroom and had it locked in the building over the long Thanksgiving weekend when I wanted to work on it. Fortunately they didn’t think I was a terrorist when they found it and retrieving it just meant an hour and a half drive each way.) and just one visit to the the local electronic supply store to buy some breakaway headers (it might be nice to include some of these in the starter kit) to solder onto the temp/humidity sensor, some solder and a new soldering iron in case I couldn’t find my 35 year old one, within 3 days I had the Pi cranking, the PC development environment working including ssh and xvc server and client, headless operation, wireless network connectivity, a DMZ and fixed IP set up, the breadboard, sensor and LED wired up and the unit connected to Microsoft Azure IoT Hub and Blob Storage first with simulated data and then with real readings. What is left to do on this project is to wire up the two soil moisture sensors with an A to D chip (still need to purchase) and code those readings into the data payload. Oh, and a second trip to the local store to return the new soldering iron because I found my old one stashed in a box in a drawer with my 35 year old wire wrap tool;-). All in all a very nice experience. I think I will be coming back to SparkFun many times in the future.

I've been working with electronics and programming for 30 years and have never ordered from spark fun till now. This is the simplest programming and electronics engineering kit I have ever used! The components in the kit are enough to get started, but are by no means its limitations, the possibilities are endless. I am ordering more, along with a few zeros.

I bought this to use the FLIR Lepton (160x120 version—I had to get that from Digikey) as well as for parts to screw around with an Arduino Uno. The SD card was corrupted on arrival; it partially booted but then froze. Using the included uSD USB reader, I downloaded an OS which works for the 7" touchscreen LCD that SparkFun sells. That worked flawlessly, so I only wasted 10–20 minutes on the corrupted SD card. I will have to say that the uSD reader got kind of stuck in my USB port (other cables worked fine); I broke the little bit of plastic holding the little lanyard to it, but that's my fault. Maybe only use "loosened" USB ports with the reader?

Other than the above, the starter kit did get me started. Some components for debouncing the buttons would have been nice. I would have given this a 3.5 if possible, but I'll err on the nicer side in the hopes that SparkFun will think about what I've said in this review. :-)

A great kit! The Pi booted first try: a great combination of compact compute power and features. The board is mostly connectors! And of course Linux is the Right OS. I now understand what all those headers and connectors are about, and I'm ready to start breadboarding.

I have many years of computing and electronics in many contexts. I have worked extensively with Arduinos. So I couldn't resist giving the Pi a try, could I?

Very impressed with the selection of "bits" Sparkfun have put into this package, and with the price achieved. You CAN (if you wish) use it "headless" with almost any "ordinary" computer, via USB, if you wish. Me? I'd go the also-possible route of connecting a USB keyboard and mouse, and plugging it into a monitor... it offers an HDMI output. At least while you are "getting to know it".

Don't be confused by the similarities... the Pi and the Arduino are very different beasts, they are aimed at different markets. A lot of fun (and use) can be had with either. But just as you wouldn't use a hammer where a paintbrush was needed, make sure that you consider what you want to do, if you are thinking Pi? Arduino?... but do at least one of them! With this very sensible kit... which has many generally useful elements, even if you don't go far with Pi's... you can see if Pi is for you for not a lot of money.

Pi or Arduino? See... http://sheepdogsoftware.co.uk/hh/hh9bardupi.htm

I have experimented with many Arduino models, including the Yun, and Spark. This model of Raspberry PI far surpasses anything I have had the pleasure to experiment with. Now I'm experimenting with using Apple's Swift in a Docker container running on a Raspberry PI 3, which is approaching the Holy Grail of embedded system development.

I wanted to try python on a Raspberry Pi. I have not knowledge of Linux. But this kit plus the tutorials showed me exactly what I needed to do.

The board came up and ran, right out of the box. I got leds to work on the first try. My only complaint is that the wedge is short a few pins, and the kit should include a schematic of the wedge. Once I got that, my hook-up problems were gone. My project is proceeding on track. Great product.

This kit is well organized and well stocked, allowing you to get the RasPi up and running in no time at all. In only an hour, I went from opening the box to making some basic breadboard projects controlled by the RasPi. Great product!

Everything works as advertised and the starter kit provided everything I needed to get up and running quickly. Will plan to buy more rpi gear from SparkFun!

Been playing with this for around 3 months now. I gotta say, it's a great kit to get started with. The wedge makes mapping your hardware and code so much simpler. 9.75/10, would recommend or perhaps buy as a gift.

This is a very nice kit to get started with Raspberry Pi. The supporting information was also very helpful.