Starter Kit makes me sad

[SteBee]

First let me say that I love the Digispark--backed it on KS, have ordered extra ones since then, and am completely happy with every shield individually. The problem is the contents of the "Starter Kit". I'm hosting a party to teach people how to solder and program Digisparks, and ideally I'd just tell them "go to Digistump.com and buy a Starter Kit". However:

1) Buying the Starter Kit contents a la carte--one Digispark, one RGB Shield and one Prototype Shield--actually costs 10 cents less ($14.85) than the Starter Kit itself ($14.95), which makes me feel silly recommending it to people.

2) The Wings Shield is much more useful for a beginner than the Prototype Shield, since it makes it easy to wire up buttons or other sensors.

3) Since the kit contains two shields, it'd be more useful if it included one set of stackable headers so that both shields could be used at the same time.

So it would make me happy if I could point my friends to a "Beginners Kit" to buy here that contained the following:

• 1xDigispark
• 1xRGB Shield
• 1xWings Shield
• 1xStackable Headers

...for a price not higher than the a la carte price of $17.35.

[digistump]

First - thanks for the feedback - this is the kind of feedback we need!


About the starter kit - a distributer (Microcenter) asked for the Starter Kit specifically - and the price was based on the retail price they wanted to sell it at (we can't sell for less than the MSRP by contract) - so we obliged and added it to our site while we were at it - its been very popular but we certainly want to offer better "starter kits"


We don't have a huge margin for discounting things - but the kit you describe is something we can do for $16.95 probably - I'll confirm and get it up later today if it all looks good.


If you send us an email support@digistump.com - we'd love to hook you up with a small discount for your partygoers as well - cause that's a really cool idea!

[Mark]

Stebee

If you use the stacking headers (and they are the same as previous), you may wish to note this post.
http://digistump.com/board/index.php/topic,346.msg1785.html#msg1785


Mark

[digistump]

Here is the beginner kit: http://digistump.com/products/48


Re: stackable headers - we've seen some fit/contact issues when they inserting stackable headers into other stackable headers - not when inserting them into a Digispark - so with this kit it should not be an issue (only one set of stackable headers).


Even when inserted into other stackable headers we rarely have issues - though we understand others have had them more frequently. The next batch of stackable headers will go into rotation soon and will not have this issue (they are square tail instead of flat). That said - Mark's advice is great if issues are experienced!

[dougal]

I like the idea of an alternate starter kit. Heck, you could probably make several variants with different combinations of components.


And as long as we're making suggestions, how about some sort of audio-oriented shield? A piezo speaker, a few knobs to tweak, blinky lights if there's room...


And what microcontroller platform is complete without a line-following robot kit?

[SteBee]

Whoa, immediate gratification for the win! Thanks for the quick responses, everybody. I will point my people at the awesome new kit posthaste. And we will watch out for the pins on those headers.