The big picture: If you know nothing about electronics but have always wanted to learn and build IoT projects, Arduino has the solution. The Plug and Make Kit is a comprehensive product designed to quickly bring your IoT ideas to life, with no soldering or jumper wires required.
The Arduino team, known for providing a wide range of electronic and microcontroller components for DIY electronics enthusiasts since 2005, has announced a new product: the Plug and Make Kit.
This is beginner friendly as it does not require any breadboards, jumper wires or soldering. The magic lies in the Arduino Modulino node which consists of various sensors and actuators that connect to a UNO R4 WiFi board.
The Plug and Make Kit is the complete package to get you started. In the box you’ll find:
Arduino UNO R4 WiFi 32-bit microcontroller: the brains of the project. 7 Modulino nodes made up of sensors and actuators for different functions. Modulino Knob: for ultra-fine value adjustment Modulino Pixel: 8 LEDs to brighten, dim or change color Modulino Distance: Time-of-flight proximity sensor to precisely measure distance Modulino Movement: Perfectly capture movements like pitch, roll and tilt Modulino Buzzer: Generate your own alarm sounds or simple tunes Modulino Thermo: Sensor for both temperature and humidity data Modulino Buttons: 3 buttons for quick navigation of the project Modulino Base: Mount and organize your project components. Use a USB-C cable and a USB-A adapter to power the UNO R4 and upload your code. Use a Qwiic cable to connect the Modulino nodes to the UNO R4.
Additionally, buyers are provided with seven projects to kick-start their learning, including a weather forecast, a game controller, and a smart light. Learning can be enhanced by using Arduino Cloud, a dedicated content platform that provides a visual sandbox for projects, a library of pre-configured projects, and a smartphone app for monitoring and controlling IoT devices.
The Plug & Make concept is similar to other products in the space. Sphero’s littleBits. made a big splash in 2014 with its “snap and build” concept. Why did it take so long for Arduino to develop a Plug & Make kit? It wasn’t the first attempt. According to Arduino founder Massimo Banzi, “Innovation takes time and you have to wait for the right moment. We started building modular electronics with TinkerKit in 2006, then moved forward to the EU project PELARS in 2014, ESLOV in 2016, and Plug&Make in 2024.”
Lowering the barrier of entry for learning electronics and building your own IoT projects is good news for anyone who wants to get into electronics but doesn’t know where to start. Now there’s no excuse not to build a food storage inventory system.
