SparkFun Forums

[JohnnyWing]

Hi all,
I'd like to ask for some recommendations on my first foray into electronics. I'm a software developer by trade and I'd like to do some learning on the way to my end goal which is currently to have a light which is turned on and off by some condition on my PC. It will serve as a sort of an alarm or a busy indicator for the person at the pc. Note: it cannot have network connectivity and will be hard wired.

I think what I'd like some help with is the best kit that would teach me what I need to know in order to get me to the goal above. It'd be cool to be able to prototype some other things with this same kit to give me an understanding of what else could be done and how. I'm budget conscious and would like to spend as little as possible, but could also spend $100 or a bit more, if the value is there.

Is the SIK SE kit overkill? Would it meet my need even? Is there a smaller (cheaper) kit that would suffice? An arduino is probably severe overkill, isn't it?

Thanks in advance!

[ppelleti]

If you just want a light controlled by your PC, then it sounds like maybe blink(1) is what you want.

But if you want to do more than that, or are interested in a do-it-yourself project, then some sort of Arduino derivative is probably the way to go. You could get a RedStick if you want something small that plugs directly into the USB port.