One thing I have been doing is answering questions on Quora, particularly questions about the Arduino Uno and related boards (using the ATmega328P or ATmega2560) when the questioner would benefit from a little knowledge of what’s “Far Inside”.
Perhaps people will read the answers, see my bio blurb, and seek out Far Inside The Arduino. We will see. My 15+ year old book about the 68HCS12 still far outsells the Arduino book., there are lots of clones available. And there are also many inexpensive accessories coming out of China. This has done a lot to make experimenting affordable, but some care needs to be taken.
- Quality varies, and it’s hard to know what brands to trust. I’ve personally found Elegoo to always be decent. Not the highest quality, but they do work and the soldering is fine. Their Uno and Mega clones appear 100% compatible with Arduino while their Nano clone differs in the USB interface chip. But they tell how to accommodate and they work fine.
- Many “no name” accessories are not tested so often don’t work. They may also have bad solder joints, bent headers, or flux not washed off the boards.
- Quality of components isn’t quite “industrial” by any stretch. Mechanical parts (like wires) don’t last as long. Treat everything with care.
- Nothing seems to come with documentation, so you need to do web searching. Elegoo kits come with documentation but, frankly, it is poor quality.
- Some accessories, not based off of Arduino designs, are poorly designed. I’ve got various “shields” that are poorly designed, with such things as LEDs without current limiting resistors (yes, the LEDs fail after a short time), bad pin choices which limit functionality.