Which Arduino should I get?

[drake123]

Which Arduino should I get?

Programming Level: Hatchling lol! I have no experience in programming.. but I want to learn while using arduino since I'm going to start college as a computer engineer major.

Budget: Low... :/

I have zero clue about stuff that are on circuit boards etc.

What is a good starter kit or board for me to get? What stuff will I need along with the board to get going (what wires or connectors etc.)?

Please list your main answer for the board, then list an alternative arduino option (just in case price).

 

[killersquirel11]

I'm getting close to the end of my Computer Engineering degree here at UW-Madison, so I can hopefully offer some relevant advice.

1) The Arduino is a decent starting point, but not entirely necessary (if your program is at all like mine, you won't even get into hardware-level programming until your third year. If you really want to learn stuff on that level, join some extracirricular like a robot team or some such to really learn electronics)

2) The sparkfun inventor's kit for Arduino is a good starting point that I would recommend for teaching yourself basic electronics and Arduino programming.

Beyond that, I would also get into Linux, as that is useful for dealing with low-level stuff.