The Arduino is a great system for getting people into making with electronics and microcontrollers. I was reintroduced to a long-lost hobby when I was gifted an Arduino Duemilanove (a.k.a. 2009) by my wife’s late grandmother, and since then, I’ve had lots of fun learning and attempting to build things. I’ve even built a number of Arduino clones based on just AVR microcontrollers and a few passive components—it’s cheaper than fitting a new Arduino into a project!
Much has changed over the intervening years; LEDs used to cost about £10 each and came in one color, red. ...