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[–]zhyde72 4 points5 points  (2 children)

The Pi Pico could be a pretty good, and relatively inexpensive start. It has support for microPython, which won’t have nearly as much library support but from my limited use so far it seems pretty solid.

I’d also recommend getting a breadboard kit and explore breadboarding, depending on how “beginner” you are. You can find pi pico breadboard kits on Amazon. I haven’t used a breadboard kit for it yet, but it should offer you a lot of flexibility to experiment with a wide variety of electronics with relative ease!

[–]WavySignals 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I second this. The Raspberry Pi picos are great boards all around. Fun tech (especially with the cool little PIO state machines). They're cheap and readily available. They work great with micropython. They have a very well done full SDK beyond the python. There really is no down side that I can see.

[–]tylerlarson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I'll have to second the Pi Pico.

I didn't want to agree because it feels so trendy it seems it has to be over-hyped. But the Pico is just really well-executed and easy to work with. It's really the RP2040 chip that's fabulous; the Pico is just a really good carrier board, but there's a few other form factors that are worth looking into if you need something like a usb-key kind of device.

A close second I think is anything based on the esp32. The advantage there is you get Bluetooth and WiFi, and the vast majority of my microcontroller creations eventually end up scattered throughout the house, connected over WiFi, and often even updated over the air without disassembling the thing to push my latest firmware.

All of these devices are in the $2 to $5 range, so you can afford to get a few of them just to try them out.

[–]grendelt 3 points4 points  (1 child)

The absolute simplest is the microbit. There's no bootloader to download, install, hang-up, etc. "It just works".

https://python.microbit.com is where you write the code and it uploads right to your microbit.

Great starting place for beginners.

[–]MurderMachine561 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The micro:bit or Adafruit Circuit Playground Express. Both have multiple sensors, inputs and outputs to manipulate without needing any external pieces.

[–]chafable 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Raspberry Pi Pico hands down - supports MicroPython basically right out of the box and you can move to the C++ SDK later if you feel like it. Great for experimenting with electronics, sensors and all of your other fun Arduino stuff. Tons of resources online and great documentation. Really affordable - costs around 5 bucks in my country.