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Prof. James Andrew Smith's Blog

Lab Kit for EECS 1011 and 1021.

Posted on 8 October 2020

The YorkU Bookstore sells a lab kit for EECS 1011 and 1021.  The original batch of kits arrived in September, 2020.  The next batch arrived in December, 2020.  If you live in a country for which the Bookstore does not ship to you, or you have discovered that there is no more stock at the Bookstore,  I recommend going directly to our supplier in China and ordering from them, or by reaching out to a local supplier in your home country (or in Canada) that can equip you with similar Arduino devices.

EECS 1011 1021 lab kit

The lab kit for EECS 1011 and 1021

If a student is having trouble obtaining the kit from the bookstore they can purchase the parts on their own from a variety of sources.  It is impossible for us to provide in-depth technical support all the permutations from all these vendors as we have not verified them, so students going this route will have to take into account these limitations.

Some of the parts may not be in stock at the vendors listed here.  Some of the vendors may refuse to ship to your country.  We encourage you to use this list as a starting point and you may wish to contact a local vendor to figure out alternatives.

  1. Seeed Studio Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino.
    1. verify any purchase you make against the Grove kit wiki page parts list
    2.  link at Seeed Studio (shipping from China)
    3. Robotshop link. (shipping from Montreal)
      1. Separate buzzer, OLED, slider (as opposed to rotary sensor), temp & humidity sensor, light sensor, temp and barometer sensor, etc. (not all parts are at Robotshop… you’ll need to check the wiki for other separate sensors/actuators/devices)
    4. Digikey link. (p/n 1597-110061162-ND; shipping from the US)
    5. Amazon links: first, second, apparently shipping from Canada)
    6. If you decide to build up a system using a regular Arduino Uno, you may, but you’ll also need to include the equivalent to the sensors included in the Grove Kit.  See the list at the Seeed Wiki page: https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/Grove-Beginner-Kit-For-Arduino/
  2. Battery
    1. 9v solution
      1. 9v battery
      2. 9v battery cable (like this one, or the one at Creatron) …. just bare wires)
    2. 5v solution
      1. four AA batteries
      2. AA battery holder (like this one at Robotshop or this one at Creatron)
  3. Water pump
    1. Untested, alternative model: DF Robot FIT0563 (Digikey p/n 1738-1398-ND)
      1. hose (silicone tubing) is included
    2. Tested Water Pump at RobotShop: (https://www.robotshop.com/ca/en/immersible-water-pump-water-tube.html)
      1. hose (silicone tubing) is included
    3. Untested water pump from BangGood (China).  Uses 9mm / 0.35in tubing.
    4. Searching for “cat fountain pump” (e.g. this one) leads to practical alternatives to the submersible water pump.
  4. Tubing.  You need a silicone tube for your water pump.  Which type depends on the pump you choose and the size of the barbed inlet (water comes in) and outlet (water goes out).  Some of the existing pumps come with tubing.  That’s good. The inner diameter of the tube must equal the outer diameter of the barbed outlet of the pump.
    1. Ex @ robotshop: 60cm long, about 4.5mm inner diameter.  Which one you choose depends on your pump.
  5. Grove Moisture sensor
    1. Alternative DFRobot moisture sensor: https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1385.html. Make sure to get wires that can allow it to connect to an Arduino header (interface). (Robotshop link)
    2. Alternative Grove Moisture sensor @ Robotshop.
  6. Grove MOSFET switch. (RobotShop link)
    1. Alternative Relay board (Robotshop link)
  7. Grove cable to male pin cables (2 to 5 units): https://www.seeedstudio.com/Grove-4-pin-Male-Jumper-to-Grove-4-pin-Conversion-Cable-5-PCs-per-Pack.html
  8. Extra, longer micro USB Cable
    1. Don’t reuse an existing one.  Many used for cell phone charging are missing two wires inside, thus preventing communication between your board and your computer.

You should also have a wire stripper, a set of jewellers screwdrivers (flat) and a basic multimeter (can measure voltage, current, resistance and connectivity).

Once again, this page provides possible alternatives to the kit that we have sourced and are selling via the YorkU Bookstore.  Nobody in the Lassonde School has any financial interest in the sale of these kits.  We do not recommend that students build the kits on their own from the parts suggested here, however if a student is having difficulty sourcing the kit from the bookstore or needs to purchase a few replacement parts, then this page may serve as a useful reference.

Canadian suppliers

In the Toronto area, I recommend Sayal, Creatron, or even the Home Hardware located near the corner of College and Spadina.

Robotshop will ship from their location in Montreal. Buy-a-Pi will ship from Toronto. Solarbotics and Phidgets will ship from Calgary.

These stores stock Arduinos and Arduino-compatible devices.  Getting an official Arduino-branded device is a good idea.  If you are going this particular route, consider getting a book on putting together your kit and building the circuits that are already built into the Grove board.

Ordering from a Canadian vendor is a good idea as it can save you on “brokerage fees” (getting stuff across the border) and may help if you have a name that commonly comes up on security watch lists (like me!  there are a surprising number of James Smiths that have gotten into trouble and border agents like to bring that up).

Extra (Replacement) Parts from the YorkU Bookstore

You can order single parts if one of your parts fails / breaks.  The Bookstore stocks individual parts as follows:

  •  BATTERY HOLDER AA 4 CELL 6″ LEADS 36-2478-ND 13862114 $2.57
  • BLACK 8 IN 1 PRECISION POCKET PEN SCREWDRIVER RB-2hh-01 13862152 $2.34
  • Driew 3W DC 3.5-9V USB Water Pump with Power Cord, Solar Mini Submersible,Brushless,Waterproof (USB Water Pump) BW003-MB009 13875077 $19.27
  • GROVE – CAPACITIVE MOISTURE SENSOR 1597-101020614-ND 13862107 $12.53
  • GROVE BEGINNER KIT FOR ARDUINO 1597-110061162-ND 13862046 $41.90
  • GROVE MOSFET 1597-1326-ND 13862053 $8.21
  • UDP T10004006 Clear Vinyl Tubing 5/16ID X 7/16OD X 100 ft Dispenser Box T10004006 13875107 $48.59

More can be added. Please visit the specific parts page at the Bookstore for details.

 

Non-Canadian Suppliers.

Update alternative non-Canadian sources of parts that may ship to countries that Canadian suppliers may refuse to ship to.

Thanks our lab staff like Eric P for your help with this!

The Grove Beginner Kit

Illustration of the Grove Beginner Kit.

 

James Andrew Smith is an associate professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department in York University’s Lassonde School.  He lived in Strasbourg, France and taught at the INSA Strasbourg and Hochschule Karlsruhe while on sabbatical in 2018-19 with his wife and kids and wrote about his personal and professional perspectives.  You can find him on Twitter.