The Embedded Learner Board (£19 / $26) takes it a step further, though. Also, it’s not a HAT, which allows it to be a bit platform agnostic – it works with Arduino boards as well. The board itself contains a ton of different components: a 16×2 LCD display, a 7-segment display, buttons, LEDs, thermistor, IR sensor, a buzzer, even a light sensor. It packs a lot of functionality and because of that, it’s also larger than a Raspberry Pi.

Learn to connect

As it’s not a HAT, you’ll need to manually connect wires to specific GPIO pins for what you’d like to use/control. Each element on the board is labelled and each corresponding pin is equally well labelled so it’s not a big issue – especially with the code examples that teach you how each part works. You can then start using bits in conjunction with each other.

It packs a lot of functionality and because of that, it’s also larger than a Raspberry Pi

The examples are great and the board is pretty cool, although some of the parts are a bit more advanced for beginners than we’d prefer. Experienced parental supervision is required in our opinion, although it will be a fun shared activity.

Verdict 

9/10

It packs a lot of functionality for quite a low price, although it may be a little fiddly for younger kids.