Depends on what you want to do, when I got started with this raspberry pi madness I basically purchased the canakit Model B rev 2 model which came with a bread board, jumper cables, wireless card, LEDs, and a GPIO breakout (a ribbon cable that reaches out from it's GPIO pins on the motherboard and plugs into the breadboard for easier prototyping). What is your budget, and what are some of the things you are planning to do?
I just received the Canakit Ultimate starter kit and I'm very happy with it. This is my third pi (I also have two model B) one of which I bought in parts and one of which I bought as a kit and the one I just received was by far the easiest and most pleasing of the three purchases.
The case and power supply look good, the wifi adaptor was simple to get working, and the card is labelled Sandisk (who knows these days if a card is genuine).
The electronic parts all look OK but I'm yet to play with those. The only thing I think I need is a wider variety of resistors.
Honestly, I'm not sure what projects I want to do yet, and this kit seems to come with all that stuff-
Amazon also has this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G1PNG54/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_4iDoub0F7FHVY
I'm an ECE that got into Raspberry Pi about a month ago. I work in microelectronics (chip design), and wanted to use it to get back into larger scale electronics hacking and to do some more hardware oriented programming and projects.
As such, I had to basically reform my electronics gadget supply at the same time since I ditched my college collection a while back when moving to a new house.
Here's some of the key things I bought to go with my Pi that I felt I needed. I'm assuming you're like me and want to work on electronics hardware (lights, switches, etc).
Beyond those basic starter components, the rest is up to your imagination and what you want to do next. In my case, I plan to drive higher current components, so I'll be using optocouples and relays eventually. And I plan to make my own PCBs to snap onto the Raspberry, so I have PCBs, headers, and soldering stuff.
If you're new to the Raspberry, there's online resources out there. I also got this book off Amazon as a starter as well, which I've been coupling with online resources.
On the Arduino side, that's my next purchase since I may find it easier to have the software and server side of one of my projects on a Pi, and the hardware interface on an Arduino. I'm just going to get an R3 board to start since I have the rest of the stuff they usually include in a starter pack listed above.
This blog did a nice writeup comparing some Arduino R3 starter kits: https://www.pretzellogix.net/2014/10/09/three-arduino-starter-kits-compared-and-reviewed/
I'm an ECE that got into Raspberry Pi around Christmas. I work in microelectronics (chip design), and wanted to use The Pi to get back into larger scale electronics hacking and to do some more hardware oriented programming and projects. I posted this in /r/raspberry_pi for a new user a while ago, but for folks looking to get in Raspberry Pi like I did, here's what I ended up getting to go along with it:
Beyond those basic starter components, the rest is up to your imagination and what you want to do next. In my case, I plan to drive higher current components, so I'll be using optocouplers and relays eventually.
If you're new to the Raspberry, there's online resources out there. I also got this book off Amazon as a starter as well, which I've been coupling with online resources.
Not that I have much there (I've only had about a week or 2 to mess around with the Pi), I've got some example simple Python GPIO LED scripts and stuff on github: https://github.com/bluecav/raspberry-scripts
It's only $84.99 on amazon. Same one, I believe. - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G1PNG54?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=A30ZYR2W3VAJ0A
Something like this?
This is not the correct sub for your post, but I can actually help you out a little bit.
I bought this Raspberry Pi and this book to go with it.
The kit is a good deal because if you want to make stuff, you most likely will have to purchase a bunch of things separately and that makes it more expensive than just buying the basic Raspberry Pi. But if you just want the Raspberry Pi and nothing else, this is the most recent one, I think.
It's being powered by the cable it came with. It was a kit I bought on Amazon. This one http://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Ultimate-Starter-Components/dp/B00G1PNG54
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G1PNG54/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This is the bundle I purchased.
Non-mobile: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G1PNG54
^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?
I'm going to try the Plex Media Server here in the next week or two, but right now I'm looking for a suitable "starter kit" that will hopefully enclose the board and a 2.5" HDD for NAS storage.
Have to say I'm looking forward to building my own credit-card-sized media server! Yeah, I'm easily amused. :-)
A Shack near my house had 30 - 60 % discounts for the clearance. They had a raspberry pi "starter" kit available at 50% off. It was a raspberry pi, a few LEDs, resistors, and other penny components, and a bread board. At 50% off, the thing was $70. Here's a better one on Amazon for $65.
They also had a bunch Jawbone Up fitness trackers. Originally $129.99, again it was 50% off. Here it is on Amazon for $46.10.
The biggest problem with Radio Shack is that their prices were just insanely bad long after a time that the masses had internet access. It's not just about buying cheap Chinese knockoffs. 90% of what you find in Radio Shack are cheap Chinese knockoffs. It's about a complete lack of growing a business so that it can thrive in the economic community.
There isn't much difference there. The make and model of the SD card and the WiFi adapter are different, but they should perform the same. The Canakit shows, but doesn't mention the heat sink. The differences I see: the Canakit comes with a black case and a 2.5A power supply where as the Vilros kit comes with a clear case and a 2A power supply.
Non-mobile links: Canakit and Vilros, in case anyone else wants to look.
Depending on what accessories you want to add, you may need to utilize a powered USB hub, even with the four (4) ports on the B+ due to (potential) power issues. I think 2A is probably going to be plenty for most setups.
That brings it to the case...clear or black?
I've gotten stuff from both Canakit and Vilros and there have been no issues with any of it.
> What sort of limitations should I expect with this project? Thinking along the lines of certain emulators not working well (if at all), as well as streaming certain forms of content via Kodi.
I don't think I've had many, if any issues with SD (480p) and HD (720p) video content, but FHD (1080p) does seem to push the Pi. I've heard that a slight over-clocking could correct some of this. I also think there are some issues with higher end and "fancy" audio processing, but for me those issues are pretty much non-existent. For my media needs I use OpenELEC.
I have only started working with emulators on the Pi and so far things have worked pretty well. I followed a Lifehacker post and a post in DIY about setting up RetroPie and it seemed to cover most things. I have only tried NES, SNES, and Genesis and I have been happy with those. There are some of the higher-end emulators that may have issues (N64 is one that gets mentioned), but I haven't tried any of those other options, yet.
Well, I had no idea what I was doing. Neither have I ever heard or seen Rapberries. :) I figured I'd buy it w/ all the bells and whistles (it came w/ A LOT of crap, resistors, all kinds of connectors, circuit board, wifi dongle). Next time I'll buy one, I'll make sure to shoot you a PM for an advice. :)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G1PNG54/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1