What is Reddit's opinion of Getting Started With Arduino: The Open Source Electronics Prototyping Platform (Make)?

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That's an intermediate level project that sounds fun, but you don't need anything as complex as a Raspberry Pi. A simple microcontroller like an Arduino Nano would work great and cost less. Remember, a Raspberry Pi is an entire, albeit simple, computer. Arduino is a much simpler (and cheaper) microcontroller. (There's some overlap in capabilities, so take this as a reasonable generalization.)

Here's a sample project for non-contact temperature sensing:

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/engineeringuofs/interfacing-ir-temperature-sensor-with-arduino-uno-279b70

Also, this book is an excellent resource for Arduino. It was just updated. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680456938?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share