The kit is very cool, it has a lot of features in such a small size. But I have to wonder about its usefulness, even as a teaching device.
If a student wanted to learn about microcontrollers and a little bit about electronics, I'd probably point them to an 8-bit Arduino these days (e.g. an Arduino Nano, or my preference, a SparkFun Micro). There are so many display devices, input devices, and sensor devices to choose from, with readily available device drivers. After the initial learning period, they can graduate to the 32-bit Arduino-compatible devices (ESP8266, ESP32, STM32, SAMD21, SAMD51, etc). If the Arduino-flavored C++ is too much, they can use one of the boards that support MicroPython.
If on the other hand, they were interested in the software side of the embedded world, the easiest and cheapest entry into Z80 assembly language programming is an old TI calculator using the Z80 processor: i.e. the TI-83+ or TI-84+ (but not the TI-84+ CE). Those can be had for $20-$40 on eBay. The development environment on the host computer (Z80 assembler, firmware uploader, host emulator) can be tricky to set up, but using a full-featured assembler on a desktop computer is so much easier than doing hand assembly into hex code and punching in those numbers on tiny buttons. Yes, this is what we had to do in the 70s and 80s, but that gets old quickly after the assembly program grows bigger than a few hundred bytes.
If on the third hand, if I wanted to re-live the look and feel of the old retro computers, and re-experience how much effort it took to program those things, I think I'd want to get a real vintage computer from that era: a C64, Apple II, ZX-81, an Amiga, an Atari ST. Or, are those old computers too rare and expensive now? Heh, maybe those high prices are actually a good thing, knocking some sense into me, telling me that, no, I don't actually want to re-live those programming days.
The kit is very cool, it has a lot of features in such a small size. But I have to wonder about its usefulness, even as a teaching device.
If a student wanted to learn about microcontrollers and a little bit about electronics, I'd probably point them to an 8-bit Arduino these days (e.g. an Arduino Nano, or my preference, a SparkFun Micro). There are so many display devices, input devices, and sensor devices to choose from, with readily available device drivers. After the initial learning period, they can graduate to the 32-bit Arduino-compatible devices (ESP8266, ESP32, STM32, SAMD21, SAMD51, etc). If the Arduino-flavored C++ is too much, they can use one of the boards that support MicroPython.
If on the other hand, they were interested in the software side of the embedded world, the easiest and cheapest entry into Z80 assembly language programming is an old TI calculator using the Z80 processor: i.e. the TI-83+ or TI-84+ (but not the TI-84+ CE). Those can be had for $20-$40 on eBay. The development environment on the host computer (Z80 assembler, firmware uploader, host emulator) can be tricky to set up, but using a full-featured assembler on a desktop computer is so much easier than doing hand assembly into hex code and punching in those numbers on tiny buttons. Yes, this is what we had to do in the 70s and 80s, but that gets old quickly after the assembly program grows bigger than a few hundred bytes.
If on the third hand, if I wanted to re-live the look and feel of the old retro computers, and re-experience how much effort it took to program those things, I think I'd want to get a real vintage computer from that era: a C64, Apple II, ZX-81, an Amiga, an Atari ST. Or, are those old computers too rare and expensive now? Heh, maybe those high prices are actually a good thing, knocking some sense into me, telling me that, no, I don't actually want to re-live those programming days.