This book uses a wide range of hardware to demonstrate what can be achieved by combining hardware and software in various ways. To get the most out of this book, it is highly recommended that you experiment with some of the hardware projects. I feel it is particularly rewarding to observe physical results from your coding efforts, and this differentiates the Raspberry Pi for learning over a typical computer.
A common problem is finding the right components for a project while not spending a fortune on it. All the hardware used in this book focuses on using low cost items that can usually be purchased from a variety of suppliers, in most cases with only a few dollars.
To help you locate suitable items, this appendix will list each hardware item used in the chapters with links to where they can be obtained. The list is not exhaustive, and it is likely that the availability of the items (and prices) may vary over time, so whenever you purchase, ensure you search around for the best value. Where practical, enough detail has been provided in the chapters to allow you to source your own components and build your own modules.
This appendix also includes a full list of software and Python modules mentioned in the book, including the specific versions used. If the software used in the book is updated and improved, it is likely that some modules will lose backward compatibility. Therefore, if you find the latest version installed does not function as expected, it may be that you will need to install an older version (details on how to do this are provided in the There's more… section of the Software list recipe).
