These are the components that we’re going to use to get started.

The first thing to do is plug the TinkerKit shield on top of the Arduino board. Don’t bend the pins of the shield.

Now connect a LED module to the O0 port of the shield. In this example we’re using the 10mm blue LED, but any LED module will work.

Use the USB cable to connect the Arduino and the computer

Open the Arduino software and select the board you’re using from the top menu under Tools > Board. We’re using an Arduino UNO and Mac OSX, but the procedure is exactly the same on Windows and Linux

Open the Blink! example from the top menu File > Examples > TinkerKit > Blink

Now you should have a new window with the code of the Blink Example. Load it into the Arduino using the Upload button in the top toolbar

If everything went right, you should see an LED blinking like this:

Now?

You just moved the first steps into the physical computing world, keep learning to make your own projects or browse through the existing ones, modify them and get inspired!