If the emphasis is going to be on coding,which is, after all, at the heart of what microcontrollers are all about, then a well-supported, well-provisioned devboard might be the best choice.

From the standpoint of one wishing to learn about electronics, however, starting "from scratch" might be a better one, particularly since our O/P has meters and 'scope available, along with a parent who presumably knows how to use them.

The experience of "bringing something up" without using ready-made application circuits (I know ... the IC's are ready-made circuits too) is an experience that can't be obtained any other way.

I've "brought along" a few youngsters who were interested in hardware, though they were all more adept at programming than electronic analysis and design, and I've always started them with power supply, then basic application circuit for the processor of their choice, and then comm's, and then mass-storage. That was, of course, back before the mass-storage was so straightforward as it is now, with ATA. Back then we had raw ST506 interface,or SMD, or SASI/SCSI to contend with.

A couple of these guys I "brought along" retired even earlier than I started to do so, and they were 20 years younger than I. The approach seems to work.

I'm persuaded that our particular O/P will do better with a ready-made EVK such as the 'F120 kit if his primary goal is to write code and to develop his programming skills heading in the direction of that robotic system he mentioned. If, however, he wants to develop hardware skills, starting from a bare MCU will probably better serve his needs.

RE