OK.

Well, this just about concludes my first test on a "cheap" Chinese Uno board from AliExpress. To summarize lessons learned:

So, I'm done with this basic Arduino Uno test and even though I had no prior experience with the Arduino, it was very simple and easy to get started.

I have over 30 open shipments on the way from China to Thailand from AliExpress with many different sensors, kits, displays, shields and modules to test and play with.

Next, I will learn the basics of the (very cheap) 1602A display with the four-pin I2C bus attached to the Arduino Uno, just because I happen to have one in front of me.

Of course, any of my code samples I post will have device addresses unique to my devices. YMMV as I am not writing, modifying or building sketches to be cross-platform compliant (that is not my goal). My goal is to have fun connecting my cars, motorcycles, phones, devices and computers, I guess some would call this IoT, but whatever we call it, it is really fun to be able to get very cheap components from China sent to me with no (or very small) shipping costs from fairly close by (China borders Thailand), duty free with AliExpress. I don't use Banggood (I recently requested Banggood to delete my account); as I do not like their business model and prefer AliExpress because I can chat directly with each seller and ask them questions, especially since I am in the same timezone (for the most part) for normal business hours in China.

My final editorial comment..... I really like AliExpress, and my account shows close to 200 orders to date with AliExpress vendors over the years. The sellers there have always provided good customer service for the most part, far superior to other online sites like this. Banggood, on the other hand, does not permit us to talk directly to sellers, and when we have a problem they approach customer service like a kind of legal inquisition, and so their customer service is, at least to me, horrible. I'm lucky, as a fun-loving electronics hobbyist, to be so close to China, for sure; and it feels good to be getting back into this hobby after so many years focused solely on software.

Arduino ! Better late than never, as they say!