Electronic Kits

[Chuckt]

150 in One Kit 1976.jpg (76.4 KiB) Viewed 10744 times

The above is a Science Fair Kit selling on Ebay. They were sold at Radio Shack. I had a 75 in One kit which was not as big as this one. They had springs to put your wires in and the kit was in a wooden case. There was space for the wires. It had resistors, a relay, transistors, capacitors, a speaker and a coil or antenna for a radio. It also had a manual that told you where to put the wires. Some of the projects included a siren, an amplifier, morse code, an AM radio, etc. My kit didn't make it because everyone wanted to haul off with my wires and the main transistor was overloaded with current that I think I heard it pop.

Unless you get them on Ebay, you probably can't get them but there are newer type projects that you can get.

PL130A - Super-Fun 130 In 1 Electronics Lab
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bi ... key=PL130A

PL300 - Complete 300 In 1 Electronic Lab
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bi ... &key=PL300

PL500 - Advanced 500 In 1 Electronic Lab
http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi-bi ... &key=PL500

The 500 in 1 Electronic Lab is probably my favorite. If you click on the link you can probably see why. It teaches you how to get closer to a computer by learning the projects. There is really a lot of tutorials in this kit. You can probably get lost for hours in it if you are a beginner.

PL500-W.gif (46.02 KiB) Viewed 10743 times

[brad]

Those kits are great! I had one when I was younger. I didn't have a clue of how it worked but I connected the wires up in the hope that it would work.

[sdudley]

Radio Shack still sells them. I think they are better than ever and the price is quite nice.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=3814337

I just picked up one on craigslist that is a little older but works great. I have plans of making my own experimenters kit and am using the Radio Shack kit to steal ideas.

Radio Shack is really starting to push the electronics hobby stuff again. I noticed they have really amped up their kit selection and are selling Vellemen kits as well as a few other things. The local Radio Shacks where I live have added a lot of this stuff to their shelves and I was considering approaching them about having a once a month project for kids to come in, build a little kit and take it home. Very similar to what the Home Depot does (if you are familar with that).

They have even created a new web page deticated to do-it-yourselfer's like us to show off our projects (but the projects need to include some sort of Raidio Shack products). They have partnered up with other sites like - Popular Mechanics, Make:, Wired, Instructables, and POPSCI.

I have always loved Radio Shack and I hope they do well with it.

Here is the link:

http://www.radioshackdiy.com/

Stacy

[Chuckt]

Radio Shack still sells them. I think they are better than ever and the price is quite nice.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=3814337

I just picked up one on craigslist that is a little older but works great. I have plans of making my own experimenters kit and am using the Radio Shack kit to steal ideas.

Which one is the best value and which one would everyone decide on? Another question is which one would work better with Pics?

I saw the Velleman kits but they are cheaper online so buying more than one online would save shipping costs unless you are in Australia but then they probably don't excite everyone as I'm not too excited. I guess it is a step in the right direction for Radio Shack but it may not save their company.

[sdudley]

Hey Chuck,

Sorry but I think you misunderstood me... It's definitely not going to save their company (by any stretch of the imagination). I guess to venture it will cost them more than it is worth. Sadly I just don't think kids these days are really interested in learning about electronics if it doesn't have anything to do with how to reach the next level in a video game.

I am just hoping that the effort Radio Shack is putting into the electronic kits will help draw some interest from the next generation of kids who can take it to the another level.

Keep in mind that I am speaking strictly about what I am seeing in the youth of the United States! Too many of todays youth are only interested in playing games and not making them! My generation was more interested in "how things work". Todays generation are more interested in just "having things".

Ok, sorry about the rant, back to the conversation...

You are correct, the Vellamen kits are considerably less expensive on line or at other places. But then again so is everything else that Radio Shack sells!

I don't think any of the kits are meant for microcontrollers with the exception of the Parallax programming kits but they are a little out dated and use parallel ports for programming. Still the book and projects are great learning tools for anyone interested in programming microcontrollers. If they took that same kit and updated it to work with USB then it would be great! However, you can still find that kit on line for less than Radio Shack sells it.

As far as basic electronic kits go, I was simply saying that the 300-in-1 kit is a pretty good deal for people interested in learning about electronics. It's the same old kit that you posted with just an updated look and a few more projects and I hope it does well so they continue to sell it.

They also brought back (from the grave) many of the Forrest Mims III projects and incorporated them in new books with a new look and feel. I am not sure if you are familiar with the Forrest Mims III electronics "Mini-Notebooks", but I was bummed when they pulled them from the shelves a few years back.

Stacy

[sdudley]

Hey by the way...

Here are a couple links to the project books for the Radio Shack kits:

http://www.radioshack.com/graphics/uc/r ... _PM_EN.pdf

http://www.radioshack.com/graphics/uc/r ... _PM_EN.pdf

pRS1-6738325w345.jpg (11.24 KiB) Viewed 10679 times

Just in case anyone is interested in looking over some of the projects.

Stacy

[brad]

That is way more advanced than what I had when I were a lad