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The last time I went into a Radio Shack, the only thing they sold were batteries and cellphones. Both salesmen looked at me like I was from Mars when I asked for a ferrite choke core.

I'm just glad to see they're picking a name that accurately reflects their current state.

The selection is about the same, the staff is equally competent, and they don't even ask for your address when you buy some batteries.

Yes, the equally competent Wal-Mart staff were very helpful last week when I needed a 2200 microfarad capacitor. I believe the kid's exact response was, "Dude, you shoulda hit the 'Shack."

I'm kidding of course. I hit the 'Shack first. And yes, I'm one of those guys who walks right past the luser filter--er--consumer electronics section.

An ancient store by some people's standards but they do redeem themselves once in a while. This may be one of those times: http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=wire%20management&origkw=wire%20management&sr=1

I played a lot with these sorts of projects when I was young. I really enjoyed the little books by Forrest M. Mims III at Radio Shack. This book is probably stocked with good ideas.

Using a wire wrapping tool could be a good way to construct circuits without using solder. You can also use breadboards. The breadboards are easier to work with, and can be reused by several classes. However, with the wire wrapping approach, you may be able to make the project cheap enough for the students to keep what they build.

I once made a "darkness detector" or night light which would light up an LED when a room was dark. It was kind of cool because it all fit inside a little plastic film canister. All it needs is an LED, a photoresistor, a watch battery, an on/off switch, and a transistor. (And perhaps a simple resistor.) It can all be wired up using the wire wrapping tool. It's more of a toy than a useful item, but it's so cheap that it could be something they can take home to keep.

I played a lot with these sorts of projects when I was young. I really enjoyed the little books by Forrest M. Mims III at Radio Shack. This book is probably stocked with good ideas.

Using a wire wrapping tool could be a good way to construct circuits without using solder. You can also use breadboards. The breadboards are easier to work with, and can be reused by several classes. However, with the wire wrapping approach, you may be able to make the project cheap enough for the students to keep what they build.

I once made a "darkness detector" or night light which would light up an LED when a room was dark. It was kind of cool because it all fit inside a little plastic film canister. All it needs is an LED, a photoresistor, a watch battery, an on/off switch, and a transistor. (And perhaps a simple resistor.) It can all be wired up using the wire wrapping tool. It's more of a toy than a useful item, but it's so cheap that it could be something they can take home to keep.

I hear you. You might consider buying a weather radio. They have an instant on alert mode that would listen for a severe weather alert signal being broadcast by NOAA and instantly come on so you can hear the alert. Perfect for people who liven in Tornado Alley. They aren't terribly expensive (though unfortunately they do cost some money you probably didn't plan to spend) at around $20-30. RadioShack. Amazon.

I agree it's a shame DTV doesn't have the ability to gracefully degrade rather than be an all-or-nothing deal...

Ya, I know this will blow your mind, but my dad grew up without computers, and managed to learn to use one. So having the technology in the school is not a prerequisite to learning about said technology.

If only practical application worked the same as theory. As a kid my dad had an interest in electronics and technology, but ask him to build a radio and he couldn't. I built my first radio with copper wire wrapped around paper towel, or TP, roll. Radio Shack has made a lot of money selling educational kits. As a review, because it's been many years since I've done any of it and my memory is bad, I bought an electronics learning lab from them.

Giving the students laptops is stupid; that's what computer labs are for. Low end desktops with the software you describe will be cheaper in the long run... because the computers will stay in the school and be available to the incoming students.

Desktops can't be taken home whereas laptops can. And as others have pointed out a cheap laptop running Linux should last years, with the student using the same one. Issue one to a student that student will use throughout school from one grade to the next.

Of course breakage can, and will, happen. They can also be stolen or lost. Some tyme back there was an article about how a class of students were trained to repair them. This combines two good things, schools can have laptops repaired cheaply. And the students gain a valuable skill. Of course this isn't relevant for primary school students, but it can help jr high and high school students. I first got into electronics when I took an electronics class in 7th grade. In 9th grade I took a class on small engine repair. My high school had an auto repair workshop.

Falcon

The content providers just don't want you using Hulu on your actual TV.

But most TVs sold over the past few years, at least the HDTV LCD and Plasma ones (but not my SDTV unfortunately) have at least one DB15 (vga) or HDMI input. There really isn't much to stop even a fairly clueless tech user from hooking a laptop up to their TV and watching Hulu on the TV. I do think you are right, oracleguy01, that the content providers are trying to make a distinction between TV and PC, but the with the way these things are converging I think they are going to lose on this one. A laptop (which most people already have) and a $16 vga cable from RadioShack http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2261573&tab=techSpecs is really all that is needed to watch the likes of Hulu on a modern TV.

And anyone that thinks the Harmony is the best, has never used a JP1 remote. $20 for a remote (I picked it up on sale for $10), and ~$20 (or do-it-yourself) for the cable, and you can program a JP1 remote to do any IR you want. The flexibility people have programmed for these remotes is amazing.

The real value of a Harmony comes from the "usability" of the remote, not the "flexibility" of programming it. (As an aside, the Harmony wins on programming at least 95% of the time, too (Samsung TV IR codes completely suck.) I can have a Harmony remote fully programmed for five devices in 15 minutes or less.)

The key is that Harmony remotes are "use case based", and are not device oriented. Pick one up, and the buttons are labeled with things you want to do: "Watch TV", "Watch DVD", "Listen to Radio", or "Control Lights". The power of this is immediately apparent when you run these remotes through the Mom Test.

Park your mom in front of your entertainment system and hand her the JP1. The first thing she'll do is go to the kitchen and make you a sammich, because she has no frakking idea how to turn your TV on, or how to make the sound come out, or how to change channels. But put a Harmony in her hands, and she'll push the "Watch TV" button. The TV comes on, the cable box comes on, the sound system comes on, the TV sets its input to HDMI-1, the sound system sets its input to AUX-1, and your mom is watching TV.

And if the system gets out of sync, with the TV showing cable and the audio playing FM radio, push the "help" button. It asks questions about the problems and then sends the IR signals that help resync everything.

The Harmony completely changed how I thought about human-TV interactions, and raised it up a level. I own two for my systems, and have bought them for my elderly in-laws, aunts and uncles. Device-oriented remote controls are horse-and-buggy-whips by comparison.

Sure, if your budget is $20, and you've got all the time in the world to mess around with programming it, and nobody else needs to use it, the JP1 is probably more than adequate. But I spent more than that in time wasted answering the first phone call my father-in-law had about getting his TV to switch between Dish and DVD. The Harmony made those phone calls end.

And anyone that thinks the Harmony is the best, has never used a JP1 remote. $20 for a remote (I picked it up on sale for $10), and ~$20 (or do-it-yourself) for the cable, and you can program a JP1 remote to do any IR you want. The flexibility people have programmed for these remotes is amazing.

It's all just a matter of priorities. Some folks think spending over $10,000 on a car is dumb, others see spending more than $500 on a computer, or more than $50 on a video card is stupid. For anyone who thinks that spending $1,500 on a pair of headphones is crazy, the simple fact is that you're not the intended audience.

Couldn't agree more. I'm one of those in the group that thinks spending $1,500 on headphones is crazy. As an example, my favorite headphones don't cost $1,500. Or even $500 or $100. My favorite headphones cost $40. ($20 if you get them on sale.) I've been buying this brand of headphone for about 12 years. They keep changing the name and model number, but the speakers are the same after each iteration. Also the "titanium membrane" is always clearly marked as a bullet-point. I believe the current version is here.

Yes, I know. Every "audiophile" or "audio geek" or "music aficionado" or what-have-you would point and laugh at headphones like these, based on the fact that they're A) low-priced, B) made cheaply and B) come from RatShack of all places. And I'm going to agree with those premises because they're not wrong. The headphones also have pretty generic design to them, the wires tend to stiffen up and get brittle after a couple of years, and the headband is so tight that your ears hurt after about two hours of use. There's no noise cancellation, no external sound isolation, and certainly no donut-shaped speaker.

But even so, they still sound damned good. No, they aren't going to knock your socks off, but I've personally tried a few $100 and $200 headphones and many of those still don't quite match up to my titanium-diaphragmed cheapies. I look at it this way: I use my headphones for entertainment. I can enjoy music and movies without being bothered about whether I'm missing some hard-to-define nearly-subsonic nuance of the sound.

What really kills me is the people who buy nice big expensive headphones and then proceed to use them for listening to lossy audio formats like MP3, AAC, and whatever ships on most commercial DVDs.

But people will die without tornado information

There are a lot of cheaper ways to get emergency weather and EBS alerts than from a TV. Hell, most will even alert you when one of these statements affects you, as opposed to a broadcast medium that is usually the same to all members of the DMA.

Problem solved.

Yeah, you'd use a "Y" cable to feed the left & right stereo signals to both the TV and VCR. You could do the same thing with the composite video if you wanted to use it to feed both the TV and VCR. If you had a last-generation VCR with 19uM-heads capable of pseudo-S-video, you could also split the s-video & use it to feed both the TV and VCR... but for that case, I'd recommend a Radio Shack 1x4 distribution amp, like this one: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103065

Radio Shack is a pale shadow of what it used to be, but for things like AV cables & accessories, they're usually the best place to go if you need it *today* and don't want to burn the afternoon hitting a half-dozen stores. Price and quality-wise, they're kind of the sweet spot between Wal Mart (cheap, but garbage) and Best Buy (their good stuff is hideously overpriced). Radio Shack's cables aren't sexy, but they work as well as Monster at roughly half the price.

Just go to radio shack and buy the heat sink compound (Cat. No.: 276-1372, it will be over where the transistors and the like are) and comes in a small tube, its the white paste stuff and is pretty good unless your overclocking drastically and need some special stuff like artic silver, much better than the thermal crap that comes on heatsinks. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102858

The noise and hiss is certainly a bit of an issue, but you can buy a simple volume controller (such as this one), and the problem is solved. That is, unless your onboard sound is absolutely godawful.

This works for myself. I can even use my Shure e2c comfortably. The e2cs are sensitive enough that I can't use them comfortably with my iPod without the volume controller because of the hissing.

Oh sure, $39.99 for a 6ft HDMI cable is necessary to pay for all those hard working Radio Shack employees.

When I was a kid I loved my 50-in-One Electronics Kit from Rat Shack. They still make some kits: Electronics Learning Lab although I don't know if a 13-year-old would care as much as a 10-year-old.

Here's their kit category: http://www.radioshack.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2032398

I see they have one that also includes a Basic Stamp. Or maybe it would better complement an Arduino.

When I was a kid I loved my 50-in-One Electronics Kit from Rat Shack. They still make some kits: Electronics Learning Lab although I don't know if a 13-year-old would care as much as a 10-year-old.

Here's their kit category: http://www.radioshack.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2032398

I see they have one that also includes a Basic Stamp. Or maybe it would better complement an Arduino.

I love getting things from ThinkGeek.com They have "toys" and stuff for all ages.

Yeah, he already said that. Better answers include:

- Kids Electronics Lab
- Eyeclops Microscope
- Commodore 64
- Lego Mindstorms

Those are just a few toys that can be used educationally to learn about science, engineering, and math.

I found a cheaper solution to charging my iPhone by solar. I use two solar arrays, very similar to those found here for $23 each: http://www.batteryjunction.com/12vsopabachs.html They deliver 150 mA max, but I've found they can easily deliver 175 mA each, and not even when angled directly at the sun. I use this with a simple car power inverter that has a USB charger port on it, but you can always make your own 12V to 5V regulator with a 5V regulator from Radio Shack, see here: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062599 I've used this with my iPhone a couple times and found that it is able to charge my iPhone. There is one trick though, the iPhone is picky about its power supply, and so you need to trick it by making a simple circuit with two resistors. See the post below for instructions (you need to scroll down a bit in the post to get to what I'm talking about, it involves making a voltage divider on the data channels): http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=5447947&posted=1#post5447947 Also, it charges the iPhone even while playing music. The first time I tested these was in my car, and I had the panels directed in the windshield. After driving for 3 hours it charged my iPhone from about 60% to 90%; and this was with the panels not angled towards the sun. I haven't taken account of how it charges since, but know it does. Also, if ever the power goes out for several days, you can always pull the battery out of your car when needed (or buy another car battery specifically for this use), and use the power inverter (if it has a USB port) or the 5V regulator to charge your USB electronics. You can then keep the car battery charged with these solar cells, so you don't need to waste gas running the car to charge the battery back up.

I bought one of these because I had a crappy TV at the time that didn't have rca jacks

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103095

whenever I didn't pay the bill it would decode the signal when they turned it off at the company, but didn't disco it at the pole.

this was a long time ago, technology may have passed it by. (mine didn't look anything at all like that one)

Try this:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062214

"six CR2016"

How much did the magazine cost? It may have been worth the price just to get those batteries.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062103&cp=&kw=CR2016&parentPage=search

I've had good luck with this one. http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2253765&cp=2032057.2032187.2032189.2032205&parentPage=family.

Background: I live in Houston, the transmitters are in Missouri City, 15 miles to the south; I'm on the ground floor in a condo, all the walls are thick brick and mortar; the signal will not penetrate these walls, and even if it did, there are more condos between me and the transmitters; I got a signal by pointing out the window to the sky. I pointed in just the right direction and got almost 30 channels; when the program did the scan, all the channels showed up at once, so I assume they were all sitting on one part of the spectrum.

However if you have basic cable, or possibly even just a cable hookup but no cable, you should plug in a coax connection to the outlet; in some cases, you can use the wiring of the house as a huge antenna; then run a channel scan and see what you can get. Good luck./P

Buy an iGo charger system and chuck (well, maybe just box away) all the ones that it is able to replace.

Of the list given, it appears that they have charger tips for everything but the Canon Powershot, the Cowan iAudio X5L and the Logitech MX1000.

I can personally testify that they have tips for the Nintendo DS and DS-Lite, and I've used this system extensively (except for laptops).

Not really the cheapest option, but probably the one easiest on the sanity.

You'll probably need to get two charger systems:

1. For the laptop (due to higher power requirements).
2. For everything else.

Check with the company— they'll be able to tell you what you should need.

Radio Shack also sells these, but I've never seen them carry the heavy-duty ones (the ones needed for laptops and other high-power devices).

They also have options to allow charging of multiple devices off of a single charger, but I've never messed with those so I don't know how well they work.

Yeah, an RF modulator, aka 'game switch'.

They look fancy now (and I realize this is more than just an RF modulator)
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103095

What's also funny is that typically the Stereo Mix functionality is implemented post-DAC. So when you're recording from stereo mix, the signal goes:

Output->DAC->ADC->Stereo Mix

So modulo electrical noise on the microphone and headphone jack, you get essentially the same result you'd get as if you went:

Output->DAC->Headphone Jack-> $6.00 Cable->Line In Jack->ADC->Line In

Space punk is speaking out of his ass.

The coupons last for 90 days

You can get another one if you let it expire and only got 1 the first time around (you can get 2 per household)

The coupon lists several places locally where you can get a converter box. My listed 8, 4 Radio Shacks, 2 Wal-Marts, Camping World and a local shop (and a partridge in a pear tree).

I know for a fact Radio Shack and Wal-Mart have and have had them for awhile now.

https://www.dtv2009.gov/FAQ.aspx

Radio Shack also has a friendly page with info. They also have several models in stock online right now and did 4 months ago when I got my coupon.

Space punk is speaking out of his ass.

The coupons last for 90 days

You can get another one if you let it expire and only got 1 the first time around (you can get 2 per household)

The coupon lists several places locally where you can get a converter box. My listed 8, 4 Radio Shacks, 2 Wal-Marts, Camping World and a local shop (and a partridge in a pear tree).

I know for a fact Radio Shack and Wal-Mart have and have had them for awhile now.

https://www.dtv2009.gov/FAQ.aspx

Radio Shack also has a friendly page with info. They also have several models in stock online right now and did 4 months ago when I got my coupon.

Forrest Mims wrote a lot of tutorial articles and pamphlets for beginners in the old electronic magazines and for Radio Shack. I taught two separate groups of high school age homeschool kids electronics using the afore mentioned Electronics Learning Lab from Radio Shack with great success. The two books (Basic Electronics and Digital Electronics) that come in the kit are excellent and actually build your knowledge intuitively with each subsequent project. Other project lab kits from Radio Shack and elsewhere just show you how to breadboard circuits, but no theory.

I learned how to build & troubleshoot circuits using the Electronics Learning Lab from Radio Shack, but I have also taught other people electronics using this same lab. The lab guides provide a high level overview of what you're doing and how the circuit works (suitable for kids), as well as an in-depth explanation that'll satisfy an Electrical Engineer.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102913

I used the Electronics Learning Lab and the Electronics Sensor Lab from radio Shack. You can check out the labs here and here to see exactly what you will be learning before deciding whether or not to purchase them.

I used the Electronics Learning Lab and the Electronics Sensor Lab from radio Shack. You can check out the labs here and here to see exactly what you will be learning before deciding whether or not to purchase them.

I used the Electronics Learning Lab and the Electronics Sensor Lab from radio Shack. You can check out the labs here and here to see exactly what you will be learning before deciding whether or not to purchase them.

I used the Electronics Learning Lab and the Electronics Sensor Lab from radio Shack. You can check out the labs here and here to see exactly what you will be learning before deciding whether or not to purchase them.

But a much, much better option is to buy this starter kit and learn the hot new Arduino instead of the aging Basic Stamp. You'll need to start a junk drawer of components, including resistor assortment like these four kits. Local Amateur Radio HamFests and eBay are both good places to fill out your junk box.

Some good resources:

o The Arduino Home Page
o Peter Anderson's Arduino page (the whole site is great, and most can be adapted to the Arduino)
o Sparkfun Tutorials (and don't miss out on their store that has all the good stuff)
o The Electronic Goldmine is a great resource for odd surplus electronics.

But a much, much better option is to buy this starter kit and learn the hot new Arduino instead of the aging Basic Stamp. You'll need to start a junk drawer of components, including resistor assortment like these four kits. Local Amateur Radio HamFests and eBay are both good places to fill out your junk box.

Some good resources:

o The Arduino Home Page
o Peter Anderson's Arduino page (the whole site is great, and most can be adapted to the Arduino)
o Sparkfun Tutorials (and don't miss out on their store that has all the good stuff)
o The Electronic Goldmine is a great resource for odd surplus electronics.

OK, this is totally not the cool answer, but I started with this one:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102913&cp=2032062.2032398&parentPage=family

It comes with two books, one on digital and one on analog circuits. I outgrew it quickly, but it got me far enough along to step up to a breadboard and raw parts. The circuits cover extreme beginner to, say, apprentice - so it's not going to last long if it appeals to you. But that was great for me as it completely evaporated any fear I had of the complexity. I like to be a tough guy as much as anyone else, but sometimes it's nice not to be in over your head.

The next step I took was "The Art of Electronics" (brilliant book) and a breadboard. That was a bit of a leap, but very good for analog circuits. On the digial side, check out Lady Ada and Evil Mad Scientist:

http://www.adafruit.com/
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/

Electronics Learning Lab Designed by Forrest Mims and sold by radio shack.

You could also do with picking up his Getting Started in Electronics book. It is like a field journal for electrical theory, very fun read.

Hope that points you in the right direction.

-Scott

You may want to try an iGo http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104318, I bought one at Radioshack a year ago. It has a unit you can power through AC or DC power, then it has interchangeable tips that power different devices.

It's still a little bulky, but if you're carrying around a bunch of devices, you can definitely cut back on how many chargers you lug around.

Radio Shack still has one

I used to have the 150-n-1 kit. Loads of fun! As I recall they maxed out at 200-n-1 kits.
You know you're getting somewhere when you start taking it apart for parts.

I started off with the 160-in-one electronics project kit as a kid. I learned all the fundamentals of electronics, resistors, capacitors, transistors, diodes, potentiometers, etc. When my friend's son started getting to the appropriate age (12-13) I bought him the updated version called the Electronics Learning Lab

The kit provides you with everything you need to do simple projects on up to the point where you create your own devices to perform whatever you want.

Why do you need a megapixel security camera?

I've never seen a store front that had much more than vga resolution cameras, and police track down people who rob a store all the time. You can pick up a wireless vga resolution color camera with night visionfor a couple hundred bucks from radio shack. Get a couple of those and a multi-input video capture card. Slap a couple large hard drives in to any halfway modern PC, and there you go.

Now just make sure you hide the PC so your evidence doesn't get stolen when your house is broken in to.

Offtopic, but I can't seem to find out enough about this from my local electronics stores. I have a non-HD TV with no cable, satellite, or rabbit ears. We've opted for DVDs instead. With the switch to HD-TV signals, I registered and received my coupons. I realize that with the converter, I still need to have some kind of antenna. I recently saw the Philips MANT310 at my local Walmart (can't find a link to just the product, so I'll post the Radio Shack link: http://www.radioshack.com/sm-philips-mant310-indoor-amplified-vhf-uhf-fm-tv-antenna--pi-2455308.html). My question is, since this receives HD-TV signals, do I still need the converter box for my non-HD TV? Would there be a benefit to getting the converter box? Thanks.

These 6-inch extension cords, while they not have grounded outlets, are just the right thing for all those gadget power bricks that have the plug coming right out of the brick (and most of those are non-grounded anyway).

The closest thing I can find on Google now is the modern version, which looks pretty darn close.

/we had to build our on Leyden jars, too
//uphill, both ways

Your local Radio Shack sells them for only $40...

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2767643

Not TOO hard to get. They work quite well.

GREEN LASER OF DEATH (as far as I could tell from the report; they said a $50 laser from RadioShack).

So... don't buy one of these pens or you might shine it at a chopper at night by accident and then spend 20 years in the slammer or pay a quarter mil or whatevs. Though for forking over that much dough for a stupid laser pen to begin with, a $250,000 fine may ironically be appropriate.