Slashdot Mirror
Electronics Kits for Kids (and Adults)?
blkros asks: "Christmas is coming up, and , I've been thinking about stuff for the kids.
I want to get them intersted in technology (other than gameboy and pokemon), and was thinking about the old Heathkit company, and how I used to drool over their catalog as a kid. (Yes, I'm that old <grin!>)Of course they don't sell kits anymore, so I did a web search,and found a bunch of companys that sell kits, eg Ramsey Electronics. My questions are does anyone have experience with any of the companies? Who sells the best? Who's the least expensive?"
Gateway Electronics has some decently cool kits.
As well as nearly any electronic part you might need.
I believe they also have online ordering.
http://www.gatewayelex.com/
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
And what combines software and hardware tinkering better than Lego Mindstorms? The ultimate never-grew-up toy!
Other sites have put together other BEAM kits that are more expensive. SolarBotics seems to have a lot of stuff listed.
Now I gotta go do some sodering!
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
Radio kits just aren't as compelling as they were 30 years ago when I was that age. Today I think robotic kits are particularly compelling, and some even provide a jumping-off point for learning to program.
On a related note, I was also bitten by the LEGO bug as a youngster, and probably spent an order of magnitude more time building with LEGO than I spent building electronics kits. Something to consider...
Ten-Tec has some decent radio kits. For $24 you can get the 1054 which is a stripped-down regen shortwave receiver. For $69 you can get the 1253 which is a complete regen receiver. Either will provide decent listening to both ham and shortwave broadcast stations.
Ramsey kits are ok, but you need to read carefully. For example, they advertise kits like the SR2 with a photo of it in a case. The case is a $14.95 option and you still don't get a speaker.
As for building ease, I can't really comment. The only recent kit I've built is the Ramsey SR2. It was easy but time-consuming and a bit boring, as I've soldered thousands of components in my time.
Nuts & Volts magazine is a good source of ads for kits.
I'm not sure how much you can learn from one of these kits. They tend to not have much in the way of experimentation. You build the kit, play with it for an hour or two, then stash it on a shelf. If you're going to go the kit route, I would start with a simple blinking LED kit or something to learn soldering, then maybe a decent radio kit that you'll actually be able to use.
If you want to get the kids interested, I would go to Radio Shack and dig around in the back. There you will find some dusty books from the Engineer's Mini-Notebook line ($1.99). They have easy explanations, circuit diagrams, and lots of experiments to try. They don't make it trivial to find the parts and you'll be spending quite a bit of time prowling Radio Shack parts racks, but it's worth it. The kids will get to do some of the design work themselves.
I ordered a small FM transmitter from Ramsey a
while back. It was good for some weekend playtime
and I still use it for broadcasting my MP3/OGG
connection around the yard. The instructions were
very paint-by-the-numbers though. The instruction
booklet had some decent information about RF basics
and FCC rules, but not much as far as basic
electronics. Can't say I really learned much from
the whole experience.
I remember one project that my father and I did
back when I was about 10. Crystal radio. I can't
say how your kids would react, but I was
amazed that you could pick up radio stations
without having to plug the bugger in. Crystal
radio has decent 'wow-factor'.
I would recommend starting with a crystal radio
kit and some basic electronics and RF and work
your way up to something a little more practical
like the Ramsey kits.
JMTC.
Without doubt the best electronics kit I ever got was the 300 in 1 kit. No soldering just easy to connect components.
:-)
I made all the circuits in the book and then started changing components to see what happened, oh look a change in capacitance causes the light to blink faster etc etc
This was 20 years ago and I can still remember blowing all the leds, I wanted to make them brighter. So then I learnt how to solder and then I learnt what a diode did
Check this out, all I need is $170
That said, does anyone know of a company that makes kits with documentation that could actually be considered educational (beyond a trivial level)?
Lindsay has republished this wonderful book. Some of the info is dated, but it is all interesting. (And an electric engine was never pratical, but it is still fun to build)