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Electronics Kits for Kids (and Adults)?

Posted by Cliff on from the the-fun-toys-from-yesteryear...today dept.

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?"

2 of 28 comments (clear)

  1. Solar Bug kits from Andy Pang.. by slashkitty · · Score: 3, Informative
    I just got this kit in the mail today. B.E.A.M Solar Robot Kits. Interesting things to do with transistors, motors, solar cells and a few other parts. This guy put together a few kits from surplus parts. They all around $10.

    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.
  2. Ten-Tec, Ramsey, Nuts & Volts and Ratshack by Ratbert42 · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.