connectors for children

[brumbarchris]

Hi,
I am not a beginner, yet, I do have a subject which I feel needs to be posted in this section.
I currently try to teach my 8 years old boy the basic first steps in electronics, in a way a child would like (so not Ohm's or Kirchhoff or anything of the sort, but how to light up some LEDs from the battery or how to make a buzzer sound, or how to spin a motor for his LEGO cars etc).

But I am having difficulties in identifying some easy to use suitable wire-to-wire connectors which can be easily handled by a child. I am currently using some regular screw-based terminal blocks, like the ones in the attached picture. But these always need a screwdriver and while easy to use by an adult, they can be daunting for a child. And the hole thing changes from learning the basics of electronics into "try to make that connection".

Do you have some suggestions for connectors up to the job?

[rs20]

Stacking banana connector, little mini grabbers -- can use cables like these on their own, or if you want the leads to be a bit shorter and tidier, chop the leads and solder them onto the devices in question.

[Bratster]

Maybe these guys?

https://peppyproducts.com/products/wago-221-lever-nut-assortment-pocket-pack

Sent from my Moto x4 using Tapatalk

[Brumby]

How about something like these...

Good for joining things.

[Brumby]

I like the stackable banana plug idea, too.

[ataradov]

Wago makes those nice no-tool clamps for electricians, but they work great for quick assembly of test setups.

Here is how they look https://www.ebay.com/itm/30-Pk-Assrtd-wago-Style-Lever-Nuts-Splicing-Connector-Terminal-Block-Cage-Clamp/302405783599 (knock offs obviously, real Wago will cost you an arm and a leg).

And another style https://www.ebay.com/itm/Wago-100-221-412-50-221-413-25-221-415-Lever-Nut-Assortment-Pack/192464406033

[frozenfrogz]

That’s kind of what breadboards were invented for

Apart from the simple ones (you can get convenient plugable power modules for these), there are 'deluxe packages' like this: powered breadboard and the ones that allow to attach a power source via banana plugs.

Get decent quality ones though, since the very cheap ones can give you a headache from finding the slack joint.

[brumbarchris]

Thank you for all your suggestions, I will explore! I love the Wago stile suggestion.

Regards,
Cristian

[bob225]

If you want some software to help with learning try crocodile clips/yenka, When I was a IT tech in a school, the kids loved it as its animated

Plus its free, for home use

https://www.yenka.com/en/Yenka_Technology/

[phil]

Careful with the WAGO lever connectors. They require quite some force to open and they can hurt pretty bad if you get your finger in the way of the lever when closing the connector.
Might not be ideal for a child.

My grandfather build me a set of different banana test leads when I was five years old. Also, he build little modules on a piece of wood with the component and banana connectors.

[Gyro]

Just seeing the thread title, my immediate though was some form of Umbilical. 

[tggzzz]

I currently try to teach my 8 years old boy the basic first steps in electronics, in a way a child would like (so not Ohm's or Kirchhoff or anything of the sort, but how to light up some LEDs from the battery or how to make a buzzer sound, or how to spin a motor for his LEGO cars etc).

But I am having difficulties in identifying some easy to use suitable wire-to-wire connectors which can be easily handled by a child. I am currently using some regular screw-based terminal blocks, like the ones in the attached picture. But these always need a screwdriver and while easy to use by an adult, they can be daunting for a child. And the hole thing changes from learning the basics of electronics into "try to make that connection".

Good for you, but I think you are being too worried. I was certainly using choc blocks on my model railway by the age of 8. At 9 I was changing 240V mains plugs (don't ask!) myself, but my father did insist he checked them before they were plugged in.

Don't underestimate the ability of kids; usually it is better to throw them in at the deep end, but be around to make sure they don't sink. I used that thinking to backpack around India with my 14yo, and have her learning to fly aircraft. She accused me of "wrapping her in cotton wool", but recanted her mistake when she saw what other university students hadn't done.

Unless the child has a disability, I would simply show them what to do, let them do it, let them make their own mistakes, and be there to make sure the mistakes aren't too bad!

[brumbarchris]

Yeah, thing is he does not seem too interested in that (electronics). He does not seem to interested in anything, as a matter of fact, except things that bring almost instant gratification - I am not a psychologist but I perceive this as not being too un-natural for an 8-years old. Sure, there are special kids who have the character and interest to closely follow up on specific objectives, but he is not one of those (although he is reasonably bright). I guess that is one of the side effects of having early access to Clash Royal type of games on the mobile phone (access curtailed heavily in the meanwhile).

Anyway, now I am working more to build up his ability to pursue goals which need some more than 5 minutes effort (like playing Go, for instance). An electronics simple circuit can be a 1-2 hours, but not if you need to struggle 5 minutes to screw a wire in - he will lose interest in the whole picture after 3 wires.

Regards,
Cristian

[Ian.M]

An eight year old boy shouldn't be screwdriver adverse! 

See http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Bookshelf/Author-Groups/G.C.Dobbs/Learnabout...%20Simple-Electronics-Dobbs.pdf for what a bright child could be expected to handle in the days before the internet made parents excessively risk-adverse and cheap Android devices turned most kids into couch potatoes.
If I was revising it for modern components, I'd stick a small solderless breadboard in the middle of the baseboard to avoid most of the hassle with extending leads, with the screws and screw-cups round the outside for larger parts and off-board wiring.  I'd also substitute current production NPN silicon transistors with a Hfe of about 200.  TO-92 2N2222 equivalents should do nicely.   The only other component change would be for the amplifier circuit on page 23, where the lower resistor in the base bias divider should be increased from 10K to 15K to compensate for the higher Vbe of a Silicon transistor v.s. the original Germanium one.

That construction method has been obsoleted by the solderless breadboard, but is still good for kids experimenting with basic circuits.  The screw-cups need to be brass or heavily brass plated, but the screws can be ordinary steel ones, which has the advantage that the slot in their heads is stronger.   You may need to prepare the baseboard for him, pre-drilling the holes, and running a screw into each to form a thread in the wood - which only takes a few seconds with a reversible battery drill and a long screw of the right diameter, with its head cut off in the chuck as a thread forming tool.  Its also worth spending a bit of time sanding the ends and edges, and giving it a coat of wax melted into the surface with a hot air gun, then wiping off any excess.

Teach him that pre-drilling to just under the root diameter of the thread + waxing the screw on a candle makes it much safer and easier to put screws into wood. For drilling holes, I strongly recommend a pistol grip hand drill. e.g. https://www.drapertools.com/product/13841/8mm-or-3-8inch-Chuck-Pistol-Grip-Hand-Drill, and a small set of good HSS bits with several spares of all the ones 3mm and under.  Make a house rule that the drill may only be used at the workbench.

Get him some good screwdrivers with comfortable handles that are sized to fit his hands, make a house rule that anything mains powered, or worth more than $20 can only be worked on under your supervision and teach him to attach the choc-block connectors to a wooden board, as the biggest risk is stabbing one's palm or finger when attempting to turn a stiff or jammed choc-block screw while holding the choc-block.  For safety and efficiency, the screwdriver blade *MUST* be a good fit in the screw slot, as thick as will fit properly and about 90% of the width of the head.   

[sokoloff]

Yeah, thing is he does not seem too interested in that (electronics). He does not seem to interested in anything, as a matter of fact, except things that bring almost instant gratification - I am not a psychologist but I perceive this as not being too un-natural for an 8-years old.

Work with, not against, the grain here. Make the first project something that gives (almost) instant gratification.

I knocked together some LED flashlights with scraps I had around the house one rainy day with my then-5-year old.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4304126&postcount=421

Almost 4 years later, those flashlights are still on their dresser and they still play with/use them.

[brumbarchris]

Work with, not against, the grain here. Make the first project something that gives (almost) instant gratification.

Yep, that is what I am considering. Make the work towards the goal faster, at least in the first stages, by using "effortless" connectors. So we can "light the LED" faster, or "ring the buzzer" faster.
I am hopeful in time he will get the ability to work longer for a goal and feeling the inner reward for it.

Regards,
Cristian

[ataradov]

Careful with the WAGO lever connectors. They require quite some force to open and they can hurt pretty bad if you get your finger in the way of the lever when closing the connector.
Might not be ideal for a child.

They do require quite a bit of force to fully open, but I never do. They have a bit of travel at the beginning of the opening cycle, which opens the contacts enough to put in a single stranded hookup wire. So there is no need to fully open them.

I have not tried the transparent ones, but I ordered some, they seem to be more compact.

Also, 8 years is not all that young. I was soldering things on copper clad boards at 8 years with a mains-connected unregulated soldering iron.

[bob225]

A simple button cell light, 2 bits of plastic, a piece of foam in the middle

eg. https://www.kitronik.co.uk/2148-squeezy-torch-kit.html

[sokoloff]

So we can "light the LED" faster, or "ring the buzzer" faster.

You might want to look at SnapCircuits or LittleBits or similar then.

I find the pricing of those things unacceptably high for their likely useful lifetime at my house, but the kids have played with them at a local makerspace and enjoyed them for an hour or so. I suspect they'd be fun for 10 hours or so, max, which makes them a "go find a way to borrow" rather than "buy it for life" type of purchase in my book.

[sokoloff]

Kids also liked the Makey Makey at a school maker night. I suspect that was more about the video game aspect than the playing a game using odd things as a keyswitch, but it was at least a  little interesting to them. (Here again, I'd try to borrow.)

[janoc]

This kind of project would certainly work if the kid is into astronauts:

https://makezine.com/2017/07/05/this-dad-goes-above-beyond-space-ship-bunk-bed-build/

No need to build the entire bed thing but letting them tinker with lights, switches, buzzers and what not to support their make-believe play works a treat. Especially if they can build it to their own "specs" themselves, with daddy helping out with anything difficult or dangerous. It doesn't need to have any crazy functionality - the child's imagination works wonders to fill any "holes".

You can even use cardboard instead of wood - plentiful and cheap construction material that readily accommodates switches, lights and whatever you can get off eBay or AliExpress cheaply.

[ataradov]

Regardless, he NEEDS to know net current flowing through a node is zero, and net voltage applied across a closed loop is zero. Or you will be training the next free energy wanker.

Not when you are just starting. It is also OK to have crazy ideas and try them in reality. When I was a kid I also had an idea to attach a bike generator to a motor and connect the shafts. All it took for me to be convinced that it is not going to work is to try and see for myself.

And when I learned about relays, I could not imagine what would happen if you connect a power supply to the really through a normally closed contact of the same relay. So I assembled the circuit and got a buzzer.

I think the key to my personal curiosity was access to various components without real fear to damage them. This is now 1000x times easier than when I was starting.

And any pre-made constructor sets got boring real fast.

[sokoloff]

not Ohm's or Kirchhoff or anything of the sort

Regardless, he NEEDS to know net current flowing through a node is zero, and net voltage applied across a closed loop is zero. Or you will be training the next free energy wanker.

He doesn't need to know how to analytically or numerically solve a circuit in KCL/KVL matrix form, but he needs to understand voltage and current have to come from and go to somewhere.

Kid is 8. He needs to have fun. There's no concrete learning objective that "needs" to be satisfied, IMO.

He needs to know not to stick wires in the mains socket and that if he does X and Y, something beeps or lights up. Make it fun and make it short.

When I built the flashlights with the K-5 kids, I took in 12 test leads with stackable banana jacks and we did a classroom-sized game of "electricity" to light up an LED I was holding. Then, I had them disconnect a jack to see what happened and plugged it back together. Then went to the tables and made the "bent wire switched flashlights" with each kid. Did all the kids understand that the electricity had to make a circuit to work? Maybe. Did they need to have fun or to end up with a flashlight to take home? Nope.

[brumbarchris]

        not Ohm's or Kirchhoff or anything of the sort

    Regardless, he NEEDS to know net current flowing through a node is zero, and net voltage applied across a closed loop is zero. Or you will be training the next free energy wanker.

    He doesn't need to know how to analytically or numerically solve a circuit in KCL/KVL matrix form, but he needs to understand voltage and current have to come from and go to somewhere.

Kid is 8. He needs to have fun. There's no concrete learning objective that "needs" to be satisfied, IMO.

That is also my stance on things, at the moment. He only needs to see that electricity can be useful and to have some fun, at some extent. Maybe it is not so attractive now, when school is really easy, but as things will start to get difficult in maths and other subjects, I am sure the kid will learn to appreciate how easy it is to make some practical things in electronics: minimal knowledge and some small degree of effort and voila! you have a working alarm, or buzzer or light etc.

For the moment, the only "scientific" thing I told him is that current wants to go out of the + terminal and that it always wants to go back to the battery at its - terminal .And that it needs to find a "path" through the elements in the circuit in order to do that. He actually grasps the concept of a switch quite well, but obviously that is the most basic thing we could teach a kid in electronics.

Regards,
Cristian

[IanMacdonald]

These are surprisingly effective, you could even use them for car accessories:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5PCS-CH-2-Spring-Wire-Connectors-Electrical-Cable-Clamp-Terminal-Block-Connector-/173309688708?hash=item285a0ffb84