When I was a boy. #54 Kits link

[pickle9000]

Man I love that episode, I have my kits from then as well.



I found some "in 1 kits" from a local place here in Canada when I was browsing through the store yesterday. Not sure if they ship worldwide but here is the link.

http://www.rpelectronics.com/electronic-kits-modules/experimenter-kits/experimentor-lab-kits

One of them is 300.00 bucks (500 in 1 kit) I guess that's not bad value when you consider what you learn. That, a scope, a DMM and there is fun just waiting to happen. I think for an absolute novice not a bad way to start. The solderless breadboards are a nice touch (no so retro).

...mike

[Excavatoree]

My Radio Shack "50 in one"  kit is so old, the transistors are metal can germanium, except for the one specially marked as a "silicone transistor."  Cutting edge stuff in the early 70's!!  (I got it second hand in 1975 or 1976)

[free_electron]

oh yes... that's memories. i got my 100-in 100 kit from radio shack in 78.. had 2sa and 2sc trasnsitors in metal can... and there was an SCR as well in a funny japanese package.

[pickle9000]

The 200 in 1 kit from RP looks identical to the one Dave was holding up.

http://www.rpelectronics.com/mx-907-200-in-one-experimenter-kit.html

My first one was the 65 in 1 from RS. I'm not sure if that was a Canadian only version or what. Still have the book but the kit was lost in a move. 



...mike

[larrwill]

I remember having a 100 or 150 in one, can't remember exactly but it was old enough that the body was made of wood. My parents had a garage sale that I wasn't home for and a week or so later I went looking for my in one kit... Yes, they sold it and I was horrified! Eventually I got a 200 in one out of the deal identical to what Dave shows in the video and I still have it.

[Kevlarious]

These kits were kewl, easier than my first electronics kit. That one kept me sooo busy, winding my own armatures. Winding my own transformers. The 200 in 1 kit came out when I was a teen. By then I had my Welch scientific Silly scope. A good use for the money I made delivering papers on three different routes.

[pkrobot]

In 1976, my parents bought me Mykit-150 from Gakken:

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/gakken_mykit_150.html

It came with a crystal earphone and a couple of other items. I remember that I found out that just using a crystal earphone, a diode, using a telephone line as an antenna and tap as ground, I could get local radio station without a battery. Unfotunately, I've completely failed to get my kids interested in doing this sort of stuff. They spend all their time playing video games, and chatting online or on their cell phones.

-pk

[XynxNet]

Unfortunatly there doesn't seem to be any reasonably priced modern kits around.
For my beginners electronics group i most times have to design all the material myself.

Unfortunatly todays kits either seem to have outdated experiments which don't interest most of todays kids like the radio or telefon stuff, or they are expensive and quite limited like those usb/laser/solar-boxes or their authors haven't heard anything about didactics.

In my case language is an additional problem because my pupils usually are in their first or second year of english....so for them there is no available big pool of information on the internet.

Well maybe i will design an electronics kit for schools to adress those issues, if i have a little bit more time.

[T4P]

Unfortunatly there doesn't seem to be any reasonably priced modern kits around.
For my beginners electronics group i most times have to design all the material myself.

Unfortunatly todays kits either seem to have outdated experiments which don't interest most of todays kids like the radio or telefon stuff, or they are expensive and quite limited like those usb/laser/solar-boxes or their authors haven't heard anything about didactics.

In my case language is an additional problem because my pupils usually are in their first or second year of english....so for them there is no available big pool of information on the internet.

Well maybe i will design an electronics kit for schools to adress those issues, if i have a little bit more time.

That's a good one .

[TerminalJack505]

Here's the kit I wish I had growing up:

Digilent Electronics Explorer Board

I gave my 150-in-1 kit to my nephew hoping to inspire him a little.  So far as I know he has never even used it.  Sigh.

[vk3yedotcom]

My problem was that people overestimated my abilities as a kid. So when I was 8 I got a soldering iron and Tandy superhet radio kit (which needed soldering).  Then a Fun Way II Wireless microphone.  I never got these working, no doubt due to my bad soldering.

So I retreated to screws and wood (Funway 1 style) in the next couple of years and more things worked.  Part of this retreat was a 150 in 1 Tandy Science Fair Electronics set which gave hours of fun.

This video is a demo of a block-style kit recently bought from a local op shop.  Maybe 1990s vintage? I couldn't pass it up despite not having a need.  The blocks are less versatile than springs and wires in the number of projects you can build but it's a lot quicker to put stuff together.  And a bit of a puzzle as some blocks were straight or angled leads you needed to make connections.



Peter