Building a home lab for educational purposes

[rstofer]

However there is one big and sad reality, almost anything you build will end up costing you  more than buying the equivalent China produced item.    For basic circuit inspection cheap multimeters can do the job and you would find it hard to buy an analog movement for the same price new.   

Amazon has analog V-O-Ms for as little as $10.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=analog+multimeter

I like analog meters, I still have a couple of Simpson 260s and use them from time to time when I'm in an analog mood.  Otherwise, I probably grab my Aneng 8008 (instead of one of the other DMMs).

[Renate]

I started with (Raytheon) Lectron little plastic cubes on a metal ground plate. https://lectron.info/
I had plenty of 100-in-1 spring on cardboard kits.
The RTL Microlab used something different, metal posts and little clip wires (that you had to make up yourself).

[bifferos]

Just to let you know he's really pleased with the snap circuits and has raced through dozens of layouts in the first day.   I don't know (and don't really care at this stage) how much he's understanding but he's clearly having fun.

[rstofer]

Just to let you know he's really pleased with the snap circuits and has raced through dozens of layouts in the first day.   I don't know (and don't really care at this stage) how much he's understanding but he's clearly having fun.

Absolutely outstanding!

Later on perhaps he will want to play with Arduino experiments

https://www.amazon.com/ELEGOO-Project-Tutorial-Controller-Projects/dp/B01D8KOZF4

[wizard69]

Just to let you know he's really pleased with the snap circuits and has raced through dozens of layouts in the first day.   I don't know (and don't really care at this stage) how much he's understanding but he's clearly having fun.

If it isn't fun there really isn't much of a point.    Glad to see things are working out for you.    I'm not sure if this student is ready for theory but it might not hurt to spend 1 hour a week going over theory.   This just to make sure he has the basic DC concepts right.   Just don't turn the whole thing into an extended school session.