More electronics but..

[robinbanks]

Middle child really enjoyed soldering together a light, buzzer, battery and switch for a project at school so I got to thinking some little electronics kits, for projects that do "obvious things" (move/light up/make noise), might be a good Xmas present

We've had reusable sorts of "100 projects in one box" with reusable click together wiring etc before but I was specifically thinking more like "make X with solder, cut your own wires etc"

Anyone got any recommendations for suppliers or brands that do reasonably priced kits for things that could be built in around an hour each?

 

[SUNRAY]

look at aliexpress for 'solder practice' or 'welding practice' to get some ideas, some of those are available on ebay from UK suppliers.

Also look at 'wicked uncle'

WSSA100 Red LED Battery Powered Xmas Tree DIY Electronic Soldering Project Kit | eBay UK

Whadda WSSA100 Red LED Battery Powered Christmas Tree Electronic Kit. A self assembly electronic DIY kit which requires soldering. Construct a festive 2D Christmas tree with 16 Red LED's which randomly flash on and off.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[SUNRAY]

Kits

Large range of High Quality Self Assembly Electronic Kits. Popular range of electronic project kits by Velleman. Covering a wide range of applications including: Audio kits, Automotive electronics, dimmers, controllers, programmers, timers, clocks, remote control & power supplies.

www.velleman.co.uk

I've used a number of their products in the past, they are good quality and complete as far as the kit goes, I haven't looked to see if it's still there but 35 years ago I assisted my stepson with a double dice kit which he then took to school and made a wooden enclosure for it

 

[morqthana]

See if you can find one of these

Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Hours of harmless fun.

I particularly like the hide-and-seek game, where somebody hides a gamma ray source in a room, and another player has to find it using a Geiger counter...

 

[Robin0577]

I've always liked Velleman kits. Maplin shops used to stock them when I was young, but now they're available direct on-line.

Quite a wide range, catering for various ages/abilities.

Main UK Dealer for the full range of Velleman Products including Electronic Kits and Modules

Main Dealer for the whole Velleman product range. Stocked in the UK, the full range of Velleman Mini Kits, Kits & Modules. Also available the full range of Velleman Test Instruments, Educational Series, Arduino Shields & the Velbus® Home Automation System. We can supply any product from the...

www.velleman.co.uk

 

[sparkymarka]

Think I had a 50 in 1 kit at a guess Tandy ( radio shack ) in the 80s …you used to gat a Tandy diary with the battery club ( you could claim a free battery every month )

 

[ebee]

I remember as a child (and I’m 70 now) the , to me, amazing kits of yesteryear. Meccano was well established and great fun with gears and even motors in the mechanical engineering field, my pride and joy though was receiving a Phillips EE8 (I think they also did an EE20 too?) using just a few resistors, caps, an earpiece and a couple of transistors ( No ICs) and a few more bits and you could build a morse code practice set, a radio receiver, a light/dark indicator, all extremely exciting to young kids and quite expensive in comparison of today but hey jo started the journey of fascination, they also did a Mechanical engineering kit too with which you could do a few wheels and gears etc, we had already had Lego about and that grew in complexity too.

Just to do something quite simple but you’ve done it yourself was an absolute joy to behold.

Later kits by those and other manufacturers added to the excitement.

And let’s not forget the age old buzz off game etc etc.

I suppose a few of us could devise some simple projects to entertain the kids of today to those hands on yet not totally reliant on smart phones and tablets of today. Kids used to ride bikes and scooters and trolleys made of bits of wood and discarded pram wheels.

Who remembers those little hand held space invader games or the mighty XX Spectrum and you could devise your own program to make a white dot to travel across your your TV screen or even top tight to bottom left? WOW!

 

[SUNRAY]

I remember as a child (and I’m 70 now) the , to me, amazing kits of yesteryear. Meccano was well established and great fun with gears and even motors in the mechanical engineering field, my pride and joy though was receiving a Phillips EE8 (I think they also did an EE20 too?) using just a few resistors, caps, an earpiece and a couple of transistors ( No ICs) and a few more bits and you could build a morse code practice set, a radio receiver...

Yes these have been discussed before, I got mine at age of 9 (following broken leg and laid up) and I'm also 70.
Electronic Engineer 8 and Add-on 20. How many transistor legs did you break off? I saw later versions had a rubber boot for each to protect them to some degree.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Later kits by those and other manufacturers added to the excitement.

Heathkit, were one of the best kits. One of the first kits I built was a Sinclair audio amp, and an FM receiver, but he began just selling, often dodgy, surplus transistors.

Kits now, are relatively expensive, compared to just buying an item ready to use, made in China.

 

[ebee]

Yes these have been discussed before, I got mine at age of 9 (following broken leg and laid up) and I'm also 70.
Electronic Engineer 8 and Add-on 20. How many transistor legs did you break off? I saw later versions had a rubber boot for each to protect them to some degree.

Yes I tjink it was AC126 and AF116 and they were very expensive to replace at the local TV shop but hey ho .

 

[plugwash]

My experiance with velleman is that the contents of the kit are good quality, but they often teach very little because the documentation often does nothing to explain how the circuit in the kit works.

The maplin (RIP) own-brand kits were the opposite, good documentation on how the kit worked, but skimping on the content (in paricular PCBs with no solder mask).

 

[Diver Fred]

I remember as a child (and I’m 70 now) the , to me, amazing kits of yesteryear. Meccano was well established and great fun with gears and even motors in the mechanical engineering field, my pride and joy though was receiving a Phillips EE8 (I think they also did an EE20 too?) using just a few resistors, caps, an earpiece and a couple of transistors ( No ICs) and a few more bits and you could build a morse code practice set, a radio receiver, a light/dark indicator, all extremely exciting to young kids and quite expensive in comparison of today but hey jo started the journey of fascination, they also did a Mechanical engineering kit too with which you could do a few wheels and gears etc, we had already had Lego about and that grew in complexity too.

Just to do something quite simple but you’ve done it yourself was an absolute joy to behold.

Later kits by those and other manufacturers added to the excitement.

And let’s not forget the age old buzz off game etc etc.

I suppose a few of us could devise some simple projects to entertain the kids of today to those hands on yet not totally reliant on smart phones and tablets of today. Kids used to ride bikes and scooters and trolleys made of bits of wood and discarded pram wheels.

Who remembers those little hand held space invader games or the mighty XX Spectrum and you could devise your own program to make a white dot to travel across your your TV screen or even top tight to bottom left? WOW!

Wife's nephew is 8 going on 17. Bought him a plastic construction set (think plastic maccano) which the model that used all the enclosed parts was a tower crane. complete with an electric motor to raise and lower the hook. His dad helped start to make some of the models with it but all the kid seems to interested in screen times,,, unless he's kickung a football around inside their house - which his mother acknowledges is her fault.

I have a quet compresive Meccano set(s) (No. 5, 5a, 6a 7a) from the 60's which I would happily pass onto him when he's older but the present outlook is I won't as I doubt he will either value it or understand it's value. Similarly I have the Phillips EE kits - absolutly great fun. My first 'kit' bought for £3-9-11 (yes that long ago - £3.50 today) was a single valve regen set on medium wave. And yes it worked first time switched on.

So answer the original question - there are lots of electronic kits around just not easy to find :- I'd have a look in "RadCom', Practical Wireless, Rractical Electronics. Also Ramsey Kits, Kanga Kits.
For the beginner, certainly a young (teenager) beginner I'd be lookinhg for a kit that includes the case or box.
Along with a soldering iron a cheap multi-meter is useful.

 

[SUNRAY]

Heathkit, were one of the best kits. One of the first kits I built was a Sinclair audio amp, and an FM receiver, but he began just selling, often dodgy, surplus transistors.

Kits now, are relatively expensive, compared to just buying an item ready to use, made in China.

Oh yes very true but now kits as boards are now so cheap from alibaaaahhbar its often cheaper to by a kit just for the components, a recent example being 'electronic dice kits' at 17p - 7 LED's (choice of colours) 555 & 4017 with sockets and R's, C's, push button and PCB, I made several into small ABS boxes. Similarly with Christmas tree shaped PCBs with 3* 555, 3* 4026, 3* 4017, and a random selection of 153* 8mm supabrite LEDs for £1.20 with 5% discount and free post for 10 or more. Wanting 324 each of R, Y, G, B LEDs to repair/upgrade some elderly and becoming unreliable stage lights, 12 (£13.84 - slight error in ¥ to £ conversion) kits were purchased which provided about 35-40 each of R, Y, G, B and 9 of random colours such as pink, purple, white, orange and per kit. About 1p each and a few spares chucked in for free.