Cheap Elenco 130-in-1 Electronic Playground and Learning Center

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My inlaws purchased this for my ten year old son who has been saying he wants to be an engineer when he grows up. It's PERFECT! Challenging, but not overwhelming. He's had the toy open now for 24 hours and has already done the first 8 (of 130) projects in the book. If you have a child who's always wanting to know how things work and who loves to work with his hands, this is a great choice! A+

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There are several kinds of electronic learning kits out there. The "Snap Circuits" are too simple, and confine understanding to manipulating black boxes. At the other end, I tried a 300 in 1 kit from another manufacturer that was too advanced to use alone--one needs an instructor in the hands-on skills required even to start to use it. Then there is the boxes of parts and soldering iron approach.

But the best approach I have seen is this kind of design--the spring grip connectors remove the need for soldering irons so it is easy to assemble and disassemble projects. It also makes the kit safe for younger learners (or clumsy ones.) You can start as simply as "paint by numbers" and get fairly advanced. Many of the circuits are for entertainment rather than learning, and that is fine--the best instructional kit of this type I have seen, in terms of learning electronics, was also fairly dull. This kit has a good mix, and ranges from basic components up to a couple of small integrated circuits.

The only thing missing is a meter. To be fair, the manual says early on that getting a multimeter will make a big difference in understanding, and it does. There is a world more possible to understand when one can see the voltages.

In the manual, the only thing really missing is a better description of the function of a transistor. Resistors and capacitors and batteries are easy; diodes can be understood as a "one way street" for electrons--but no kit or manual I have ever seen gives a good description of the transistor in terms of operation--"when you put this many volts here you get this much current there."

I have bought several kits, and this is the one I use and teach with. I am very happy with this product overall.

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I bought this with the hopes of sparking an interest of EE in my two sons, 8 and 10. While this product has a well written manual that describes hook up sequences it falls short of explaining anything at all about the relays, transistors, resistors, capacitors, relays, etc that you are making connections between. Educationally this toy is useless.

So I hoped the boys would at least find it entertaining. So I helped them make an LED flash and the speaker make a whining noise (there are way simpler methods to accomplish these tasks than what the book makes you endure). Somehow the crystal diode radio just would not work, I mean c'mon I can make one of these out of copper wire and toilet paper tubes but some how this kit couldn't even walk the 3 of us through the oldest radio technology in the world.

A few other things wouldn't work so I am forced to believe some of the components were bad, I am forced to return.

At best this is a good time consuming toy for a rainy day (if the components are working). Do not expect much and maybe you won't be as disappointed as I was.

P.S. this didn't soil my kids enthusiasm for EE, I purchase the book Make: Electronics available at a discounted price here on Amazon. Got some breadboards a few wires and other components and we are off to the races!

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I had one very similar to this as a kid in the 1970's, and I used it for years. It is one of the reasons I went on to become an electrical engineer. Now my 6th-grade daughter is learning how to build the projects in this kit, and she's enjoying it. The instructions are very comprehensive and well written, but they only give partial explanations of why the circuits do what they do. There are clear wiring instructions that make the projects almost foolproof. As a learning aid, the text also gives ideas on how to modify many of the projects to alter their function.

My only small complaint is that I found some errors in the text. As an engineer, I can see these errors are simple typos, and it is clear what should have been written. A person without electronic knowledge following the text blindly might be confused by these typos.

Overall, I highly recommend this kit for anyone who wants to learn about electronics.

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I bought this for myself. It's great for adults as well as children. I wish I had more time to do things with it!