Elenco 500-in-One Electronic Project Lab Reviews

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This 500-in-1 kit has more features than the average attention span can handle (I won't re-hash the list here. You can find the complete list of projects online somewhere).

So, this is not a "Well, this looks like a good gift for Johnny" product. Whoever is going to receive (if it's a gift) or purchase for themselves, should be fairly serious about learning electronics. If not, start with a much smaller kit, and work yourself up to this one.

As far as construction, it's pretty sturdy. The breadboard is centrally located and from a layout perspective, I had no trouble setting up any of the experiments.

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There are a TON of resistors, wires, caps, etc.

I ended up buying a couple plastic partitioned containers to hold everything and that still wasn't enough. Pretty much everything comes in an individually marked plastic bag, and Tesla help you if you don't take care in replacing everything back into the correct baggie, or you'll quickly memorize the Resistor Identification chart...though, that may not be a bad side-effect :)

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I did have some trouble with the breadboard itself, in that some of the slots were really tough to punch into and with my big sausage-like fingers, I ended up bending a few leads and wire ends here and there and settled on using some needle nose pliers to feed the tough slots.

The experiments are split up into 3 large softbound manuals (Aprox 10"x14") and cover a very wide range of projects. There are "Did you know" type blurbs throughout which makes them informative.

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My biggest problem with this kit is with the text of the experiments. I found myself wanting more "This is what's happening and why" type of information, but what you get is mostly just how to set up the project. IMHO, it's missing 1 or 2 more paragraphs talking about the Why of the project.

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Ironically, the most use I actually got out of this kit, was to prototype and test some circuts and devices (motors, lights, solenoids, etc) using the breadboard and the variable resistor pots, but I've since purchased a breadboard from R.S. and some basic wires/resistors/caps/etc that allow me to do all that.

My ADD only allowed me to trek through the first manual before I saw another shiny object and left this kit to gather dust in the closet. If you are serious about using a kit to learn electronics, then this is probably for you. If you are looking at it from a hobby view, I'd recommend starting with something smaller.

(Sorry for the long review, but since no one else has submited one, I figured I'd try to be of some help)

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There are not many vendors of experimentation sets, and electronic sets in particular, left anymore. Most vanished to the begin of the 90th. There is Kosmos as the market leader, Busch, and Elenco, and a variety of small vendors who sell direct. The Elenco 500-in-One offers an amazing value for the amount of parts and scope of experiments one can do. Unfortunately, the instruction booklets are of little help. Each lab has a diagram and a few words of text. The diagram is sufficient to build the lab but the three words of text do nothing to explain why things work as they work. I think for a child or a teenager this set has value as it offers a lot of fun to build pretty complex and interesting electronic stuff, when compared to other experimentation kits, but does little for the education on learning how to develop your own. As a toy, it is a good alternative for some hands-on in a world of virtualization through game consoles, iPhone, and massive multiplayer online games.

This said, you will find in the the 500-in-One a fun electronic toy which you can also use as a basis for your own electronics studies with the choice of your favorite text book. If you prefer the later, however, you can also get a breadboard and parts according to your own needs.

If you are looking for alternatives, I can recommend Kosmos Electronics Workshop 2 (XN 3000, Electronic Pofi) for older kids and adults as well as Elenco Snap Circuits which is ideal in particular for young children (my 3 year old daughter enjoys snapping together simple circuits which make a lamp glow or a motor spin.) There are also many smaller vendors, some attached to publishers of magazines and some individuals, offerings sets about different topics. Also Lego Mindstorms with its very custimizable I2C and analog interfaces (book "Extreme NXT" shows you how) or the very flexible German Fischertechnik Computing series can be nice compliments (or alternatives) to build electronically controlled machines and robots without tools.

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.Elenco 500-in-One Elecronic Project Lab

Being an electronic engineer myself but having spent most of my working life on supervisory level I thought I could refresh my electronic knowledge and purposefully engage my retirement life. Unfortunatley when I started going through the exercises I soon realised it didnt help you in any way to learn/refresh the theory of electronics. For example the accompanying books dont give: circuit despcription, functions of the components used in a circuit, why a particular value of the component is selected etc. If the "Lab" was supplied with a book with the above explanations it would have been of a great value for serious learners as well as for the experienced engineers.

Probably Amazon.com could take it up with the "lab" manufacturer to bring out a book with the above contents along with it. But if there is already one with such contents could some one advise me of this

Honest reviews on Elenco 500-in-One Electronic Project Lab

This kit pretty much is as advertised. It has lots of components, and enough variety to fill several years of class time. It can be used as an affordable way to create an electronics lab in an educational setting. The kit has the components necessary to teach analog circuits, digital circuits, and even micro-controller programming.

My major gripe with this kit is that as delivered, it is of almost no educational value. The three books that come with it, describing the 500 projects, simply show how to connect components together to create circuits that do various things. It gives NO explanation of what part of the circuit is doing what, and what different components are doing. It just has you blindly plugging pieces together. If it is to be used as a meaningful educational tool, instructor must develop a curriculum around it, and use it as an affordable source of components. Most of the projects are too complex to use as educational tools, as they are beyond simple introductory analysis.

With that being said, I found the kit very useful. In an educational setting, you will need to combine it with a DVM, waveform generator, and an oscilloscope, which are all fairly affordable these days. With these, and some real work in developing relevant supporting material, this kit can serve as the basis of a really good electronics education.

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but not for your average kid. Unlike the less expensive circuit kits, this one comes with bags of loose components. That is better for learning, b ut is not good for the disorganized or those kids that are looking for FUNFUN FUN right now. I would recommend this item for those over 17 .. and especially those REALLY wanting to learn about electrionics.

I am 23 and am using this kit to explore the hobby of electronics. I also recommend the book "electronic circuits for dummies" .. which is much better written than the manual included with the 500-in-one kit, and much easier to understand/learn from.