Showing posts with label toys for teenagers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toys for teenagers. Show all posts

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Cheap Carson Dellosa Key Education Sign Language in the Early Childhood

Carson Dellosa Key Education Sign Language in the Early Childhood Classroom Learning Cards
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
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when i received these cards they impressed me at how simple and easy they were to follow and i have started to use them with my son for communication, we have even taken pictures of each card and loaded on his ipad for him to learn as well in his developmental assistance program.

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Friday, November 28, 2014

Best Flashy Fish Sparkle Stickers; 72 Stickers; no. T-63046 Deals

Flashy Fish Sparkle Stickers; 72 Stickers; no. T-63046
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
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These stickers are very cute and sparkly and I love them! The colors are vibrant and they stick very well. I wanted them in my bathroom and although the steam and water around my shower makes them fall off every once in a while, I don't much mind that as I somewhat expected it. It sticks very well on dry walls and wallpaper, even wood finishes, actually just about everywhere. It even sticks pretty decent on my tiles in the bathroom! You get two strips in a pack, and that's about 72 stickers. I was hoping they would be a little larger though because one sticker is just about half an inch big. Overall, I am very pleased and would definitely recommend for some cheap sparkling fun!

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Thursday, November 27, 2014

Best Disney Princess 12 inch Rolling Backpack Deals

Disney Princess 12 inch Rolling Backpack
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
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my daughter loves this, it was perfect to set her apart on her first day of school. be warned it is a bit small, i can only really fit her nap time blanket(which is medium size) and her school folder in it. but how much room does a 4 yr old school kid really need. she can roll it and even put it on her back comfortably.

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Monday, November 10, 2014

Buy Scientific TALK 'N LEARN ELECTRONIC PHONICS KEYBOARD (WITH TRY ME)

Scientific TALK 'N LEARN ELECTRONIC PHONICS KEYBOARD
Customer Ratings: 4.5 stars
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This phonics keyboard is about 12x14 inches. The musical keyboard sounds good enough for kids. When pressed, each letter says its name and phonic sound. It also teaches how to spell a word that begins with that sound. I bought this on sale for about $7.50. I am very pleased with it!

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Back in 1978 when my son was 3yrs old, I had purchased a toy called speak and spell. It was the best toy I had ever purchased. When I saw the TALK'N LEARN keyboard I knew my granddaughter, who is going on 2, would have a wonderful time with it as she learned to talk. She plays with the phonics and can say a few words now. This is a wonderful toy for any toddler.--March 7,2009-Update on this toy. My granddaughter now says words I am amazed she can say. I am sure her mother and father were a big help and this will now help her new brother learn his phonics.

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I bought this toy based on the good reviews, but I am extremely disappointed. First, it is defective, and second, there are so many things wrong with it from an educational perspective.

The defect: When in the Alphabet & Phonics mode, the speaker says, "This is the letter A. It says /a/ (provides the short a sound). However, for 8 of the letters (c,f,h,k,p,s,t,x) it says, "This is the letter C, ..." and the rest is unclear. I am not able to understand what the speaker is saying.

As a former reading teacher, I found many things wrong with this toy.

1. The word yoyo on the button is printed as two words, instead of one or with a hyphen.

2. The word ice cream is hyphenated. We usually see it as two words.

3. The picture that goes with the letter G is a giraffe. While giraffe starts with G, it begins with the /j/ sound. Therefore, the speaker says G makes the /g/ sound but the picture associated with is begins with /j/. Confusing for young learners.

4. Same with owl and ice cream. The speaker provides the short /o/ and short /i/ sounds for each button, but ice cream begins with a long /i/ sound and owl begins with /ow/ sound.

Now I'm getting picky...When you push the 4 mode buttons it plays a tune. I wish it said the name of the mode, such as "spelling." My son doesn't understand that by pushing the buttons that he is changing a mode. He thinks it is just another tune. Finally, each word printed on the buttons begins with a capital letter. These are not proper nouns and should not be capitalized in this instance.

Initially what I liked about this toy (besides the good reviews) is the fact that an uppercase and lowercase letter is shown on each button. Some of the similar v-tech and leapfrog toys only show capital letters. And of course, the keyboard at the bottom was a bonus since my 3-year-old loves musical instruments.

I really wish I could get my money back since I paid over $30 for a worthless and defective toy.

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It child that I bought it for is enjoying it. He likes the keyboard and it dose not drive the adults in the room mad. It only plays one note at a time. That helps to keep the noise level down.

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My child really enjoyed this item and has learned letters and words as well as reinforcing the alphabet with music.

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Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Reviews of Overseas Connection Shekere

Overseas Connection Shekere
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
List Price: $32.00
Sale Price: $26.65
Today's Bonus: 17% Off
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......this is a well made authentic shekere from Ghana . there are various sizes and reasonably priced compared to LP and Meinl...get shakin...

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I bought this for my wife to use on stage. She loves it! Product exactly as advertised.

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This isn't authentic and the tone is to tinny. Only a skill pro with a decent mic set up will get a consistent tone. Still, like it and decided to keep it. This needs a break in period atleast 2years! Like most shekeres the older the better!

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As for the sound it's everything I wanted it to be, but I'd like the beads to be of natural materials, and I've got plastic.

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This "made in Ghana" shekere sounds great. It is a West African style shekere, not the kind that produces a ringing or slightly boomy tone as you find with e.g. Meinl products. It is loud,easy to record with and cuts through the sound giving edge and definition to a track. Awesome value, very highly recommended.

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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Lapiluv Reviews

Lapiluv
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
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I'm going to be sharing this with my other mommy friends because I know many little people who need something to do while sitting on mommy's lap! There are great little toys to keep them occupied (each with a different feature -vibrations, crinkle sounds, mirror, etc) and the ipad/ipod slots are valuable if there's a game or movie that the little one likes. I definitely think my little guy sits better because he's been playing with this on my lap.

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I got this today for my 10 week old, its very well constructed and i love the idea that he is facing me to play. We will have a 19 hour flight in a few day and i will write do a video review on my youtube channel msjifyournasty . If you want to see the product up close i did a product discovery video and then i BOUGHT the product

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This product is absolutely wonderful! For me it serves three main functions: spending time with my son, while being entertained and also learn. Since that discovery, the relationship with my son has been greatly enriched.

Very highly recommended if you have young children.

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Monday, October 27, 2014

Review of Discovery Kids Glow Star Globe

Discovery Kids Glow Star Globe
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
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This globe is cool. My 9 year old daughter has it in her room, and loves to look at the different star constellations at night. During the day, the globe features are useful when she wants to be able to see different parts of world. After all, that is a globe's purpose, right? :-)

My one minor thing is that you don't want to leave the switch "on" during the day. It'll drain the battery very quickly. Other than that, fun product!

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I was expecting more for this product, everything is fine except that it doesn't assemble very well, so the globe easily is not very stable. It has little cities on map. My son really enjoys watching this globe.

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Sent this back. Did not work with new batteries, and does not assemble particularly well. It is simply not sturdy. Let down because it looks better in the picture than in reality.

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I bought this for my 6 1/2 year old son and he loves it. It looks very cool at night with the stars and is a great educational toy. Only drawback is that the globe does not connect to the base very securely, it just rests. Overall a great toy for older kids.

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This was a gift for an 8-yr-old grandson. He loves it in both modes. As a matter of fact, the glow version is now his nightlight. It's nice quality for the price, and very educational. And of course it promotes interest in not only the Earth and geography, but astrology too. Leads to lots of questions and interesting conversations.

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Friday, October 24, 2014

Best Space Shuttle ViewMaster Gift Set - Viewer and 21 3D Images Deals

Space Shuttle ViewMaster Gift Set - Viewer and 21 3D Images
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
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Grandson loved this gift. Even though the ViewMaster is not the latest greatest toy the kids see on TV, it brought a lot of "Wow! Look at that!" when they used it for the first time.

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Saturday, September 20, 2014

Buy Z VIBE MINI TIP

Z VIBE MINI TIP
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
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...for oral stimulation for a child on the "Autism Spectrum."

The entire ordering, purchasing, and shipping process was quick and simple.

The lil' guy who is now utilizing this is doing very well and has actually started to "taste" more foods as his sensory needs are being met, bit by bit!

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Monday, September 15, 2014

LeapFrog Disney Pixar Monsters University Carrying Pack Review

LeapFrog Disney Pixar Monsters University Carrying Pack
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
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I went back and forth on multiple case options for my daughter's leappad. The zip ones don't have anything that secures the leappad in, so it is easy to drop it once they start to upzip the case. And the other backpacks only have two big pockets on the inside so there is no real organization for the games. This one was perfect! It has a pocket on one side for the leappad to be secured and on the other side there are little slots to hold individual games! Now we have the perfect solution to carry her console, games and headphones around. Plus, it has Monsters Inc on it! A double bonus!

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I am so glad I held out and never bought one of the other cases. This one is so much cooler! We bought it for my 3 yr old on his birthday and he loved it! He loves wearing his "backpack" and it's a great way to store all his games. Plenty of space in there for his leappad2 and it's accessories. It is padded and keeps the leappad safe.

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Saturday, September 13, 2014

Reviews of Orion 10020 SkyQuest XT12i IntelliScope Dobsonian Telescope

Orion 10020 SkyQuest XT12i IntelliScope Dobsonian Telescope
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
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After months and months of researching scopes (particularly Orion's and Zhumell's Dobsonian scopes) I decided to purchase the XT12i.

The quality of the scope is great and the only real gripe I have (if you can even call it a gripe) is the sheer size of the scope. Of course, I was aware of the size before I bought the scope so this isn't really fair with regards to the telescope's review.

Eighty-three pounds of gear though is a rather hefty load to transport anywhere by yourself. I am a military male in my mid-twenties and I was super-motivated to get this thing out in the field and I must admit it drained me physically. It's important to get an accurate measurement of your vehicle or other mode of transportation for your telescope because I "assumed" I wouldn't have a problem fitting it in my moderately-sized compact car... I was wrong. I can indeed fit the scope in my car in two separate pieces (base and tube) but the two take up so much space that I cannot even safely fit my wife in the car while I'm transporting it. This is again obviously no fault of the scope but it's something that all potential buyers should be aware of before purchasing.

If you are new to telescopes (Orion categorizes this scope in the "advanced" class) the setup may seem a little overwhelming, but it isn't very bad. The biggest step will be "collimating" your new telescope in which you fine tune the mirrors to ensure proper alignment. This was made much easier for me with the help of a laser collimator--you can buy these from Orion or other companies as well. The instructions were simplistic and had plenty of pictures. With help from my wife setup went very smoothly.

As for setup in the field the XT12 shines. Other than the sheer size and weight of the scope the setup is very, very easy. You simply lay out the base and rest the tube assembly on top of it. Next you screw in two knobs on the side of the base and you are more-or-less ready (One may need to wait for the telescope to acquire the right ambient temperature) to observe!

Like the other reviewer I have no complaints (other than the size, again not the scope's fault) but I haven't been lucky enough to get a lot of observation time. So far I've seen M42 in Orion, Venus, a double star, Pleiades and some other constellations. Sirius shines like the sun in the scope--it's amazing! If you live in a place which experiences lots of rain, cloudy conditions or extremely cold temperatures you may want to choose a smaller scope as the XT12i requires a moderate amount of work to move to and from shelter. Orion sells separately a bag (another hundred + dollars) which will temporarily cover the scope from rain (which is good to have when you are set up in the field and catch a temporary amount of rain). I live on the "windward" side of an island and so I must constantly deal with cloudy skies and rain.

In the end, would I recommend the scope? Definitely! It's very well-made and viewing through it is amazing. You may find yourself wanting to upgrade to premium eyepieces though (think anywhere from another 300-1000 dollars) because the stock ones aren't great. I upgraded immediately to Tele Vue Nagler 31mm and 7mm eyepieces (these two ran me almost a thousand dollars--or almost the price of the scope itself). I also felt the need to buy the carrying case for the scope (another 100 bucks or more), a barlow (more money) and several other accessories. If you think the price for quality observing stops with the purchase of the scope think again. Just like many other hobbies there are many hidden expenses--unfortunately in astronomy the expenses tend to run moderate through severe.

I would NOT recommend this scope for people of small stature or particularly young/elderly people. The setup and transportation of this unit may be too much for someone who is not physically capable. I do however feel it's a great scope for families and children too as long as someone is able to handle the size.

Seeing the moon through the XT12i (oh and buy a moon filter or polarizing filter!) was inspiring.. amazing. My wife was with me as well and we have never seen the moon in such clarity and grandeur. The XT12i gave us such an amazing view of the moon that it's hard to put into words.

Every night that passes I'm constantly gazing in the sky to see if there's a possibility of pulling out the 80-pound beast. I highly recommend buying a quality pair of binoculars (Celestron, Orion, Bushnell, Garrett Optical) though to allow you flexibility when wanting to view the sky but only have a limited amount of time.

I hope this review has helped!

EDIT:

:November 2012:

Since my initial review, I have had many nights out with my scope. I have been able to see many, many celestial objects and it has been a real joy. Some of my favorite things that I have seen through the scope are the globular cluster Omega Centauri (and many other magnificent globular clusters such as M13), magnificent Jupiter and Saturn, the Perseus double cluster of open clusters NGC 884 and NGC 869, and many, many other wonders. There have been many nights when I have had stable seeing, and I was able to see the Giant Red Spot on Jupiter and its different colored bands. I have also been able to view probably around 5-6 moons around Saturn (I believe they were all moons, but some may have been stars appearing near the orbits of the other moons). Saturn is a joy to view; it and Jupiter are my favorite solar system objects, alongside the moon. The moon is still a magnificent thing to observe. I have viewed a huge list of open clusters and nebulae, as well as double and variable stars. One of my favorite things to do is simply roam the Milky Way band and use my wide-field 31mm eyepiece (bought separately) to see SO MANY STARS. Also, do not be afraid to install and use the Intelliscope feature. I put it off for a long time, and when I finally installed it I wondered why I waited so long. As long as you have a flat surface, it is simple to set up.

I still highly recommend this scope. It is a 12" light bucket, although due to its large nature it may not be suitable for everyone.

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This scoope is one of the greatest I have ever had. I have now 3 scoops. One refactor that was my first and now it is the first scoop is going to my grand daughter. The second scoop is a 4.5 inch reflector still very good. And now with my 12 inch, wow to see things that my 4.5 could not reach out too. Even my grand daughter loves this new scoop. Oh she is just short of being 3, and she tells me what she likes to look at.

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Orion certainly makes decent telescopes, but all prospective buyers should be warned: Orion won't do business with you if you've bought one of their scopes 2nd hand: they won't return calls, sell you parts, or anything else you might expect from a decent company. Why does that affect folks who are buying new from Orion? Well, if you want to sell your scope in order to upgrade, the buyer will be out of luck when it comes to getting parts, so he or she may be contacting you so that you can act as a go-between with Orion. In the end, that will affect the resale value of your scope. Let's hope Orion changes this absurd policy, but until they do, I'd look elsewhere for a scope.

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Locker Rockers Rug - Scribbles Beat Review

Locker Rockers Rug - Scribbles Beat
Customer Ratings: 4 stars
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This little rug is very plush and soft! I would love to order a bigger one for our pampered pooch! Our daughter found it to be too large for their middle school locker. We cut it in half and shared with a friend. Love the bright color!

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Thursday, September 4, 2014

3D Horse Head Sculpture on a Brown Handmade Leather Bound Journal Reviews

3D Horse Head Sculpture on a Brown Handmade Leather Bound Journal SO102
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
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This is a very nice journal. It's a little smaller than I would have liked but the outside is simply spectacular. It's a good weight, the material feels genuine, and the horse head is excellent quality. This a nice gift, looks like it should be one of a kind, handmade item. Very impressive to see and hold in person. I was a little hesitant because of the price, but the quality is worth it. It arrived VERY quickly in the mail (left from London and arrived in the US within 3 days). I do wish that the journal was lined instead of blank, but that's ok (I read in the description it was blank so I knew before I purchased). Overall, I would recommend this item as a gift for a horse lover. You won't be disappointed with it!

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Friday, August 29, 2014

Discount Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit

Elenco AC/DC Triple Output Power Supply Kit
Customer Ratings: 4.5 stars
List Price: $79.99
Sale Price: $59.24
Today's Bonus: 26% Off
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Okay, there are a number of reviews here on Amazon that point out the cons of this unit. Allow me to say this about how the regulators are installed on the heatsink. The only way to keep costs down as well as build assembly simple, is to use this method. Other options would require active cooling with a noisy fan and internal heatsinks with pin guides for the PCB which for people new to kits like this (and Elenco designs this series for students), would increase difficulty. If you've never loosely stuck a TO pack to a pin guided heatsink (with thermal grease), then tried to tighten things up and solder in place, then finish screwing it in place before ( and that would have to be done four times in this kit), then this is a much simpler solution. All things considered I would prefer to have the individual heatsinks on the PCB, but I do get the design for cost and build simplicity. But as others have said make sure you heat shrink the exposed leads of each of the TO packs, so make sure to have some on hand.

Now for the binding posts, there is no excuse. Elenco not only picked the cheapest posts they could find, when it became a problem they didn't bother to correctly address the problem. See a modern, quality binding post will be hard nickel plated on the post part but the area you attach the wiring will either be gold plated or bare, polished copper. Why? Because you can solder to gold or copper. You cant really solder to nickel very well. The reason they are fully nickel plated is because of costs. Nickel is a good electrical conductor (not great, but good enough), and really resists wear from the constant friction of plugging and unplugging of your leads. So thats a good thing. But when these cheap posts are made, they just plate the entire steel part in nickel instead of just the binding part and then polishing the internal hookup part as that is several extra steps that raise costs. So Elenco decided that on the 2010 revision of this kit to include 7 extra nuts but not add instruct the builder that they should just use the extra nuts to attach the wires in place with. Now the overall quality of the posts is fine, you just cant really solder the wires to them easily. Trying to use the extra nuts to bind them to the posts in cramped quarters is also pretty annoying. Run down to your local Radio Shack and pick up a $2.00 pack of 22 gauge ring terminals (catalog 64-3114) and use them instead. Just give yourself and extra half inch of wire on each of the binding post wires. Strip off one full inch instead of the 1/4" the instructions say. Double it over and solder it together. Then crimp it in the ring terminal and screw into place with the extra nut. Much simpler than trying to solder the posts or holding the wire in place in such cramped quarters.

Other than that, the only parts I found that were just bad were a couple of caps. One of the 22,000µf and my 47,000µf were right at the very brink of their +/20% range, so I upgraded all my caps to new, high temp, low ESR caps that should last a good decade or two. Total price was an extra $7.00 with shipping. So if you can, check your caps before you build. You should be fine, but caps are cheap and good ones will last for a long time.

A few do's and don'ts for the kit: Dont use the included lead free solder unless you have a tip and iron for lead free solder. Its hard to work with, it eats up your tip, and requires a good bit of excess heat. Do get some .20, .30, or .40 size 60/40 or 63/37 lead solder with a rosin core. When it comes to electronics, lead is indeed your friend. Don't use the included two pieces of plastic based heatshrink tubbing. Do get an assortment pack of different size heatshrink tubbing and use that instead. Heatshink all exposed contact points in the kit with individual tubes and not just one big one.

This kit can be modded a bit. Like many who have built this kit, I chose to install a couple of 2k, 10 turn, wire wound pots to make precision adjustments. The simple carbon pots that come with the kit will work just fine. I justed wanted more precision (like fine tuning) when setting my voltages. If you don't happen to have a couple of these in your parts bin, then they will cost a bit. Upwards of $35.00 for two with shipping. That includes an extra few bucks for new dials since the included dials, wont fit most multi-turn pots. If you go this route, you will have to drill out the holes just ever so slightly more. We're talking just a hair or two.

There is also plenty of room for a display to be installed in the company logo area of the front panel. I will be adding one in the future as I can see that checking my voltage every time with a multimeter will become a bit of a pain. I've already seen one kit where somebody installed a 20 x 4 line LCD display for this and it reads voltage and amps for all outputs.

There is even a little extra room between the AC and DC rails for installing a load circuit, which I plan to do.

So you can spend twice the price to upgrade this kit if your not careful. Keep in mind that most of these mods are just fun to add and helpful but are not needed. For that amount of cash you could just but a PSU with a display, and fine tuning built in. But the main reason to do it with this kit is it offers dual adjustable DC jacks at 1 amp, a constant 5v DC at 3 amps, and a 6.3/12.6v AC. You cant come anywhere near a quality tri-rail PSU at the $120-$130 mark. So the mods can be fun, useful, let you learn a little if your new to electronics and offer serious bang for the buck features that you would normally pay several hundred bucks for in a prebuilt PSU.

The case and transformer are very well made and should last a very long time if treated with care. The taps on the transformer are made with silicone covered wire (which really surprised me) so they wont get brittle with age and heat like the common PVC types. The overall circuit is very simple, through hole based so if a componet happens to fail it would be an easy fix.

All in all, its a great value kit that offers lots of upgrades options and should last a long time. I got it in January when Amazon was selling it for $49.00 (with prime), and I see that its now up to $59.00. That seems to be the average price online, so I dont think it will really go up more than this. I've put about $40.00 in parts and upgrades to it, and I'm very pleased with the end result. When I'm finished with future upgrades it will be about $120-$130 spent and I'll have a very versatile PSU, thats cool running, silent, and built to last. I give it five stars.

***EDIT***

Quick tip for building: Flux and tin ALL the PCB solder pads before you begin to populate the board. The solder pads on the PCB are beyond huge and if you try to solder components without the tinning, it will make the work much slower as it will take forever to heat up those large areas and leave your iron on your parts for to long. Don't forget to clean off any excess flux when you are done assembling the PCB.

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This is an excellent kit. The quality of the components is high. The workmanship on the chassis is high. The documentation is excellent...includes many pictures, diagrams, theory of operation, check sheets, etc. This kit is sold in the Amazon toy store but it is NOT a toy...it IS a solid experimenter bench power supply. It is easy to assemble. It worked perfectly first time it was plugged in. I cannot verify the stated regulation or ripple specs (lack of proper test equipment and load cells at home). The only negative I have (and it isn't bad enough to reduce a five star rating) is the wiring of the regulator ICs and a power transistor is by direct soldering to the component leads...pretty low class. But it helps keep the kit cost low by eliminating sockets. Good soldering technique is required to accomplish this part properly.

All-in-all a really good value and a lot of fun to assemble.

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This kit is very good. It is easy to put together, and the final product is of high enough quality to use for years to come.

I have read some complaints about soldering the binding posts. May I suggest that if you are having a problem in this area, that it is you who need to improve your technique. I had no problems soldering to these posts, and I am just getting back into electronics after many years away from it. You can do it easily, but only if your soldering technique is up to snuff.

The only reason I am only giving this 4 stars is because of the rather lame method of attaching the transistors/voltage regulator ICs to the heatsink and then having to soldering wireds to each of their terminals. Come on Elenco, there are much better ways of doing this.

Anyway, It took me a few hours to put together and it worked perfectly the first time out. Double check your work every step of the way, and you will be fine. Be especially vigilant when wiring the sections illustrated in Figure I on page 9. You don't want to miswire the AC.

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The power supply arrived on the advertised and neatly packaged. The instruction are very good. I was able to completely assemble and test the power supply in about 5 hours. I am slow, but steady and experienced with electronic kits.

Two things stand out:

1) You need a decent soldering iron with a variable temperature control. The Sn based solder is MUCH more challenging to work with than the old Pb product. This has nothing to do with Elenco, lead is no longer used due to it's poisonous nature. I found that the solder traces, especially on the large 'lytic caps needed much more heat.

2) Put a 2cm length of 5mm heat shrink tubing over the wire leading to base (middle) leads of the transistors and regulators mounted on the heat sink BEFORE soldering the leads. Again Sn based solder can lump easily, and there is not much room between the collector, base, or emitter. I also tinned both the wire and leads before I assembled this part of the kit.

Other than these cautions I am enjoying my new power supply. It's nuthin' fancy, but I don't need anything really upscale. Remember, 1A is a lot of power when working or modern electronics.

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This power supply is an excellent value. It performs very well. The AC output is useful. I have kit building experience, so there was no problems in building this unit.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Lortone 3 Pound Rotary Rock Tumbler Kit Review

Lortone 3 Pound Rotary Rock Tumbler Kit
Customer Ratings: 5 stars
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My first experience with a rock tumbler so I kind of had what it was supposed to be like and do. The Lortone 3 works well and I am very satisfied with my new hobby equipment.

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