Electronic Kits for EE student

[pmg]

Hi.  I'm looking for a decent electronics kit or set up to start experimenting with at home. I just started an electrical engineering program and I am motivated to learn as much as I can. I have worked with lab equipment in classes but I don't have my own. My interests are fairly widespread from circuit design to robotics. I live in the United States and I just don't want anything geared for kids.

Thanks for any advice.

[PeterG]

If your in Australia i would look at Jaycar.

Regards

[johnboxall]

If your in Australia i would look at Jaycar.
Regards

Yes, their "Short Circuits" series is ok, seems to be aimed at the very young however anyone can benefit from it. Book one isn't too bad, but I think there is some information 'lost in translation' in some of the circuit explanations. If you go that way, get a breadboard for making circuits instead of using the spring/pegboard system.

The "Make: Electronics" book is also very good, not aimed at ten year olds. If you're in Australia you can get it locally here  - http://bit.ly/m6TdNL

[sacherjj]

I think it is a great idea to build kits that are useful. 

Make a power supply.  (Currently my project)   A current limit on it helps not let out the special smoke.    Gives you a chance to learn about transformers, rectification, filtering and linear regulators.

Make an LC meter: http://www.aade.com/lcmeter.htm   With some of the add-ons suggested on the page,  this is a darn handy meter.

If you subscribe to Nuts and Volts digital, you can download PDFs of the entire issues from Jan 2004 to current.  Many fun projects in there.

[Trigger]

I actually learned more outside of classes by doing my own projects.  I'd find out what micros the university is teaching with, get a dev kit, breadboard, and components and build something.  Yes there will be a learning curve and your first projects will likely fail but learn from mistakes and keep building.  Kits are good for learning soldering but you'll understand the circuits better if it's your own project you had to figure out.

[Tony R]

When i started my program at my university they gave us a part kit (for $50) This was specificity for a logic class.
I would add, in addition to the list below, a resistor/capacitor assortment, some DIP switches, a jumper wire kit, some Op-Amps, Voltage Regulator, Potentiometers, diodes, NPN and PNP transistors. You may not need all of this, or all of what is in the list but it can get you a place to start looking. I find that Jameco has a better price compared to digikey, but you will pay more for shipping and you need to order more then $10 worth of stuff so they don't charge you a $5 charge.

The numbers are listed as Jameco PN, MFG PN, Quantity

20774   Bread Board   1
46252   74LS00   4
46287   74LS02   4
46316   74LS04   4
46341   74LS05   4
46375   74LS08   4
46404   74LS10   4
47466   74LS32   4
47790   74LS47   2
48004   74LS74   3
48039   74LS76   2
48071   74LS85   2
48098   74LS86   4
48119   74LS90   2
46480   74LS123   4
46607   74LS138   4
46703   74LS151   4
47001   74LS191   2
47386   74LS273   2
47407   74LS279   2
46851   74LS164   2
764449   22V10 - ATMEL   3
846639   16V8 - ATMEL   3
27422   555   2
334984   7 SEGMENT DISPLAY   2
333374   RED LEDS   8
206501   YELLOW LEDS   8
334465   BLUE LEDS   8