EEVblog #54 - Electronics - When I was a boy...

[Ferroto]

I'm thinking of getting one of those electronics starter kits you had in your blog mainly because it seems easier to prototype on them. Heres one I'm considering getting, It's got a 7 seg led display, to the left you have 8 led's below you have a variable capacitor, variable resistor, 3 position toggle switch, 8 buttons, speaker, a generous amount of breadboard space with 5 dividers so what do you think

http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-MX-908-300-Electronic-Project/dp/B000IXKR2U/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1263788669&sr=8-6

[eswets]

I picked up an older Knights Mini-Lab off ebay for $20.  It doesn't have the 8 seg led display or var caps, but it has a 5,12, and -12v dc power supply and a variable 0-18v ac power supply as it also has a clock generator in it.  Check it out on ebay.
Eric

[Simon]

I used to have something like that (sold on ebay), I now much prefer a breadboard, as for harware stuff like pots i just solder breadboard jumper wires to them havin g cun one of the pins off

[EEVblog]

The combination of the breadboard and spring terminals is a winner I think.

Dave.

[Simon]

The combination of the breadboard and spring terminals is a winner I think.

Dave.

it certainly is a very good combination, I've gone for the cheaper and possibly more versatile method as i can take away parts not needed and introduce anything else i want

[GeekGirl]

These days I do a lot of uC design. The Atmel dev kits have 10 pin IDC headers for everything, and sometimes you need a pile of push buttons, dipswitches, RS232 or RS 485 drivers LCD etc Etc.

So I designed some PCB's that have the 10pin headers to rows of sockets (I made SIP sockets out of machine pin DIL sockets) so that I could push wires in and cross connect everything

It works just like a breadboard, and can interface between a 10pin IDC and the bread board

[Simon]

well Dave I had a 200 in 1 kit just like the one you showed in the blog and that was in 1992 !

[Andrew]

Just remember when you buy this, you are not paying for the electronic parts. They are just cents. You are paying for the instructions and descriptions. So check these if they are good and worth $90.

[saturation]

I got something similar in the 1970s. 

In the US, in seems only one company makes electronic kits now, Elenco.  How is it in other countries?

Elenco has created an innovative teaching lab using block sized snap together parts with a component for each snap part.

It costs about the same as the wire kit, without the choking hazard for children or animals.

http://www.elenco.com/cat_snapcircuits.htm




It even includes a Microcontroller learning lab:

[Simon]

if you've got to the point where you using uC's you should also be using a breadboard and real parts

[saturation]

if you've got to the point where you using uC's you should also be using a breadboard and real parts

From some feedback, they've gotten high school kids to build and program uC who still don't know how to solder, and the size and wires used to breadboard really gets in the way.

I had a friend who was an optoelectronics engineer and who built and troubleshooted military routers for their network.  At his level, he said everything they used and built was custom or hand made, and in the 1990s, they worked in at and above the THz frequencies.  At his level, they had physicists on the staff, and he was just a grunt.  He was very good apparently, at what he did, as he retired at 40ish, and when we talked about 'basic electronics' he was surprisingly clueless, and when I built him small adapters for his dive computers, he couldn't solder for the life of him.

Some electronics is much easier than we suspect, and that making physical connections, mounting, layout, soldering, interference etc., is more a turn off than we imagine.

[Simon]

today electronics is getting confused with computers, i used to buy "practical electronics" in Italy, in less than a year it became "easy computer" and spent more time on computers than electronics. people on the whole are lazy (and then I heard on the radio today play "mental stretching games" to keep in mental shape instead of have a real hobby), many prefer to program than do a real circuit, I am hung between the two, I have basic electronics skills and knowledge and am gathering more as i go and I'm venturing into uC's so i now have basic (literally) programming knowledge, so I use both together to build a project taking the best of both, I won't make a massive circuit if it can be done simpler with a uC but i won't use a uC unless it actually makes sense and then i will design the PCB and make it. People at work think I'm nuts because it seems so involved to them but I don't find it so. with the internet I spend more time now researching and talking to people in forums to make as best a robust design as possible and then I actually godown to my shed and play with chemicals comming out with a PCB, hec i even made my own LED UV exsposure box, how many people would just spend silly money on a ready made one ? at the end of the day i enjoy my time on every aspect of a project and come out with something at the end, if only more experience and knowledge in a particular part of electronics be it theory or PCB production

[GeoffS]

I used to buy 'Electronics Australia' magazine  in the late 1960s and dream about being able to afford to buy one of their projects.

There wasn't much available locally in the way of electronic kits. There was one that consisted of a handful of components and spring terminals. The most advanced component it included was the transistor.
Then I joined the RAAF to get free(?) training in electronics and found that most of the gear I was going to work on was mostly vacuum tubes!

I've only recently gotten back into electronics after a long career in IT. It's quite a different field now. Still learning to solder SMD parts...

[EEVblog]

@TumutBound
I love my Tumut broom, quality product!

Dave.

[GeoffS]

@TumutBound
I love my Tumut broom, quality product!

Dave.

I'm in it for the fishing!

[Reuben]

Nostalgia. I started with the crystal radio at 9. Then built a 12 volt charger with back up lights for the whole house. They came on when it was dark and the power failed. and wired my sisters doll house. Then I got into transistors and voltage regulators and TVs at age 12. My cousin had no interest in his 200 in one, so i took it. I bought a blue meter from Radio Shack that you soldered yourself. I still have the XY tronic
soldering station I bought at 13 along with my first digital meter. I used these to repair my commodore 64.

Just bought a new digital xy tronic soldering station with the tweezers for SMD. We used Paint Strippers to do SMD when I worked for Motorola on cell phones. (94 to 98) Now you have these awesome hot air rework stations which I will have soon. I just bought a Quakko programmable 5 amp power supply. I will let you know how it works when I get it.

Back to the original topic. Forrest Mims writes the manuals with the new breadboard 200 in one. There are 2 large manuals. one is on basic electronics and the other is digital and C MOS. Wonderful. Inside the front cover they discuss the universality of the nand gate. Which means the ability to make any other gate from it. That is the subject of the tattoo on my left shoulder as well.

[sonicj]

i have that forest mims electronic learning lab from radio shack.

there's no other way to learn that much about electronics, hands-on, for less $!

i've modified my board a bit... added a RBBB Arduino and a coaxial power jack for power via wall-wart or external batteries.