Electronic science kits, did you have any?
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paulscottrobson
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Electronic science kits, did you have any?
I had a couple of the "springies" types which I think were rebadged Radio Shack ones.
Looking at it with the benefit of hindsight two similar things were probably more important. I remember having a kit that did electrical experiments rather than electronics when I was about 9 or so, and that taught me a lot because it had 'proper' electronics rather than just building to a pattern, stuff about current and serial parallel resistors, even though the results were less exciting on paper.
The other thing is the Ladybird book "How to make a Transistor Radio" https://www.petervis.com/Radios/making-a-transistor-radio-ladybird-book/making-a-transistor-radio-ladybird-book.html though I never did get the regenerative circuit to work. I always fancied rebuilding it though the parts are very hard to get.
People make fun of Ladybird books these days but it's a quite astonishing book given that it's aimed at children.
It's a microcosm of the X16 concept. The arrival of the ZN414 meant radio design was much easier (and a barrage of radios in things like matchboxes and tictac cases, but with one of those designs you don't have much idea what's going on underneath)
Electronic science kits, did you have any?
The old ones I remember also had springs but blank boards where you had to put the springs on to form the circuits (look at desertfish posting ). The majority of kits nowadays seems to be aimed at very young kids though and they just click together components.
There are also ones that I look at nowadays which employ breadboards. I greatly appreciate that but they are a nieche, you don't find them in toy stores.
This is from a more complex one but they also have ones about basic electronics.
On 2/13/2021 at 8:39 AM, paulscottrobson said:
it's a quite astonishing book given that it's aimed at children
Yes, they sometimes had concepts in books that go way beyond what would nowadays be considered safe. I had an old book about electronics aimed at teens that must have been from the 50s from which I built a battery. Not a poatoe battery but one with zink (from a local plumber), acid (must have been Ammoniumchloride) (ordered through a pharmacy, way before the internet) and a
Did / do these Maxitronic and Elenco kits also show how the corresponding circuit diagrams would look like? Or just diagrams how to put together the wiring on the boards?
Electronic science kits, did you have any?
On 2/10/2021 at 8:47 PM, rje said:
Very similar to Matt's, I had this one:
That wooden tray looks very familiar, although I'm sure that the kit I had was just a 50 project kit and was made by Tandy. So what next? A microscope/chemistry set thread? What a bunch of geeks we are ?