Learning electronics - Which kit - help

[petreza]

Hi,

Anyone has any experience with one of these:

--- Radio Shack (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=28%2D280)

--- 500-in-1 (http://www.hobbytron.net/product1275.html)

Which one would you recomend.
Is the 500-in-1 worth the 3-times the price?

Thank you!

[macklin01]

Hmm, I used kits like those when I was a kid. They can be good for I think 3 key aspects:
1) Large variety of bundled parts
2) parts already mounted, and solder not required
3) project books contain lots of things to make with wiring diagrams given.

A few cons:
1) They can be awfully juvenille. (Not a problem if you yourself are under 15-18, but try being an adult with it. The instructions can be a big part of this. A good parallel is learning piano -- a lot of the lesson books are kid-oriented, and they have silly pictures that can be embarressing to use as an adult.)

2) They may not explain the science / background enough for you to learn enough to do your own stuff. Granted, to design anything exceedingly complicated from the ground-up, you'll need an ee degree, but I remember a few RS booklets that didn't do much more than provide wiring sequences for cool projects.

All in all, though, these two caveats aside, I think they'd be a good way to start out. An alternative approach:

Buy some variety of parts and a breadboard. You'll still be able to test designs without soldering, then. You can try wiring projects you find on the web. Or you can buy a $5-$10 basic electronics book (at RS by the same author as the guy who wrote the RS kit pamphlet, for example) and follow along on your breadboard. This worked fairly well for me, but I wish I had a greater variety of parts to use.

Hope this helps a little. -- Paul

BTW, the hobbytron one looks kinda' cool. ;)