Electronics Learning Lab

This review is for the Radio Shack (28-280) Electronics Learning Lab; bought at Amazon. This is a great product for introducing your daughter (or son) into the electronic world. The lab has a bread board circuit design center which is how an electronics expert would set up a circuit design. It also has a lot of "support" items like switches, LED's (indicator lights), variable resistors, a speaker, a meter built in a plastic board (box?) so that it doesn't "hang by the board". The books, that come with the Lab, are top notch and take you through assembling your first circuit. You will notice that the actual resisters, capacitors, transistors and integrated chips are just like you would buy from a store; so replacements are easy. I also recommend this Lab for electronic hobby use. for 40 dollars (USD) you have a very inexpensive bread board platform. You also have lots of parts to start off with. You could buy the next higher up model (300 in 1) from Amazon but there is only 1/3 more experiments for 2 1/2 times the price.

I am starting to learn electronics, and this seems like it has all the basics covered. It comes with the main board (which has quite a lot to it), a lot of separate pieces (many wires, capacitors, resistors, and ICs) and a learning booklet. The reason it gets a 4 instead of 5 is for the booklet. While the step-by-step instructions seem pretty easy, there is not enough explanation or illustration for me. Overall, I'd recommend this product for those getting into electronics.

I got this for my 11 year old and myself as a father and son activity . We are trying to fit in a couple of pages with the projects a day. On only the 2nd day he was reading the schematic to assemble the project, as was I. I have no experience in this and in the past when I have tried to look at schematics I have gotten dizzy. I think the manuals that come with it are great for beginners. The most important thing is my son really enjoys it, as do I. The price on this is great for the learning, and fun with your kid, that it delivers. The provider was very concerned with customer satisfaction and enclosed a note to contact them if there were any problems, and I thought that was refreshing.

Incomplete.had to purchase parts. Wiring still on breadboard was only a minor inconvenience but missing parts were a major hassle. Especially difficult for a beginning learner to figure out what was missing.

My 15 year old wanted to learn more about electronics and this has been a great puchase. Hours of engaging learning and fun for him. Talked to a master electrician friend and he says he grew up with this and thinks it's great because it teaches you "why" not just "how to".