Elenco 130-in-1 Electronic Playground and Learning Center

I think it is a great kit, possibly the best purchase I've ever made in this price range. I bought it for my nearly 6 years old son. He is too young to fully grasp the concepts and understand how electronics works, but he is learning to read the wiring digrams, he enjoys connecting the wires, and it loves playing with what he builds. We played with the Morse code (the table is included in the book) and learned how to send his name and "SOS" and many other words; we checked how electricity flows through water and how this changes when one adds salt; we built a radio; and we did many other educational and fun things. The kit appears small on the picture, and it is not large: There are 2 LEDs, an antenna, a tuning capacitor, 4 capacitors, 7 resistors, a variable resistor, 3 transistors, a diode, a transformer, a speaker, a switch, and terminals to connect a 9V battery. These components are sufficient to built 51 projects, starting from very simple ones (how bright an LED glows with different resistors connected between it and the battery?) to as complex as an alarm, blinking lights, and even transistor radio (which actually works!). Each project sheet contains a description, a schematic diagram, a wiring diagram (a sketch of layout of all wires) and a wiring checklist (list of which terminals should be connected with which). From time to time, new concepts are explained on saprate pages. Water flow analogy is extensively used to explan parallel and serial connection of resistors and capacitors. There is even a section on logic (OR and AND circuits. No soldering is required: all wires are easily connected to spring terminals. You bend a spring, slide a wire between the spring coils, and let the spring go - done! I think it is a great idea which makes assembly very easy. Each part is labelled on the cardboard, and each terminal (spring) has a number, which is also indicated on the schematics and on wiring digrams. The 71-page booklet makes a fair effort to explain the concepts behind each circuit. It is a solid booklet, and the explanations are OK for someone familiar with electronics. I do not think the level of explanations is great for a school student who does not know a thing about transistors - and it is not even written as a kids book or as a school textbook - but with the help of an adult, the booklet can be a significant learning resource. The built quality is - how should I put it - cost efficient and not meant to be abused. There is more paper than plastic. All components are attached to a medium-thick cardboard. This is not a toy to be stepped on or dropped on the floor. It should be treated the same way as expensive chess or checkers - you take it out of the box, put on a table in front of your kid, and work on a project with him. Then you disconnect the wires and put it back in the box. With this attitude, it will last. I am not complaining about the built quality as long it enables me to get this set at a good price. The only item that is not provided in the box is a 9 volts battery. I think it is a great educational toy. I played a lot with electronics when I was at school, and I can only wish that at that time I had something as nice as this kit!

This kit is a very good tool for learning a bit about electronic circuits and construction. The projects are simple enough and most of them will hold the interest of a pre-teen or young teenager. The kids can start out with something as simple as a car siren and electronic organ or continuity tester and as they develop more skill they can go into something more advanced like the AM radio or logic circuits. The construction of the kit is a little cheesy with a not-too-sturdy cardboard chassis, but it's adequate enough since the projects are not meant to be permanent. Component connections are made by slipping wires and leads into spring connectors and this works just fine. The instruction book leaves a little to be desired. It would be nice if they had more explanation and simple theory but as a "starter" to provoke a child's interest in electronics and electricity this is a very good deal. Also, do not think this is for boys only. Young girls will enjoy getting involved with this. Just ask some of them in my family! Because the description doesn't list the projects in this kit, here they are in no particular order: Electronic Woodpecker, Transistor-Transistor Logic Buffer Gate, Electronic Organ, Study Timer, The Chirping Bird, TTL Inverter Gate, Daylight Early Bird, Kitchen Timer, Electronic Cat, TTL AND Gate, Intermittent Alarm Generator, Three-Input AND Gate Using Operational Amplifier, Sonic Fish caller, TTL OR Gate, Comparator, Voice Level Meter, Machine Gun Pulse Oscillator, TTL Exclusive OR Gate, Basic Increase in DC Voltage, Power-On Reset Circuit, Electronic Motorcycle, TTL NOR Gate, Constant -Current Source, Delayed Timer, Two-Tone Patrol Car Siren, TTL Three-Input AND Gate, Integrating Circuit, Pulse Frequency Doubler, Electronic Siren, TTL AND Enable Circuit, Schmitt Trigger Circuit, White Noise Generator, Electronic Metronome, TTL OR Enable Circuit, Noninverting Two-Power Supply Amplifier, DC-DC Converter with Op- Amp, Electronic Grandfather Clock, TTL NAND Enable Circuit, Inverting Two-Power Supply Amplifier, Code Practice Oscillator with ToneControl, Light-Controlled Electronic Harp, TTL R-S Flip-Flop, No inverting Single-Power Supply Amplifier, Crystal Set Radio (Simple-Diode Radio), Horror Movie Sound Effects, NAND Gate Toggle Flip-Flop Circuit, Two-Power Supply Differential Amplifier, Two-Transistor Radio, Strobe Light, TTL Line Selector, Tone Mixing Amplifier , Wireless Code Transmitter, Rapid LED Display Switching, TTL Data Selector, Power Amplifier Using Operational Amplifier, Am Radio Station, Capacitor Discharge/High Voltage Generator, TTL Astable Multivibrator, Voltage Controlled Oscillator Circuit, Operational Amplifier Radio, Capacitors in Series and Parallel, TTL Tone Generator, Operational Amplifier Buzzer, Aural Continuity Tester, Resistors in Series and Parallel, Winking LEDs, Burglar Alarm, Conductivity Tester, Light Dimmer, A One-Shot TTL, Hand-Operated Sweep Oscillator, Transistor Checker, Transistor Switcher, Transistor Timer with TTL, Falling Bomb Sound, Sine wave Audio Oscillator, Transistor Circuit Action, Buzzin' LED, Emergency Siren, Low Distortion Sinewave Oscillator, Sound Amplifier, Son of Buzzin' LED, First Aid Siren, Twin-T Audio Oscillator, Flip-Flop Multivibrator with LED Display, Set/Reset Buzzer, Musical Tempo Generator , Pulse Oscillator Tone Generator, Seven-Segment LED, Digital Circuit, Set/Reset Buzzer, Operational Amplifier Winking LED , Audio Signal Tracer, Basic LED Display, Sound Machine, LED Flashing Light, Radio Frequency Signal Tracer, Transistor Control Switching of LED Display, Big Mouth, Two-LED Winker, Square Wave Audio Oscillator, Transistor, CDS Cell and LED Display Circuit, Shot in the Dark, One Shot Light, Sawtooth Wave Oscillator, Diode-Transistor Logic AND with LED Display, Variable R-C Oscillator, LED Initials, Rain Detector, DTL OR Circuit with LED Display, Oscillator with Turn-Off Delay, Wake Up Siren, Water Level Buzzer with Op-Amp, DTL NAND Circuit with LED Display, Temperature-Sensitive Audio Oscillator, Voice-Activated LED, Metal Detector, DTL Exclusive OR Circuit, Two-Transistor, Directly Connected Oscillator, Logic Tester, Water Level Alarm, Transistor NOR Circuit with LED Display, Push/Pull Square Wave Oscillator, Alternating Current Sound, Three-Step Water Level Indicator, Transistor Flip-Flop Circuit, Pencil Lead Organ, Light Control Sound Circuit, Transistor Toggle Flip-Flop, LED Strobe Light, Sound Alarm Circuit. Phew!

I purchased this for my 8 yo son who had an interest in learning more about electronics. My elder 11 yo daughter was not interested in sharing her snap circuits set (she has the SC-500). We were not interested in making a large initial investment. While I really like the snap circuits and the easy directions and ease of assembling different projects / experiements; but I prefer the electronic playground for the instructional manual. The manual does a very good job of explaining what is going on, for examples, how do resisters work, what are their puposes. It questions the student to come up with real life uses of a resister such as in a light dimmer. The playground is made of relatively inexpensive cardboard (really wish that they would have used something that felt more sturdy). However, it was very easy for my son to wire between the different pieces. He did not have any problem following the provided instructions. With the additional background that was provided, he was able to take the intended lesson and further explore on his own .... and understand what he was doing. With the Snap Circuits Pro, I did not feel like my daughter was given enough information to freely and easily experiment. Interesting that they seem to be made by the same manufacturer. My daughter has had her set for 3 years so maybe things have changed. This was a very inexpensive way to provide a great introduction to electronics. My middle child was following along with my son and agreeing with all of the written explanations she learned at school for why the experirments worked. As an intro kit, there is certainly quite a lot that they teach the kid thru the many "experiements" and it is a good guide to test a child's interest in electronics before committing to a much more expensive set.

This is a good hobby kit for children (or adults). Does not feel very rugged. Does come with an instruction manual, but detail understanding of the design is not covered. However it is still a good kit for experimenting.

I really enjoyed using this project kit. My brother had many of these when we were young, and he ended up becoming an electronics engineer. I wanted it for the 80s flashback, and to try to understand electronic circuit design in a way I was never able to when I was younger like my brother could. It's nice to see that quality products aren't dead.

I had one of these kits in the early 90s as a kid and absolutely loved it. It also led me into a pretty decent career path where I work for a good company with good pay. I got this set for my 3 and 5yr old nieces and in about a week they have managed to put together about 8 of the circuits, including the AM radio transmitter. This kit has taught the 5 year old how to wire things according to the diagrams and always go over all the connections a 2nd time before she connects the battery, and so far everything has worked first time for them. Great way to help start the kiddos early and make sure we have a next generation of electronics engineers to keep the world going.

si funciona el equipo este fácil y básico. viene en ingles fácil de entender.

Estaba entre Snap Circuits y este Kit electrónico. Vi una reseña y compré este Kit porque lo recomendaba para afianzar conceptos de electrónica, pero mi hijo quedó desilusionado de la calidad de la construcción de este Kit. Todo está hecho de cartón a excepción de las conexiones y cables. Vi reseñas que lo mencionaban, pero no pensé que sería tan grave. Pues si está muy endeble y frágil. La parte de abajo está pegada con cinta adhesiva. Se me hizo muy caro para un juguete con una construcción tan barata y frágil. De cualquier manera mi hijo ha estado jugando con él y me gusta la idea de que sí viene la explicación de los conceptos de electrónica.