Getting Started in Electronics With a Project Kit / Lab

Now, I use the term 101-in-1 projects kit / lab to express the type of product this section discusses, but most of these type of kits will contain a variable number of projects depending on the kit and manufacturer. The advantage of these type of kits is that everything is contained in a single unit, usually about the size of a large book (and I mean LARGE book).

These kits are fantastic for teaching basic concepts of both the properties of electricity and how to use it to get electronic components to accomplish a certain task. For children and young adults, these kits are a great way to introduce electronics and possibly a carrier choice. Follows are some kits from Amazon that are a great choice for those wishing to explore electronics via a 101 Projects kit.

The traditional 101-in-1 project kits are filled with a selection of electronic components, each component will have two or more springs that are used to connect wire from one component to another. Now, there's nothing wrong with the traditional kit and they do provide a more accurate representation of components on a circuit board being connected together by paths of wire, but they are somewhat outdated when compared to some of the newer kits that are available.

The newer style kits, mentioned above, consists of modules that are plugged together and provide a cleaner looking circuit. Kits of this design are most certainly safer for the younger crowd and will serve the same function as the traditional kit as far as educational merit. There's also the benefit of not having as many wires to worry about losing or ending up in a child's mouth.

The best solution as to which kit to buy is should be made by carefully reading over the reviews of owners on Amazon. This is always the best way to determine which product is best suited to your unique needs.

As I stated earlier, the traditional projects lab consists of built in components with attached springs to attach wires. Some modern labs have also added breadboards to give the owner more flexibility in adding additional components to the lab and expanding beyond the projects included in the manual. These types of labs are my personal favorite for older children as they are a fantastic bridge to full blown custom electronic circuit design.

Why do I like these types of labs? Well, as stated earlier they offer expansion capabilities and can also be incorporated in custom project designs. Because of the spring connector design, components in the lab can also be used in outside the lab, offering built in components like potentiometers, switches, LEDs, and other components a life beyond the project lab. This allows the experimenter access to these types of components without having to run to an electronic's store, if you can find one, to get components.

Since these types of labs require older children it is highly recommended that parents follow the recommended age on the packaging.

So you've gotten your electronics project kit / lab and you've completed all the projects in the manual, where do you go next?

The next step is to start exploring the world of microcontrollers and you're going to find those from microcontroller manufacturers. My personal favorite manufacturer is Microchip and using their PICkit 2 and PICkit 3 programmer. Both programmers are affordable and a great place to start. Not only can you get both programmers for under $50, but the PICkit 2 will program just about every microcontroller Microchip manufactures, the PICkit 3 will program all the microcontrollers that microchip manufactures.

The best place to buy either of these programmers is from www.mouser.com , www.digikey.com, or from Microchip directly www.microchip.com

Be sure to download Microchip's FREE MPLab IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDocName=en019469&part=SW007002

And you'll also want to get a good book on programming Microchip's microcontrollers.