Trying to develop my son's interest in

mrbigbluelight

electronics.

Does anyone have any suggestions for some sort of educational kits that might help a 14 year-old boy discover and develop his interests and talents ?

I remember "in my day" Heathkit had all sorts of "stuff" you could build. My own route to electronics skills was a 6 year, 1 month, 12 day stint in the nuke navy.

I was hoping to help him without the tour of duty route.

I've seen a few kits on the internet, but they are simply too basic. They are of the "Hook these two wires to a D cell batter, than to a light, and see the light glow !". He's a pretty inquisitive kid, and will need something to challenge but not crush.

Thanks !

danger boy

have him replace all the crossovers in your home theater speakers. hee hee hee!

Polk65

http://www.electronictoolbox.com/Electronic_Kits

http://www.sciplus.com/category.cfm?subsection=2

http://www.arborsci.com/ScienceFair.htm
http://www.arborsci.com/Products_Pages/Energy/Energy1.htm
^ This car kit looks interesting.

Beekyman

A former canoe club member! I was in between 1987 and 1992... well shipmate...do you still have any old tech school manuals lying around?
If so leave the basics out for him to look over and keep the theory level low because Ohms Law and Kirchhoff and transistor biasing will very quickly become BORING! (At least to me at that age!)
Get a breadboard or a crystal radio kit or some "cool" thing such as a solar powered car/boat and build it together. You''ll have fun and bond with your son and you can see very quickly if he is interested in such things.
I have fond memories of my German grandfather helping me when I was in Boy Scouts by instructing me on how to build a crystal radio/trench radio with nothing more than an old razor blade, a small broken off piece of pencil lead, some thread, a good length of thin varnished copper wire a diode and a cheap earbud and a discarded toilet paper tube...the whole thing in its simplest version took up no more space than a paperback book and it worked very good, damned good! I was fascinated with it because it used no batteries and for me it was the coolest thing to hear radio in the earbud and to know that I was the only kid in the neighborhood to have one and...my "OPA" and me built it! Man !! You just cant get that from school if you know what I mean !
Check the internet and look around, amatuer scientist, electronics, and so many other resources exist for cool projects. Tesla Coils and Jacobs Ladders come to mind...how cool would that be? Have you tried to get your Ham Radio license? Its easier than ever and there are no age restrictions....you can do a bunch of really cool stuff with Ham Radio!
Sorry if I rambled but ideas and memories keep popping up! Good luck and have fun with your son!

ledhed

I got one of these when I was younger and it really taught me alot

And then, one of these might be fun

It takes a really neat approach by giving you the schematics and step by step instructions. After about 3 of the projects, I was building right off the schematics. It includes 2 project books and even goes in-depth on logic gates and such.
Also, the books included are by Forrest M. Mims III, who is famous for his little "Engineers notebooks" and such

cfrizz

:eek: :eek: :eek: WAAAAAAAA!:D

You're alot of help Al! With friends like you who needs enemies!!!;)

danger boy wrote:

have him replace all the crossovers in your home theater speakers. hee hee hee!

Polkersince85

I bought my son a Lego Mindstorm Robotics kit at age 12. Lot of imagination/design experience there. MIT website is an interesting read.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/index.htm#undergrad

mhardy6647

If you (and he) aren't afraid of high voltage:
www.bottlehead.com (try the "Single-Ended eXperimenter's" amp)



http://www.s5electronics.com/gpage1.html
Cute little 8 watt push-pull stereo tube amp.


Wary of high voltage, but still want to build something cool that glows in the dark? Not quite a kit, but Pete Millet's low-voltage tube/ss hybrid headphone amp/preamp is very nice.

http://www.diyforums.org/millett.html the current iteration


http://www.pmillett.com/hybrid_head.htm the original

mrbigbluelight

danger boy wrote:

have him replace all the crossovers in your home theater speakers. hee hee hee!

Okay, DangerBoy, you've moved up 2 notches on my "Rascal" list.

Beekyman, I was in from 1972-1978. Electronics tech than a Reactor Operator. Something about 20 hour days that got a little discouraging after a while. And Tesla coils !! Don't get me started on Tesla coils !! My older son had a science fair project to do back in grade school and he and I, after searching the net, decided a Tesla coil lightning projecter would be awesome !! Which it would have, but you had to submit your ideas for approval, and the nay-sayers put the kabosh on that. Something about "liability" and "injuries" and "death". The world is populated by the squeamish, I guess. :rolleyes:

By the way, I'm the proud domain name owner of nikolaitesla.com. Haven't done a thing with it, yet, but I figure put the cart before the horse if need be and something will work out.

Nikolai Tesla was god. Don't mean to interject religion here, but ... it's a fact.


"If you (and he) aren't afraid of high voltage:"
Mhardy6647, fear would require some level of common sense and situational awareness which leaves me out. :rolleyes: ET school, Treasure Island, California. Learned why it is important to remove watches and rings when working around high voltages. When the ring on your hand grounds out a 500 VDC bus inside an SPS-10 radar cabinet, well ..... my **** still flutters when rainstorms approach !

Good ideas, no, GREAT ideas from everyone. Thanks a bunch.

And Danger Boy, I went ahead a lowered you down one notch on the "Rascal" list because I'm in a good mood today.

Beekyman

Nikolai Tesla was truly an amazing man and truly an electrical/electronics god in his time! He sure did give Thomas A. Edison a run for the money! I'm glad to see that there are others out there that see his genius as well!
So you were a "tron-chaser" and not a "nukie" eh? Thats cool...I was in the airwing supporting E-2C Hawkeye search radar systems as a avionics tech (AT)
Good luck in finding something fun and educational, sometimes just tearing apart an old stero or TV can be fun and educational as well. Nothing like getting bit by a storage capacitor as you tear into old equipment...heh,heh!!

fatchowmein

How about Robotics? Radio Shack has the Vex Robotics kit for 1/2 off. $100 or $150 at the discounted price. Sorry, it's been 4 weeks and I've slept since then. :rolleyes:

I almost picked up a kit but I have too many projects/hobbies.

Check it out. http://www.radioshack.com/uc/index.jsp?page=researchLibraryArticle&articleUrl=..%2Fgraphics%2Fuc%2Frsk%2FResearchLibrary%2FBuyersGuides%2Fresearch%2Fvexrobotics.html