Is This Dexter's Lab?

$60 to learn electronics? It costs at least $500 at a tech school, so how well does the Shack's learning lab stack up? Pretty well, and for a number of reasons. This kit was designed from the ground up by Radio Shack's wunderkind designer, Forrest Mims III, who also writes their project books and has developed a few other kits. The plus of this kit is that Forrest takes a hands-on approach using the same materials you'd use if you were a pro designer or a hobbyist with a fat wallet.

That means a breadboard you can insert parts into, and a power supply with six different voltage outputs, precut and stripped wire jumpers to connect the parts with, and a control console with switches, variable controls, lights (LEDs), a 7-segment LED readout, an electonic meter, a buzzer, speaker, and photocell to build all sorts of electronic projects.

What sort of parts would you plug into the breadboard? How about 19 integrated circuits, 6 transistors, four diodes, about 30 capacitors, red and green LEDs, about fifty resistors, and a few more miscellaneous parts? Price just one integrated circuit at Radio Shack and you'll see what a good deal this kit is. Add a 96 page project book, and you've got a very decent electronics lab.

But none of that hints at what makes Forrest's design so unique. Besides the Basic Electronics workbook, there's a second 96 page workbook called Digital Logic Projects. This lab is also a complete hands-on course in digital electronics: binary code, logic gates, the theory and basic circuits of a computer. That's when this kit gets really fun. Then there's Forrest's unique approach. The books are hand-drawn and hand-written, with a step-by-step checklist to assemble each of the 200 projects, but also pictorial diagrams for each circuit, and how to translate that to a skematic, the standard way to draw electronic circuits. From the first circuit on, you can start deviating and experimenting, Dexter style. I wonder what would happen if I did this? Forrest invites this approach, warning you in advance what might really blow something out, but then letting you have at it.

The only con is the same as the pro: that this is the real thing, so you do need to discharge the static before handling the CMOS chips (by touching a large metal object), and keep the chips in their conductive foam container (included). Forrest hits on all these standard precautions and it pays to read his books closely. The box says this lab is for ages ten and up, but a budding Dexter a bit younger could probably handle it with some assistance. A magnifying glass is helpful to read the tiny parts markings, and a tweezer assists putting chips in the breadboard.

There is another electronics kit called the Sensor Lab, also by Forrest Mims III and costing a little less, and easily confused with the Electronics Learning Lab. One kit that it won't be confused with is a really different brainchild of the inventive designer called Sky and Sun Monitoring Station. It's very difficult to figure out what this even is without opening it, but once you do, you find out it's the real deal. Mind boggling as it sounds, for $30 jr. scientists can get their hands on real stuff and really do science. This is a science fair in a box and includes a guide for home schooling and students, along with internet satellite monitoring links. Once again you get an attractively designed control console, this time to measure air mass, water vapor, and different wavelengths of sun radiation (safely), displayed on an LCD readout. A few extras like a compass and level, viewing filters, and a sun angle scale are also included. Team this up with one of the electronic thermometer/barometers from Radio Shack and you've got a really good weatherstation and endless fun for amateur meteorologists. Look for our forthcoming review.