Elenco 300-in-One Elecronic Project Lab

by Elenco

Product Features

• A classic electronics trainer with 300 experiments
• Learn basic principles of electronics and electricity, physics and magnetism
• Uses the spring-wire connection and bredboard methods
• Includes easy-to-read, lab style, illustrated manual
• Brought to you by Elenco Electronics, the same company the brings you Snap Circuits

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 13.2 x 3.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005K86O
• Item model number: MX-908
• Manufacturer recommended age: 10 - 15 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,574 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

300-in-One Elecronic Project Lab is a classic electronics trainer for expanding the depths of electronics understanding. It uses the spring-wire and bredboard connection methods for quick and easy modifications and trouble shooting. With the projects in this kit, learn about transistors, transformers, diodes, capacitors, oscilators, basic electronic circuits, and schematic symbols. Everything you need to build 300 exciting electronics projects including: Delayed Timer, Optical Volume, Digital Light Dimmer, Tone Burst Generator, Audio Signal Tracer, Voice Level Meter, Voltage Drop Alarm, Function Generator, Voltage Control Amplifier and many, many more.

Product Description

300-in-One Elecronic Project Lab is a classic electronics trainer for expanding the depths of electronics understanding. It uses the spring-wire and bredboard connection methods for quick and easy modifications and trouble shooting. With the projects in this kit, learn about transistors, transformers, diodes, capacitors, oscilators, basic electronic circuits, and schematic symbols. Everything you need to build 300 exciting electronics projects including: Delayed Timer, Optical Volume, Digital Light Dimmer, Tone Burst Generator, Audio Signal Tracer, Voice Level Meter, Voltage Drop Alarm, Function Generator, Voltage Control Amplifier and many, many more.

Features include:

•A classic electronics trainer with 300 experiments
•Learn basic principles of electronics and electricity, physics and magnetism
•Uses the spring-wire connection and bredboard methods
•Includes easy-to-read, lab style, illustrated manual
•Brought to you by Elenco Electronics, the same company the brings you Snap Circuits

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent tool for learning Electronics, March 21, 2003

By A Customer

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Elenco 300-in-One Elecronic Project Lab (Toy)

I've always been interested in learning at least the basics about electronics and finally decided to do something about it. I bought a couple of 'intro to electronics', 'electonrics basics' type books and I bought this toy. While rated for 10 years and up, they'd be pretty bright 10 year olds. The kit comes with capacitors, resistors, diodes, wires, transistors and even IC's. The other reviewer is correct. Resistors are all color coded -- and very small --- and very many in this kit. I finally spent about 4 hours labelling over 50 tiny plastic bags so I could easily find the appropriate parts to do the projects.
The manual explains how to identify all the parts, and for the projects uses a step by step approach to instruct one on how to put the project together. For example, "Insert 100 ohm resistor in B12 and J12 on the breadboard". In this respect, yes, a 10 year old could easily follow these instructions. The diagrams show the breadboard layout as well as showing you the "real" schematics. That coupled with my reading through my "electronics for dummies" books -- it's actually all starting to make sense as to why components are laid out they way they are. Without the other books, I would not have figured that out just from this kit -- but, if you just want to make things flash and make sounds etc and follow the instructions, that that won't matter. The manual does attempt to explain why something works -- but I was lacking the bare basics, so it didn't make much sense.

All in all, I would highly recommend this kit to anyone who really has an interest in learning about basic electronics and wants to put things together.

It would be a great kit for family projects. However, there are a ton of very small parts and good eyesight or a magnifying glass and a flashlight would be recommended for those of us with less then perfect eyesight.

Well worth the cost, working out to much much less then $[money]/hour of enjoyment to work through the 300 projects.

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excelent learning tool, August 3, 2004

By 

T. Hussein - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Elenco 300-in-One Elecronic Project Lab (Toy)

I rate myself as a complete beginner when it comes to
basic electronics. As with anything the best way to
learn is to practically do it, which can be difficult
and extremely expensive when it comes to electronics.
This project kit has to be probably the best starting
point for anyone who wants to get into electronics
because it focuses on the practical side which is a great
experience.

Looking at the product packaging the box looks high quality
until you look inside. It would have been extremely nice to
have batteries included to get working on the projects as
soon as possible. The electronic device itself is plastic
and can shatter to bits if you are not carefull.
The manual itself is wide making it extremely difficult to
handle. Probably the most irritating thing about the manual is
the layout. It starts off in English only to suddenly move off
to other languages. Each project section is actually split into
different languages increasing the size of the manual.

Apart from that I found the instructions were pretty much
easy to follow and straight to the point. The most noticable
thing about the manual I found was that it will get you
on your feet and going but thats about it. A paragraph or two
is included for each section summarising what the circuit does
but chances are you will want more information on what is going.
A good electronics book should help although you wont need
it if you are already familiar with whats going on. A simple
look at the a good website should be enough to increase your
understanding.

The most surprising thing I found about this product
was that a lot of the interesting components happen to be
on the main device itself. You only connect the
necessary components to the appropriate connectors - placing
the ICs, capacitors, transistors and wires on the rather
small breadboard. A good pair of thin pliars is probably
recommended as it can get seriously messy especially with the
more complex and demanding projects.

All in all a superb product, looks cheap for the price but
dont let that fool you. Dont expect to make a full fledged
electronic game or a full fledged radio out of this but do
expect to learn enough to be able to get a grasp of advanced
electronics. With 300 projects on the list, chances are
you'll probably think of something cool yourself after you've
completed all 300.

Finally I have to say this - the kit is pretty advanced for a
bunch of 10 year olds. If you do decide to give it to the
younger enthusiast, be sure to help out. It takes patience and
practice otherwise the components could break or become damaged.
Another important note is that a lot of the components will
damage if static gets hold of them.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I hoped for, February 9, 2004

By 

Lance Teitsworth (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews

= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Elenco 300-in-One Elecronic Project Lab (Toy)

I agree with the first reviewer. I purchased this kit for my 10 year old son, who is above average intelligence and has a voracious appetite for scientific knowledge and experiments. He is fascinated by the kit, but the instruction book is so poorly written that he cannot even begin to make sense of it. I am taking the other reviewers advice and purchasing some other basic electronics books in hopes of salvaging the [money] spent on the kit.