Elenco 500-in-One Electronic Project Lab

by Elenco

Product Features

• A classic electronics trainer with 500 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: 19 x 14.8 x 4.8 inches ; 5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B00008BFZI
• Item model number: MX-909
• Manufacturer recommended age: 10 - 15 years
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,011 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Product Description

Editorial Review

A short review cannot do justice to this well-conceived, well-made, and endlessly fascinating "toy"--actually a complete electronics lab that could absorb weeks in the life of anyone over the age of ten who doesn’t already have a degree in electronics. The 16-inch by 13-inch attaché case opens to reveal a 31-key programming keyboard and a bewildering array of connectors, switches, wires, transistors, diodes, and processors. At least they would be bewildering if it were not for three big books: Hardware Entry Course, Hardware Advanced Course, and Software Programming Course, which total about 300 dense pages detailing 500 projects (memory backups, car horn imitators, LED counters, ramp wave generators, you name it.) This bag of tricks can teach an immense amount about basic wiring, the properties of electricity, transmitters and receivers, programming, and much more. Six AA batteries required. --Richard Farr

Product Description

Everything you need to build 500 Exciting Electronic Projects

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

168 of 171 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of features but not a lot of education..., December 21, 2004

By 

Jim Moore (Redmond, WA United States) - 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 500-in-One Electronic Project Lab (Toy)

This 500-in-1 kit has more features than the average attention span can handle (I won't re-hash the list here. You can find the complete list of projects online somewhere).

So, this is not a "Well, this looks like a good gift for Johnny" product. Whoever is going to receive (if it's a gift) or purchase for themselves, should be fairly serious about learning electronics. If not, start with a much smaller kit, and work yourself up to this one.

As far as construction, it's pretty sturdy. The breadboard is centrally located and from a layout perspective, I had no trouble setting up any of the experiments.

****** NOTE *******
There are a TON of resistors, wires, caps, etc.
I ended up buying a couple plastic partitioned containers to hold everything and that still wasn't enough. Pretty much everything comes in an individually marked plastic bag, and Tesla help you if you don't take care in replacing everything back into the correct baggie, or you'll quickly memorize the Resistor Identification chart...though, that may not be a bad side-effect :)
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I did have some trouble with the breadboard itself, in that some of the slots were really tough to punch into and with my big sausage-like fingers, I ended up bending a few leads and wire ends here and there and settled on using some needle nose pliers to feed the tough slots.

The experiments are split up into 3 large softbound manuals (Aprox 10"x14") and cover a very wide range of projects. There are "Did you know" type blurbs throughout which makes them informative.

****** NOTE *******
My biggest problem with this kit is with the text of the experiments. I found myself wanting more "This is what's happening and why" type of information, but what you get is mostly just how to set up the project. IMHO, it's missing 1 or 2 more paragraphs talking about the Why of the project.
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Ironically, the most use I actually got out of this kit, was to prototype and test some circuts and devices (motors, lights, solenoids, etc) using the breadboard and the variable resistor pots, but I've since purchased a breadboard from R.S. and some basic wires/resistors/caps/etc that allow me to do all that.

My ADD only allowed me to trek through the first manual before I saw another shiny object and left this kit to gather dust in the closet. If you are serious about using a kit to learn electronics, then this is probably for you. If you are looking at it from a hobby view, I'd recommend starting with something smaller.

(Sorry for the long review, but since no one else has submited one, I figured I'd try to be of some help)

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tons of fun, but not much learning value, June 30, 2010

By 

Stefan Brunner (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Elenco 500-in-One Electronic Project Lab (Toy)

There are not many vendors of experimentation sets, and electronic sets in particular, left anymore. Most vanished to the begin of the 90th. There is Kosmos as the market leader, Busch, and Elenco, and a variety of small vendors who sell direct. The Elenco 500-in-One offers an amazing value for the amount of parts and scope of experiments one can do. Unfortunately, the instruction booklets are of little help. Each lab has a diagram and a few words of text. The diagram is sufficient to build the lab but the three words of text do nothing to explain why things work as they work. I think for a child or a teenager this set has value as it offers a lot of fun to build pretty complex and interesting electronic stuff, when compared to other experimentation kits, but does little for the education on learning how to develop your own. As a toy, it is a good alternative for some hands-on in a world of virtualization through game consoles, iPhone, and massive multiplayer online games.

This said, you will find in the the 500-in-One a fun electronic toy which you can also use as a basis for your own electronics studies with the choice of your favorite text book. If you prefer the later, however, you can also get a breadboard and parts according to your own needs.

If you are looking for alternatives, I can recommend Kosmos Electronics Workshop 2 (XN 3000, Electronic Pofi) for older kids and adults as well as Elenco Snap Circuits which is ideal in particular for young children (my 3 year old daughter enjoys snapping together simple circuits which make a lamp glow or a motor spin.) There are also many smaller vendors, some attached to publishers of magazines and some individuals, offerings sets about different topics. Also Lego Mindstorms with its very custimizable I2C and analog interfaces (book "Extreme NXT" shows you how) or the very flexible German Fischertechnik Computing series can be nice compliments (or alternatives) to build electronically controlled machines and robots without tools.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very good to learn on .., July 22, 2008

By 

The President "of the United States of America" (NY, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

= Durability:2.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

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This review is from: Elenco 500-in-One Electronic Project Lab (Toy)

but not for your average kid. Unlike the less expensive circuit kits, this one comes with bags of loose components. That is better for learning, b ut is not good for the disorganized or those kids that are looking for FUNFUN FUN right now. I would recommend this item for those over 17 .. and especially those REALLY wanting to learn about electrionics.

I am 23 and am using this kit to explore the hobby of electronics. I also recommend the book "electronic circuits for dummies" .. which is much better written than the manual included with the 500-in-one kit, and much easier to understand/learn from.