Nostalgic Kits Central (2024)

bigiain•about 14 hours ago

As a young kid (pre teen probably) I had one of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectron#/media/File:Egger-Lect...

(Mine was branded Braun, not Raytheon. not sure if that because the Braun branded versions got sold in Australia, or if dad got it in Germany or Europe - he travelled there for work quite a bit during his career.)

It had a great 10-year-old friendly manual, which I can't seem to fond anywhere, except for this pic:

https://www.radiofundgrube.de/bilder/expkasten/zoom/braun_le...

edwcross•about 13 hours ago

Are there modern kits that connect similar to this one? Instead of requiring breadboards and cables?

Domenic_S•about 12 hours ago

I think the modern version is Snap Circuits, although I think I like the one pictured in GP better....

https://shop.elenco.com/consumers/snap-circuits-pro.html

aa-jv•about 11 hours ago

You're Australian, didn't grow up on Dick Smith Fun Way kits .. but some German thingy sourced through Dads adventures instead?

Mate .. strewth! Hand in your Vegemite card, ocka!

Disclaimer: I had all the Fun Way books, all the beginner kits on crappy particle boards, the 'advanced' kits with PCB's and things, the soldering iron special bundle with all the books and a couple of kits .. but I still preferred hacking around with my Denshi blocks instead.. ;)

Denshi Blocks, oh boy are they great. Still got mine! It even has a synthesizer in it, ffs ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denshi_block

Comparison with the spring kits:

https://kevinboone.me/denshi.html

mitchbob•about 16 hours ago

Ah, nostalgia. I'd drool over the Heathkit catalogs as a kid. I still have a Van Alstine-modified Dynaco PAT 5 preamp with walnut case that's been the heart of my audio system for almost 40 years. Absolutely trouble free all these years and still sounds great.

k310•3 days ago

I LOVED these kits. I could only afford a handful but I would order manuals and build many in my mind.

Later on, I built countless S-100 computer cards when I had a paying job, and that led to other jobs. I never took a course in electronics and computers.

A far cry from Arduino and RaspberryPI, but interfaces get you (often) into that "old" world of discrete analog parts and sensors.

autoexec•about 13 hours ago

Are there similar kits still being made and sold today? It seems like it'd be easier and cheaper than ever to make kits that can do some very cool things, but I never see them where toys are sold. These things should be in every toy isle and museum gift shop.

jdsnape•about 10 hours ago

Yeah I’ve had the same thought. You can get cheap kits but the instructions tend to be vague/machine translated from Chinese.

I think there’s a gap in the market for quality kits with good educational instructions - but I think the market size would be very small

lmpdev•about 10 hours ago

Jaycar in Australia still sells them

Just released new packaging actually

cf100clunk•3 days ago

Dad and I built a variety of Heathkit and EICO stuff way back when, from oscilloscopes to signal generators to whatever.

hawtads•about 14 hours ago

Elenco is still around. I just bought a XP-720K linear power supply kit last week.

asdefghyk•about 13 hours ago

Another related nostalgic site

For Electronic project Kits - like X in 1 Electronic Projecy kits, where X is some number from about 10 to a few 100 .....

https://web.archive.org/web/20260221183623/http://www.zpag.n...

OR the direct link -( Im not sure if Hacker news would smash the site .... ) http://www.zpag.net/Electroniques/Kit/Electronic_Kit.htm

Nostalgic Kits Central (2024)

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