It looks like Gakken stopped making it in 1986 but then started up again in 2002 but only in Japan for the Japanese market. It was a very special Christmas when my dad bought my older brother the Sinclair ZX80 and me, the Gakken EX-150. The English version of the EX-150 manual is still available as a .pdf, btw. I remember getting their synthesizer module some time later but sadly never got it to work. It's on Wikipedia.
@@prenticedarlington2720 Those also look a lot like Bloc-Tronic kits. Those can sometimes be found on ebay, and manual with projects easily found online (search "life after coffee" - just a random blogger who felt nostalgic and took a dive in).. there were some really fun ones in there and they often tried to make the blocks connect in a way that it would form a shape (like a robot, megaphone, etc.)
I have something like this in primary school like 30 years ago. It was cubes with spring terminals, and a stiff grid to keep the blocks in place. I think we had only one lesson with them, because many of the blocks were defective (the sets have been used for some years already). For some years after that I dreamed of having such a set myself, but never saw it anywhere to buy.
Quality father/son time with electronics. I love this so much. I remember when I was Sagan's age and my father teaching me stuff for ham radio and electronics projects (Science Fair, anyone?)
my first thought... this must be old, Sagan looks so young! LOL cool little kit for learning..looks more fun than the old screw in grid boards we had as a kid!... thanks for sharing Dave..
When I was in my Navy electronic courses, we always drew crossing circuits with a little half circle "bridge" over the other line, to differentiate them from the solid circle of a junction. Maybe they should have done that. Of course, we always tried to avoid drawing circuits with crossing paths as much as possible to begin with.
Has to be the best review I have seen Dave do. Improve the contacts, change the colour (get a dyslexic's view) and polish up the education material. Good Xmas present for my nephews.
15:30 Tom Scott and Steve Mould have made a video describing this effect where it's difficult to pinpoint the location of a single tone. As a result in the UK, they've changed the reversing trucks beeping from a single tone to white noise instead. This makes it easier for someone to hear where the noise/danger is coming from. (Tom Scott - reversing trucks, Steve Mould - interaural time difference)
This reminds me of kit I had when I was a kid (almost 60 years ago). The components were housed in small blocks with the schematic symbol on the top surface and magnets on the edges and bottom for the connections. All the components would be placed on steel plate which served as the ground connection as well as holding the components in place.
You have reviewed a few of these kinds of products. I wonder how you would design a "getting started with electronics" product. You seam to have some good ideas and strong opinions. I would love to see your thoughts and your design process.
Wild. I thought of a similar idea a few months ago and been wanting to do something like that. However, I would have used jumpers in the base and pin headers on the components instead so you could plug them into the jumper points and joins them together. No dodgy connections that way.
If I was making a product like this, I'd opt to make the parts larger and use a bunch of banana plugs for the connections. That way, it could be made really solid and be easy to attach cables if needed, such as for power.
When I started electronics with my kids I also bought such a kit of prepared building blocks. But it became boring for them quite soon. They don't wanted to play electronics LEGO by sticking circuit diagrams together. They wanted to have the "real thing". So I bought the bread boards and real devices and they had a lot of fun. I think, it is very important for kids, to learn quite soon the difference between a circuit diagram and a "real world representation" of an electronics circuit. It is important for them understand, what the devices do and to see how (different) these devices look like and how they got connected physically. They need to start thinking in functional modules. So they can planfully arrange them on a bread board and also on a pcb later on. The problem nowadays is that more and more very interesting devices come only in SMT technology. These devices are so small that kids can't handle them. So I made some fast fixture plug in socket adapters for several standard devices, also for my own purposes.
Wow it's so really nice and appreciative teaching your child at a tender age😮 by the time he grows up he's going to be a genius and Even more intelligent 🧠.
Thumbs up - I'm also not a big fan of starting electronics with atoms. I think those 130 in 1 science fair kits are a great way to start electronics. I guess they are a bit light on theory, but they certainly get you experimenting quickly.
I don't like the way the base boards don't seem to join together except by the components keeping them together? Some kind of way to clip the boards together could help with the connectivity issues by the looks. Also instead of the magnet idea perhaps there could be more of a pinhole connection type arrangement (like a normal breadboard), even if the pins were enlarged to make them more robust, however this could make it a lot more difficult to remove the components I guess.
Was looking for this comment!Also, how was the led lighting when they removed their 'button' link and darkened the LDR, was the cross actually a junction? Also what was the purpose of the LDR, as part of a voltage divider resistor series so the LED lights longer/brighter?
I've just simulated the circuit or the ldr touchpad and it turns out that the ldr and the 10k resistor do actually have an affect on the circuit, with the simulator I used the voltage across the LED rose and fell with thevarying resistence of the ldr, by a small but not negliable amount, it's just the effect is basically lost because of the 10k resistor between the pot and the ldr, if the 10 was reduced in value you could use the ldr as a sort of brightness fine tune for the LED based on availiable light. Theres better ways to do it but it's not completely pointless :)
Schematic on a screen is kind of ok, crossings don't have a bold dot in a middle, but they don't follow this notation on the actual brick which is confusing.
I had an electronics toy in the early 90s, in Spain. It took me quite a few hours of googling to find how it was called: Scatron. Found a picture of the model I had. Sadly mine probably doesn't exist anymore. The gorups of 4 holes would be connected together, and you would place components between one group and the next. The game came with a number of links, and a book showing examples of things you could do. The most advanced circuits were an AM radio receiver, and a transmitter. cloud10.todocoleccion.online/juegos-educativos/tc/2017/08/17/17/95753699.jpg
Please check out the Gakken EX kits (still available but originally from the late 70s). Green blocks with white symbols.
Wow, haven't seen that before!
It looks like Gakken stopped making it in 1986 but then started up again in 2002 but only in Japan for the Japanese market. It was a very special Christmas when my dad bought my older brother the Sinclair ZX80 and me, the Gakken EX-150. The English version of the EX-150 manual is still available as a .pdf, btw. I remember getting their synthesizer module some time later but sadly never got it to work. It's on Wikipedia.
@@prenticedarlington2720 Those also look a lot like Bloc-Tronic kits. Those can sometimes be found on ebay, and manual with projects easily found online (search "life after coffee" - just a random blogger who felt nostalgic and took a dive in).. there were some really fun ones in there and they often tried to make the blocks connect in a way that it would form a shape (like a robot, megaphone, etc.)
I have something like this in primary school like 30 years ago. It was cubes with spring terminals, and a stiff grid to keep the blocks in place. I think we had only one lesson with them, because many of the blocks were defective (the sets have been used for some years already). For some years after that I dreamed of having such a set myself, but never saw it anywhere to buy.
Also known as Denshi blocks. Have a couple of those kits.
This is great. Always a pleasure watching professional engineers doing projects with their children on camera.
Quality father/son time with electronics. I love this so much. I remember when I was Sagan's age and my father teaching me stuff for ham radio and electronics projects (Science Fair, anyone?)
my first thought... this must be old, Sagan looks so young! LOL
cool little kit for learning..looks more fun than the old screw in grid boards we had as a kid!...
thanks for sharing Dave..
So similar! I think Huxley might be the troublesome one though :-D
That was my first thought as well!
Geez. Unbelievable how incredible the young brain is. Such an intelligent kid and a really cool dad!
I love Dave shutting down the 'talking points' immediately! That's why we love you Dave!
When I was in my Navy electronic courses, we always drew crossing circuits with a little half circle "bridge" over the other line, to differentiate them from the solid circle of a junction. Maybe they should have done that. Of course, we always tried to avoid drawing circuits with crossing paths as much as possible to begin with.
Especially in the days when single-sided boards were more common (and you had to etch them yourself!).
Has to be the best review I have seen Dave do. Improve the contacts, change the colour (get a dyslexic's view) and polish up the education material. Good Xmas present for my nephews.
Wow time does fly. Huxley is getting big! Good on ya, Dave!
Sagen is a smart fella. You've taught him well
And huxley isn't really interested in engineering. Dump him in a nearest art school.
15:30 Tom Scott and Steve Mould have made a video describing this effect where it's difficult to pinpoint the location of a single tone. As a result in the UK, they've changed the reversing trucks beeping from a single tone to white noise instead. This makes it easier for someone to hear where the noise/danger is coming from.
(Tom Scott - reversing trucks, Steve Mould - interaural time difference)
Interesting!
Eh, that's pretty cool. 👍
I believe Mythbusters also covered this "back in the day"
This reminds me of kit I had when I was a kid (almost 60 years ago). The components were housed in small blocks with the schematic symbol on the top surface and magnets on the edges and bottom for the connections. All the components would be placed on steel plate which served as the ground connection as well as holding the components in place.
It's great seeing Sagan with Dave in another video.
45 seconds in and I'm already excited!
Smart, cute kid and pretty cool educational toy. 👍
I loved my Tandy 100-in-1 Electronics Kit back in the day. 😊
Good old days of LDRs. To bad they aren't RoHS. Surprises me they were able to include them.
Us 'older players' remember where one line was broken with a semicircle to indicate a crossing :)
You have reviewed a few of these kinds of products. I wonder how you would design a "getting started with electronics" product. You seam to have some good ideas and strong opinions. I would love to see your thoughts and your design process.
It would be so cool, when I had that Kit as a kid 👍
Wild. I thought of a similar idea a few months ago and been wanting to do something like that. However, I would have used jumpers in the base and pin headers on the components instead so you could plug them into the jumper points and joins them together. No dodgy connections that way.
I still miss snapcircuits from my childhood
This channel is very helpful for us
If I was making a product like this, I'd opt to make the parts larger and use a bunch of banana plugs for the connections. That way, it could be made really solid and be easy to attach cables if needed, such as for power.
Sagan reminds me more and more of Young Sheldon, both in his appearance and his intelligence. :-)
As a child I played with logiblocs (born in 96), the TTL version of this. Each connector caries power and a unidirectional digital signal.
It looks quite similar to the old German version that Fran showed recently
I still have my Lectron kit and it still works a treat! Definitely a better system.
I liked for Sagan honestly ...
When I started electronics with my kids I also bought such a kit of prepared building blocks. But it became boring for them quite soon. They don't wanted to play electronics LEGO by sticking circuit diagrams together. They wanted to have the "real thing". So I bought the bread boards and real devices and they had a lot of fun. I think, it is very important for kids, to learn quite soon the difference between a circuit diagram and a "real world representation" of an electronics circuit.
It is important for them understand, what the devices do and to see how (different) these devices look like and how they got connected physically. They need to start thinking in functional modules. So they can planfully arrange them on a bread board and also on a pcb later on. The problem nowadays is that more and more very interesting devices come only in SMT technology. These devices are so small that kids can't handle them. So I made some fast fixture plug in socket adapters for several standard devices, also for my own purposes.
"SeeBlocks by seebox" CRAZY branding!
a very nice idea. I would have traded my chemistry set for this.
Wow it's so really nice and appreciative teaching your child at a tender age😮 by the time he grows up he's going to be a genius and Even more intelligent 🧠.
Thumbs up - I'm also not a big fan of starting electronics with atoms. I think those 130 in 1 science fair kits are a great way to start electronics. I guess they are a bit light on theory, but they certainly get you experimenting quickly.
NPN = Not Pointing iN. Used that Mnemonic a lot when I was a little kid, half a million years ago.
Yep. My internal brain voice still says that every time I see that symbol and it's over 30 years since we were taught that.
8 out of 10 little buggers love this one!
what happens if you place the electrolytics the other way around?
I don't like the way the base boards don't seem to join together except by the components keeping them together? Some kind of way to clip the boards together could help with the connectivity issues by the looks. Also instead of the magnet idea perhaps there could be more of a pinhole connection type arrangement (like a normal breadboard), even if the pins were enlarged to make them more robust, however this could make it a lot more difficult to remove the components I guess.
8:58 - Dave, would that 'darker color' be gloss-black, by any chance? I'm asking for a friend ;)
At 33:30 where is discharge for 100uF electrolytic? Without that timer will only work once!
Was looking for this comment!Also, how was the led lighting when they removed their 'button' link and darkened the LDR, was the cross actually a junction? Also what was the purpose of the LDR, as part of a voltage divider resistor series so the LED lights longer/brighter?
I've just simulated the circuit or the ldr touchpad and it turns out that the ldr and the 10k resistor do actually have an affect on the circuit, with the simulator I used the voltage across the LED rose and fell with thevarying resistence of the ldr, by a small but not negliable amount, it's just the effect is basically lost because of the 10k resistor between the pot and the ldr, if the 10 was reduced in value you could use the ldr as a sort of brightness fine tune for the LED based on availiable light. Theres better ways to do it but it's not completely pointless :)
17:43 - Dave, has electronics knowledge gotten so ingrained that we've chosen to 'virtualize' atoms ? :)
❤
I think the floppy baseplates are the biggest problem.
Needs bigger and stiffer
Schematic on a screen is kind of ok, crossings don't have a bold dot in a middle, but they don't follow this notation on the actual brick which is confusing.
Sagan knows more about EE than my friend I think. I am ashamed for him. ;-)
Me encanto escucharlo y lo mejor de ello la partisipacion del hijo genial para todo chico que se integra con los padres
You realize how old the youtube is... when the moment Sagan appeared as a little baby seems as it happened "just a while" ago.
@1:24 Tongue at right angle practice. ROFL
I had an electronics toy in the early 90s, in Spain. It took me quite a few hours of googling to find how it was called: Scatron. Found a picture of the model I had. Sadly mine probably doesn't exist anymore.
The gorups of 4 holes would be connected together, and you would place components between one group and the next. The game came with a number of links, and a book showing examples of things you could do. The most advanced circuits were an AM radio receiver, and a transmitter.
cloud10.todocoleccion.online/juegos-educativos/tc/2017/08/17/17/95753699.jpg
They should have used magnets to connect the bricks? 😁
you forgot to add the swich.
#Neutrons FTW!
37:00 - Maybe they (stupidly) put all the videos in their own 'section' ? Even still, there should be links to them from the circuit-page!
Maybe?
This reminded me of an old electrical circuit based card game called AC/DC.
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5521/acdc
Personally, I'd stick with the breadboard.
LDR really? I know it simply as photo resistor.
Or in old terminology photo electric (PE) cell
like father, like son it seems. Hopefully the kid won't be such a birk.
Huxley was right. FAIL!!!!!
Ok ok
C-blocker.