One of the most puzzling things to electronics students is the mystery of the device known as an analog meter. Part of this is due to the ease of using a digital meter, as all of the numbers are just there. For example, a measurement of 20.22 on the 200V range is just simply read as 20.22 volts. There is no need to remember if the scale is AC or DC, or for that matter which one of the scales to use. But therein lays the problem: What do we do when we are confronted with an analog meter? Do we run in fear, or tell our supervisor “I am sorry but I only work with digital meters”? The...Read more

You have an interest in solar power and how a device can convert sunlight into electrical current to operate a motor or some other component, but you did not know where to find a fun and inexpensive kit. 

I discovered a Solar Bullet Train kit by OWI Inc. (www.owirobot.com), at a local hobby store.  The kit was $12.95 and it was recommended for ages 10+ with little or no experience.  It did warn that the kit was a chokin...Read more

Are you interesting in learning about microcontroller applications and how to build a robot?  If you are then one company comes to mind: Parallax Inc. (www.parallax.com) has the Boe-Bot® Robot Kit for $159.99.  The kit states “Learn to build and program an intelligent robot with the BASIC Stamp® 2 microcontroller and the Board of Education® project platform.” It takes about two hours to assemble the robot and then you can spend hours programming and learning about robots.

There are two versions of the Bo...Read more