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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
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Everything you need, relatively cheap! |
February 1, 2012 |
| Reviewer:
Owen Marshall
from West Chicago, IL United States
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I purchased the Make: Electronics book in order to brush up my skills, but I was woefully bereft of the tools. What to do? Fortunately, Maker Shed came to the rescue with this kit! While the word "deluxe" might be a stretch, I find that everything here is useful not only for the projects mentioned in the book, but for general use.
I like the fact that the case contains more pockets than the tools included. It is a reminder that this kit is not the alpha and omega, merely a first step on what can be an interesting and rewarding path.
The multimeter, the wire stripper, and the helping hands are the parts that I use the most. And while I am aware that when I progress to more difficult projects, I shall need a better meter, I am quite satisfied with the one I have for now.
Are there better components available? Certainly. But the ones included in this kit are great for people who are just starting out and will enable them to get what they need in one convenient place.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
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OK for getting started |
January 10, 2012 |
| Reviewer:
david
from New Mexico
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Big bag of cheap tools for a low cost!
Included multimeter is ~$25 online- works fine
Soldering iron is ~$10 online- sucks, I bought a better one after only a couple uses.
stand- really light, slides around easily, sponge for cleaning iron slides out.
Tools don't fit in the case nicely.
Components pack 1a comes with spools of wire. 1b comes with 1 tube of solder. You'll probably use it all eventually.
The rest of the stuff is fine but cheap. You'll already own or want a nice set of small screwdrivers.
Ordering this kit is a good way to get started right away and that is probably the only reason for anyone to buy it.
Buy the book first. It will tell you what to get and where. You'll have to decide for yourself how much you're willing to spend and for what. You could get the same soldering iron and multimeter for under $35. A top of the line soldering iron or fancy multimeter or pretty nice iron and meter cost about the same as this kit.
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7 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
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EXPENSIVE TOOLS for a book claiming inexpensive |
December 21, 2010 |
| Reviewer:
John Sullivan
from Virginia, United States
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From the book MAKE - Electronics Learning Through Discovery:
Page ix, in the preface, the author states "The tools are relatively cheap,"
Page x in the preface, the author states "But in this book, the tools and supplies will be inexpensive..."
Kit # 1 for experiments 1-11 is $99.99
Kit # 2 for experiments 12-16 is $129.99 (and requires that you pretty much have Kit #1 as well by that point).
And if you don't have the tools yet, well the tool "kit" is $110.00
That's a total of $229.98 for just the parts that are supposedly "inexpensive" and a total of $339.98 if you need everything to "start" learning.
MAKE - please rethink or re-MAKE your books. It shouldn't cost a person more than a week's pay (at net pay anyway) at minimum wage just to buy the "inexpensive" parts.
Sadly, if these little single parts are that expensive, it may stop many "Makers" before they can even get started.
Maker Shed Note: Try to source these parts from one vendor, you can't. So while the parts are mostly inexpensive, you can't always buy in low quantities and then add shipping from all the different locations you'd have to shop from to get them, it adds up. We all wish your local Shack had all the parts like in the good 'ol days ;)
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
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A good value |
October 30, 2010 |
| Reviewer:
Christopher Dahle
from Del Norte, CO United States
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Electronics is a remarkably cheap hobby. Whittling, I suppose is cheaper, but compared to sewing, or radio controlled airplanes, the cost is cheap.
To get started in electronics you do need a few good tools, but mostly what you need is a wide variety of 15 cent parts that you've never heard of before. To move forward, you need to plan on spending a couple of bucks a week.
Or, you can avoid the nickel and dime routine and get a volume discount by buying these kits up front. The kits give you quick, organized access to the parts that you do not yet know you need, but that are indispensable and maddeningly unavailable at the moment you need them.
As a bonus, many of the parts and tools in these kits are also called for in Arduino projects and are specified in the Forrest Mims book I am working through concurrently.
In short, for a very reasonable price, these kits have provided me with the tools and parts I need, and more importantly tools and parts I didn't know I needed.
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