Open Source Electronics Lab for $30
I was hoping this was an open source alternative for the typical <i>analog or mixed electronics</i> benches.<p>As a physics student I was quite dissatisfied with these benches for multiple reasons:<p>1. They are far from educational, the course notes and lab notes for experimentation classes are much better at demonstrating principles. The books that come with the analog bench "toys" lack the ambition to actually teach, and avoid formulae, at least the books could contain or link to an alternative track of circuits which does have the ambition to teach electronics.<p>2. A lot of the circuits simply don't work, I believe this is due to occasionally substituting a part with a cheaper part with slightly different specifications, such that after a while of inevitable sales to parents who don't give feedback, the supplied components don't work in the proposed circuit, the original designer of the circuit would notice that the current parts can't produce the intended effect (chirping birds that give popping sounds instead of chirping sounds etc).<p>3. Most of the <i>analog electronics benches</i> use springs as electrical nodes, I believe today stackable jumper wires would be a better choice.<p>I think if enough electrical engineers with kids band together they could easily design an open source analog / mixed electronic bench, and properly document the required properties for the parts, and design it as a PCB with headers for jumper wires...