Make: Electronics 3rd Edition Kit 1 & 2 Ultimate Deluxe Bundle Includes Book

Original Review: Excellent kit, everything needed to work on the book. Good quality components and totally worth it for beginners, no sense penny pinching and going through the ordeal of sourcing all of these as a first timer.Edit: After getting half way through the book experiments and using the kit more, I stand by my original review, this kit is outstanding for a newbie starting out. But there are some flaws, I will describe 2 of them here:1. One of the early experiments in the classic "make a battery with a lemon" experiment, and it requires a copper electrode and a galvanized steel electrode. These can be acquired as coated screws in most hardware stores, but they are not included in the kit. No mention is made of this anywhere so I spent a good 20 minutes trying to figure this out.2. One of the experiments requires a 10(uf) ceramic capacitor. This is not included, there is only a 10(uf) electrolytic capacitor. This may seem dumb, but for electrolytics unlike ceramics have polarity, so which way do you fit them in? This is not covered because the book uses ceramics where it doesn't matter. If you have a couple of these in your circuit and you are a newbie, it will take a while to figure out.It strikes me that some compromises were made without explaining them to the user.Overall its a great kit, I went ahead and bought the next one as well (Make: More Electronics) so this is not a deal breaker. But it would be great if these compromises could be explained on the product page so I can acquire all I need at once. I am further shipping all this stuff home to South America so doing the shopping piecemeal as I discover what parts are missing is expensive and slow.Customer service is OUTSTANDING. Just make clear whats not in the pack guys.

Ordered this kit a few weeks ago, finally found time to open it up and take a look. I previously bought the 2nd edition of the Platt book, and was just about to order the kits for that book. And then, the third edition came out! I figured if I was going to get the new book, I might as well get the parts kit for it! All of the parts come in a single plastic double sided storage tote, and, except for a few minor items, contains all of the parts needed for the projects in the book, including an Arduino board. Everything in the tote is labeled, and the smaller parts are in labeled zip-lock baggies, making it very easy to find the parts needed for a build. It's wonderful that ProTechTrader put these together for the book - save time and money not having to hunt down all the components by hand, especially considering there are very few local electronics stores left. I'm just starting through the book, and so far everything needed for the experiments are in the kit. I had a basic electronics course back in high school, and I'm using this kit as a refresher, and a chance to learn more "modern" electronics. While that course was heavy on formulas and calculations, this set is more of a hands on approach, with just enough formulas and theory to understand the topics. So far, it's been a fun journey working with the book and the kit. For me it will likely take about six months to work through all the material at the pace I'm going. I've worked with Arduino boards before, however, have not done much with additional electronics with them - can't wait! There are a couple things I recommend for this kit though. First, I would get a good pair of wire cutters / strippers - will come in very handy. And second - make sure all of the latches on the tote are properly latched before picking it up! I found that having an additional parts box to put components in while I working with them comes in handy. Overall, the combination of a suburb book combined with this well designed and stock kit makes an impressive introduction to modern electronics, and an even better refresher course.

I'm extremely pleased with the service and quality of the hardware learning kit. As a beginner, I found the kit's selection of parts to be invaluable in understanding the hands-on lessons in Mr. Platt's book. The kit's careful selection of components allowed me to explore and compare different parts, which greatly improved my understanding and confidence. The kit's value and quality are well worth the price, and I appreciate the convenience of receiving all the parts at once. I would highly recommend this kit for learners of any age.

This kit, along with the included Make Electronics 3rd Edition book is a serious product for anyone really interested in learning a lot about discrete analog electronics (just normal "electronics" with resistors, capacitors, coils, a variety DIP chips, etc.) and as a good introduction to the Arduino digital microcontroller. That said, I would emphasize the "serious" part; for kids this would be most appropriate for extra bright and motivated individuals. As a retired engineer I have been enjoying doing the included projects along with some extra study of the principles involved. As for the kit, it would be very difficult to assemble all the required parts that are included in the kit on a piecemeal basis, all neatly labeled. So the convenience alone is worth the price.

Seems that it's a bit pricey for what you get, but it does come with a solder, multimeter, and container. I bought both kits, the 1st and the 2nd, and managed to fit everything but the two tools mentioned above into the same kit container. So there's that. It's supposed to be everything you need for the first few chapters. Mine was missing a few things, but when I contacted the company, they sent the missing items and a few others as a bonus. That was pretty cool, and enough to send it from four stars to five.Sure, there are cheaper kits out there, and I bought a few for my "outside" projects (projects outside of the book), but they are just parts, sometimes containers - and very random.Overall, I'm glad I got this set, and the book that accompanies it (or vice versa)... helps to make it easier for a procrastinator like me.