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Boards and maker kit

Elenco Snap Circuits

5owners with an opinion
80%of verdicts positive
2/1positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for ease of use; criticized for performance.

What owners wrote

Likes it
Cool idea. I grew up with the most basic Snap Circuits kit[1] and a solderless breadboard kit from RadioShack[2] - other toys you might look to for inspiration. I think I was about 12 when I got these, and I remember that the learning curve between them was pretty steep - I was building all sorts of custom circuits with Snap, but had maxed out the capabilities of such basic parts pretty quickly. I never did figure out how to make anything other than the step-by-step projects with the breadboard kit. Although the ICs on Snap are kind of laughable, I could at least figure out what they did (also I seem to remember every one of them just played a sound), but the Radio shack kit never really explained why anything worked the way it did or what the applications were outside of its recipes, so eventually it just went on the shelf and was forgotten. That would be one trap to avoid from my experience. [1]: https://shop.elenco.com/consumers/snap-circuits-jr-100-exper... [2]: https://www.amazon.com/RadioShack-28-280-Electronics-Learnin...
Likes it
Yep, I had one too. I loved it and did many of the projects in the included instruction book (some more successfully than others). Unfortunately, at the time I was probably slightly too young and also had no one in my extended family or friend circle who had any familiarity with electronics. So, I didn't really take away much (if any) tangible learning from the experience other than a basic familiarity with the idea that wires carry voltages to parts which change, combine or stop the voltages in ways that can be both useful and surprising. My technical progress went dormant until 10-ish years later when college-aged me got a shiny new 8-bit computer with 4K of RAM and I started down the path of teaching myself software (BASIC -> Assembler). That led to a long and fruitful career in computers, software and hardware, despite being entirely self-taught (or... in at least some ways, maybe because of being self-taught). Although I picked up more basic electronics knowledge over the years repairing and upgrading various 8 and 16-bit computers, I never really gained an intuitive understanding of electronics to the point I could actually design anything new from scratch. However, I can assemble things from other people's designs and do basic repair work on vintage computers, arcade cabs and pinballs (which is invaluable to me these days). However, having fond memories of that, "Wow! Anything's possible if you just know how to connect the wires properly" feeling did give me a lifelo…
Doesn’t like it
I had one of the radioshack models in the 1980's as well. It was really helpful for learning basic circuits, but while it had a number of more advanced circuits, including three of four AM radio receivers, and a transmitter or two, I never really learned anything from those circuits despite reading the book a half dozen times. Looking at the 150 in one manual, the first transistor circuit is a basic small signal amplifier with the base connected to a coil. And now with a formal EE/CpE education, I can understand how/why it works and the biasing resistors, but I'm just as convinced that the book is largely useless except as a toy beyond the first dozen or two circuits because it doesn't do anything to explain the hows and whys of the circuits. The modern equivalent of course are Snap Circuits https://elenco.com/snapcircuits/ but having purchased one of the larger kits for my kids a couple years back I think they suffer from the same basic problem. Sure telling 10 year old me about BJT biasing might have been a bit much, but I really think it should have been included in some kind of side note even if it doesn't sink in the first time. PS: Actually thinking back on it, these spring board ones are probably better from the perspective that a blown component was easy to replace simply by pulling out the cardboard flipping it over and disconnecting the component from the springs underside.
Recommends it
I've been working with http://www.snapcircuits.net/ Snap Circuits with my kids since they were 4years old. The lessons they learned there are used to this date and i think invaluable, especially now that they are trying to get things to move and light up using an arduino. I recommend checking out their kits, they can be used all the way up to HS level, heck I still like using them and showing them off to other parents.