Arduino & other electronic project kits for a 10 year old boy
December 15, 2013 12:55 PM   Subscribe

More gift advice needed! For a 10-year-old science geek with advanced computer and electronics skills for his age, I am looking for cool electronics project kits. He has an Arduino starter kit and has worked with that a lot. He has some soldering skills. He's into digital audio at the moment. He also has a Mac laptop and an iPad, in case it's relevant. Looking for things in the $75-150 range.
posted by spitbull to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm not sure what you're already familiar with. Have you checked out the kits at Adafruit?
posted by wintrymix at 2:30 PM on December 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


This may be a little different than what you were thinking: but could you go to Goodwill (or similar store) and pick up a bunch of electronic stuff? Stuff that he can take apart and fiddle with - learning how things work? I'm pretty sure my kids would love to take apart the vacuum, toaster, blender, keyboard, mouse, etc. and try to put them back together again (or not).
posted by Sassyfras at 2:37 PM on December 15, 2013


http://diydrones.com/

Lots of arduino flying craft. I was much like that boy, and if this had existed in the 90s, I would have been all over it.
posted by squirbel at 2:59 PM on December 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


Drawdio, $17.50 at Adafruit
posted by at at 3:18 PM on December 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


SparkFun has a number of kits of varying complexity and skill level. Sadly, a lot of the music kits appear to be out of stock at the moment.
posted by SometimesChartreuse at 4:33 PM on December 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


I just got a littlebits synth kit and it is so so awesome. No soldering required, but it's sold out right now.
posted by hooray at 5:18 PM on December 15, 2013


My nephew is enjoying his Snap Circuits.
posted by NoraCharles at 8:14 PM on December 15, 2013


This is a good kit that builds on his Arduino knowledge.

Also 2nd the Arduino drones.

Also, not sure what "digital audio" means but how about this? If it means music, maybe this site could help?
posted by flimflam at 8:39 PM on December 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


My son and I started on a Sumo Battling Robot.

Can be set in a line-following mode, or battle-bot.

Lots of soldering, and then you can hone your programming skills on the robot's os.
I think there is a way of replacing the built-in mainboard with a arduino.
posted by exparrot at 8:27 AM on December 16, 2013


« Older X-Files   |   Shipping my Purolator..."received by Barry"? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.