I bought my 300 in 1 kit back in the 90's. I still have it and loved building the various projects. The one I remember the most was the AM transmitter. It was cool hearing my voice coming through on the radio. The terminals are for connecting other electronics external to the kit by the way.
Out of all the electronic labs Radio Shack/Tandy sold back in the day, the 300-in-1 was the ultimate one to have. I remember it being close to US$70 in 1994-1995 (about $140 now). Well out of my price range when I was 7 years old. I did have a 200-in-1 that my parents found at a yard sale. I cherished that kit for years. One of the quirks I remember most about it is if I built any type of sound oscillator, I found that I could sometimes start it off for a few seconds by talking into the speaker or blowing on it. At the time I could never figure out why it did that, but I guess it might have induced some current onto the transformer, which fed back into the circuit and triggered the oscillator for a moment.
Similar thing with the EP-130, although this was the early 2010s. Found at a yard sale. It was pretty fun! But then a few months later I projectile vomited all over my room and that kit was one of the casualties. Honestly? I'm glad I didn't fetch it from the trash. It was essentially ruined. (Meanwhile I have a bucket with three radios that would probably rival some of Shango066's desert mine finds lol.)
I just got one of these from a bootsale, boxed with instructions and a few components missing. I handed over £3 for it. My main intention is to progress my learning with an Arduino/Pico in the breadboard, the amount of switches and LED's will be handy and keep things neat. I did have a few Tandy sets back in the early 80s that my dad got me, I played with them so much!
I bought one of these when I was 13 out of a Tandy store using tips from my paper round. absolutely loved it, formed the principle knowledge about discrete electronics my school could not fulfill that I still use to this very day. actually looking at buying one for my son for when he is old enough, keep him with the snap circuits for now.
+Dave Webster I'm pretty sure if one is disciplined and able to educate themselves in the areas the book did not cover it pretty much is a while functional electronics course 😀 No so sure on the snap circuits. I kinda like them but just a little too basic?
The Backoffice it really did. I recall at one point using the info from a couple of projects to cobble together my own one that wasn't in the book. I had the 75 in 1 prior to that, which was just a spring clip system. I enjoyed it, but I didn't really learn much from it. the breadboard approach of this kit really made me think more about what the circuit was doing. I agree the snap circuits are much more basic, although I am balancing it against my son's capability right now: need to be good enough to keep the interest going, whilst quick and easy enough to not create boredom before a project is finished. I recall at school we had these "join together" boards. they were green pcb & about the size of playing cards, had simple things like bounce switches, switches, bulb holders, gates and so on. these were connected by yellow or brown connector pieces and could use banana plug jumper wires to cross a larger connection point. darned if I could remember what they were called.
I started out with the Science Fair (as sold by Tandy) 30-in-1 kit and then moved on to their 150-in-1 kit way back in the early 1980's. I'm still an electronics hobbyist now and have just recently picked up a Maxitronix 130-in-1 (with a freebie 30-in-1 kit thrown in by the seller) from eBay for a little nostalgic trip down memory lane.
Alas, like most things, my hobbies seem to be more in collecting things I coveted as a kid earthen than using them. I always assume I have more time than is the reality 🤣 I would love to work my way through the whole book on one of these sets!
@@backofficeshow No unfortunately, I have it sitting next to me. The brand is InterTAN 300-1 Purchased from Radioshack in 91. I always kept it knowing one day I would fiddle with it again.
So dope I still have mine the battery and connections or busted out they need to be soldered and clean I hope it still works I still have it I'm excited I haven't even gotten it out but a couple of times and my whole life since I was little I got it for Christmas and it's just the best feeling I can always think back no matter what sub out all this craziness and just remember how much fun that was at that time not to mention memories for the family
I never had the 300 in 1 kit. Best I had as a child was the Radio Shack 200 in 1 kit. I really enjoyed this as a child (1983), especially making an AM radio with a diode and earpiece. As silly as this sounds, as an adult I started playing Minecraft. Minecraft has redstone, which sorta behaves like electronics. I started getting a grasp of logic. AND, OR, NOR, NOR Latch, Light Sensors, started to make sense as to how they are used. Now I want that 300 in one, and I will explore it with a new sense of REAL LIFE usefulness.
That's fantastic. Can I suggest another option as well amzn.to/2Y7Ej53 I think these are really neat, and I find myself dipping into them all the time to create gadgets and test ideas. I think I enjoy the digital realm more than the analogue but it's all good 😁
I see you know your stuff. I was looking for a basic training kit to fix some old gear I have. Watching your video I figured this looks like what I need. Stay safe an best to you!
Now that is a wicked piece of kit! I had something similar when I was about 10-11 in the 90s with a manual like that too. Ah, the bendy posts that you stick wires into, great fun. Wish they had something these days to let my 6 year old explore like that, he'd love it.
Recently got a 'Science Fair 200 in 1' for £3 at a charity shop (receipt £19.99 in '97). I had this 300 in 1 (also 1997? when starting high school), eventually I wondered if you could short it out and in the bin it went. I wonder how much it was new? I often went to Tandy Stockport with £50 from Christmas cards. I got the B&W TV boom box and my mate got the 4 disco lights that reacted to music.
+Mike Hawkins Yes, certainly a lot better than the cardboard one I had as a kid. I think it's actually got some serious use cases, if I were still doing product development I would definitely use it for debugging!
This looks very impressive but would it be a good way for a beginner to learn (does the book actually explain what is happening or just how to make the project work)?
I picked up a used one this month, it came with the book (no parts). could you find the time and include a parts list? In the book it says to use transistor 2SA for the projects, but doesn't say the value! Tks in advance
Use C & S Sales to find the bits for this kit cs-sales.net Look for MX-908 Parts Retail $39.95 This is the set of bits that goes in this kit. I have one of these sets with an extra set of bits as I always get extra bits for me kits
+The Backoffice the outer frame was made of some kind of cheap wood and the insides was cardboard with the electronic parts glued into it. Was still great to have one :)
Those terminals are for the built-in speaker top right. Anyone know if this is better than the Radio Shack version? Both are made by Elenco Maxitronics.
The Terminal connections aren't connected to anything if i remember correctly. A lot of these kits had two extra springs or connections called Termals. For connecting outside stuff to your project.
@@Kylefassbinderful Yep, after going through the same assumptions as our host did, that is the conclusion that I came to as well. Kind of hard to stick braided wire (used on the ear bud) into a breadboard I would think. It does seem a waste of a perfectly good set of terminals. I actually came here to confirm that so thank you. The way the distributed the power on this kit seems a little hokey to me, it is to bad they didn't just bring out common voltages or a set up like most trainers have, but I can understand why they did it this way. It would be interesting to hook the terminals up to a supply of some sort.
