OT: Electromechanical fun

Opry99er · February 20, 2017

There are no decent hobby shops in my town. There are no electronics stores in my town. The closest thing to either one is a Hobby Lobby which (at least in THIS town) is more about fabric and beads than much else. There is a good selection of model cars and planes, but no electronic hobby stuff. I would have thought that when the only Radio Shack in town closed up shop, the local Hobby Lobby and WalMart would have started carrying some of the TYPES of things Radio Shack had... to backfill the hole in the market, if you will.

Nope... Nada.

Anyway, we were in Wal Mart tonight and I was looking for some components to use to get the kid started with electronics tinkering--since he is showing such an interest in them lately. (We are waiting on an Arduino kit we ordered online, but 7 year olds are impatient!) I thought I'd pick up some wire and a battery, LED light from the automotive department, alligator clips, etc... I had planned on spending about $20 and getting us a little circuit to play with. The components I picked out came to $48!!!

I put them back down after using the price checking kiosk, and we were on our way out... Something on the end cap of an aisle grabbed my son's attention and we stopped to have a look-see.

$17.48 plus tax. (A very 'Wal-Mart-y' price) We bought it... and he has been playing with it ever since we got home.

Anyway, I can't figure out the scoring system on it... sometimes we can get 200 points on the first ball with very few bumper hits, and other times we will hit the hell out of the bumpers (all of them) and end up with a score of 40 for that ball.

It's fun either way, but the instruction manual was pretty crappy and there were no point values listed on the box.

Anyway, good times with the kiddo.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Opry99er

Keatah · February 20, 2017

Electromechanical things are always hits with kids of all ages, myself no exception. I even used to (partly) believe there was a machine with moving parts inside the VCS chips. That was till I smashed them open and found out it was a thin piece of silver. Then I started reading about them and was in total bliss that it was a MAZE of microscopic wires and roads, and the electrons were cars and people zooming through it. Moving parts after all! Great times!