A few months ago, my teens were able to work through a basic electronics course from Applied Inspirations, LLC. That course was “Part 1” and I highly recommend you read it at this link (http://bit.ly/2jRGN2H) in order to understand the rest of the review.

Recently, we were privileged to be able to tackle the second part, where you make an LED Array Oscilloscope. If (like me) that means nothing to you, an oscilloscope is a tool that shows you how circuits are functioning, and this tool is used in designing and repairing electronic equipment.

It must be noted that you do need to go through Part 1 before tackling Part 2. In Part 1 you build the power supply that you will need for the oscilloscope, but you also build electronic knowledge that you will need to move through this project.

The kit comes in a handy box intended to be used to store your project as you are working on it. Inside the box, you have a three-ring binder that includes a few pages of information that is already printed out. Items like the handy reference card are in beautiful color, on heavy cardstock. There are also four bags of parts (which do include some extras). A disk includes all of the texts, plus pdf versions of the already-printed materials, so you can reprint if necessary.

You will need the same tools that you needed in Part 1. Applied Inspirations, LLC does carry a “Quality Tool Set” if you do not already own such equipment.

The course is intended for ages 10+, but I have to say that my ten-year-old would not have the patience to work through this. My teens did great, and I believe my 12-year-old could use this successfully. I think 10 is a little young, unless they are very interested in electronics.

One of the complaints my teens had about Part 1 was that they had to work through a lot of information before they got to the “Learn Electronics by Doing” part of the course. In part 2, you spend one chapter learning what an oscilloscope is, but by chapter 2 you are getting hands-on. That made my kids happy.

Most chapters are set up so that the student can read the introductory materials, which include plenty of diagrams, and then they put what they learned into practice. The assembly instructions include clear photos and checkboxes. The author encourages students to actually check off the steps as they are completed. I had to reiterate that throughout the course as well.

Each chapter is a separate PDF file on the disk, and we printed each out as we came to them. The teens could read the chapter themselves, and they knew just what to do. I appreciated that I don’t have to understand electronics for them to take an electronics course. The instructions are clear and methodical. “Don’t Just Build Something … Learn Something!” is printed on the box, and it is clearly the driving force behind this project.

For an idea as to the scope of this course, the chapters include:

0 – A brief introduction

1 – The Origins of the Oscilloscope

2 – The LED-Bar Test Display

3 – Analog to Digital Conversion

4 – The LED Array Display

5 – System Timing

6 – Shift Registers – Driving the X Axis

7 – Automatic Trace Initialization

8 – Input Attenuation

9 – Scope Input Test Leads Assembly

10 – Input Protection

11 – Input Amplification

12 – Y Axis Positioning

13 – Synchronization

14 – Trigger Delay

15 – External Triggering

16 – Basic Trouble-Shooting Techniques

17 – Review of Commercial Oscilloscopes

Each chapter gave us plenty of material for a week of class, so working through Part 1 and Part 2 is a full year course.

My bottom line is that this course truly teaches electronics, with quality materials, and gives plenty of hands-on practice. This is a class, not just a kit. You will learn real electronics, not just bits and pieces here and there. Learn Electronics by Doing is more than just a slogan.

-Product review by Debra Brinkman, Crew Administrator, The Old Schoolhouse® Homeschool Review Crew, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, January, 2017