Reddit reviews Joe Knows Electronics Semiconductor Kit (320 Transistors & Diodes)

Has he applied for any jobs yet? I was given one of those leather pads with paper inside and a holder for resumes (something like this) except it was from my undergrad university with their emblem. Definitely gives you some confidence for interviews and recruiting sessions. Also you can get him some nice resume paper to go with it. That lasted me for years.

I also enjoyed having one or two of these demotivational posters in my room. Depends on his humor and if he has barren walls like I did.

If you know more details about which raspberry pi he has, you could get some shield extensions. These are boards that expand its capabilities. There are also newer boards with better specs. Also with two boards you can of course make them talk to each other ;)

Depends on his area of interest and your budget, but you could get him some kind of [introductory FPGA kit] (http://store.digilentinc.com/fpga-programmable-logic/) or DE0-Nano.

Tools... so many tools he might be interested in. USB logic analyzers are so cheap these days and go well with hobby boards. Again not sure your budget, so you can go all sorts of ranges here (Open Workbench Logic Sniffer or scanaplus or Saleae Logic 8 or a china clone of Saleae Logic 8). Saleae or the knockoff I think are the better options for the software compatibility. He may be in need of a soldering iron or a multimeter.

Something else unique, you could get him a "gift card" (they don't really sell them) or an IOU to a PCB printing service. Ask him to design his own board and you'll pay $X of the service. You'll want to make sure he knows the price structure on the website because they charge per square inch and it depends on his design how many layers he may need. He makes the schematic and they will print some circuit boards for him. They won't mount the parts, just do the schematic and he would have to hand solder the components.

If he likes old videogames you could get him some old school USB controllers and tell him to install lakka on his rasberry pi, or just get him a new Raspberry Pi3 to dedicate it as an old-school console emulator. It is quite impressive how many consoles they have emulated.

And back to more tools... more micro screwdriver bits than you would actually need. You can get him a starter pack of resistors, capacitors, and other assorted electronics sparkfun. There are also so many buttons, switches, LED screen displays, etc. that he probably wouldn't want to buy on his own. Maybe you could get a container with an assortment of circuit components (resistors, capacitors, transistors, and other sensors). Careful! This can add up real quick. All types of sensors exist... ultrasonic rangefinder, stress, photocell, temperature, etc. etc. endless!.

I actually didn't tally up the cost as that wasn't really of a concern to me, but I'll try my best to provide links to the things I bought for this. Feel free to add it up for me!

• Lighting
  
  • T-5 Grow light (came with 6500K bulbs)
    
  • 2700K bulbs
    
  • Grow light hangers
    
• Grow medium
  
  • Net Cups
    
  • Black Buckets
    
  • Black lids
    
• Nutrients
  
  • General Hydroponics Flora Series
    
  • General Hydroponics pH control kit
    
  • pH/EC/Temp Meters
    
• Grow tent
  
• Air ventilation
  
  • The only thing I ended up using from this kit was the cheapest part, the ventilation duct...
    
  • The fan from this kit is way too powerful for my setup because my humidifier couldn't keep up
    
  • I didn't use the carbon filter because I'm not growing weed.
    
• Water Distiller
  
• Humidifier
  
  • The cheaper the humidifier, the better. I first bought (and destroyed) one that had some sort of digital switch, so it would always be in the off state when you first supply power to it, meaning you can't turn it on/off with just a relay.
    
• Plumbing
  
  • Aquatec 8852 booster pump
    
  • 2 Gallon accumulator tank
    
  • Pressure relief valve
    
  • Tubing
    
  • Inline Pre-filter (Sorry they must have taken the product down...)
    
  • Misting nozzle T's
    
  • Tube ball valves
    
  • Analog pressure gauge
    
  • Misting Nozzles
    
    • Note that these nozzles are meant for WAY higher pressure systems (~1000psi) and I actually had to take out the spring for them to operate correctly, but they never clogged up, are easy to clean, and worked perfectly for me!
      
• Electronics
  
  • Raspberry Pi 3 kit
    
  • Humidity sensor
    
  • Pressure sensor
    
  • Water solenoid valve
    
  • 5V 4-channel relay module
    
  • Analog-to-digital converter
    
  • 24V to 12V converter
    
  • 24V Power supply
    
  • Resistor kit
    
  • Semiconductor kit
    
  • Circuit boards
    
  • Standoffs
    
• Wiring
  
  • 22 gauge stranded wire
    
  • 22 gauge solid wire
    
  • Power supply cord
    
• Connectors
  
  • Electronic Connectors
    
    • JST-XHP Connectors
      
    • JST-SM Connectors
      
    • Dupont Connectors
      
  • Plumbing Connectors
    
    • Bulkhead connectors
      
    • Quick-connect kit
      
    • NPT to quick-connect connector
      
      I also bought various tools, like crimpers, Dremel kit, drill, etc, but I don't consider those to be project-specific as I'll have them for the foreseeable future. Let me know if there's anything you see that you think I missed!
      

Hi! I built a Beavis Board about six weeks ago. Not terribly difficult to make at all. I purchased these on amazon from Joe knows...

Resistors
Capacitors
Transistors

The problem I have is that some of transistors aren't right for the layouts, the capacitors aren't film, and I couldn't find an assorted IC box.

If I had to do it all over again I would catalog all the parts needed for every project on the projects guide or see of there was a list of items the Beavis Board came with and take that to Tayda or Mammoth. It's a lot of work but will be better in the long run.

I'm definitely interested if anyone else has purchased assorted boxes and how that worked out.