Maker Shed (http://makershed.com) carries many electronic kits that you can apply your newly-learned soldering skills to. Here’s just a few of them:
One of the latest in our popular Mintronics line of DIY kits is this tiny race car designed by George Albercook. Once assembled, this little racer (Figure 4-1) will run around getting its juice from a supercapacitor. Capacitors are like little batteries. Supercaps store and release power faster than ordinary ones, so they’re great for making quick-charge gadgets and power-on-demand circuits.
The Wee Blinky kit (Figure 4-2) is an easy-to-solder two (2) LED blinker circuit. It comes with a 9V battery snap, but will work with almost any voltage from 3V to 12V. A 9V battery is required but not included. It’s tiny, it blinks, and it’s a great kit to hone your soldering skills since it’s cheap too!
The MintyBoost (Figure 4-3) is a small and simple USB charger for your iPod or other MP3 player, your camera, cellphone, and any other gadget you can plug into a USB port to charge.
