Funway Un-boxing, when do I get to solder something?!

I don't know anything about electronics and it fucking annoys me.

So in the weekend I went to Dick Smith and bought.......

Yeah, that's right. And some batteries, it says on the box that everything battery operated. I guessed AA batteries.You may think Funway is just for kids, but YOU ARE COMPLETELY WRONG. Its also for misguided 30 year olds who suddenly realise they've missed out on vital educations.

Here's whats in the box

Book of things to build, little bags of components, and bread board with screws. No soldering! Speaker, earpiece, resistors, a transformer, light detector, capacitors, leds, wires and shit. Oh and a connector for a 9volt battery. DOH. Luckily I have a few spares in the drawer for the smoke alarms. You also need a couple of other bits not included in the box. wire cutters, a small screw driver (Phillips) and wire strippers, or improvise with scissors, which are also good for cutting out the circuit patterns in the back of the book.

You begin by cutting out your circuit and putting it on top of the board. Then assemble the wires and components. Screws and washers are used to hold the connections together, its a little fiddly at first. But after some swearing you assemble the first circuit, a continuity detector.

Its quite a handy first project, you get to test all the provided parts to make sure they work and the run around the house seeing what conducts electricity and what doesn't. Oh the polystyrene board is really handy for sticking all your resistors in before you assemble the circuit. Keeps everything tidy and within reach. In the picture I'm shorting the circuit and you can see the LED glowing.

After that I deserved a beer.