It used to Radio Shack or Fulton.  However, I took my son into Fulton about 6 months ago and the store only had shelving in half the space and most of that was empty.

 

If you want to do ‘local’ I would highly recommend a trip to MicroCenter (about 80 minutes away).  They have an entire room full of project electronics for kids (and adult kids).  It is 15 minutes away from the mall that has the aquarium, lego city, and rainforest café. 

 

I told my wife that I wanted to take the kids to the aquarium and rainforest café and stop by MicroCenter on the way.  In truth, I wanted to pick up some raspberryPis for myself and my 9yo son to make robots.  We had a great family trip.

 

http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/madison-heights.aspx

 

-Rich

 

 

 

I’ll be watching this for local sources, too as I know of none. Fulton was, and I’ve not been there for a while, selling Digikey parts and kits. But they only had one of anything in stock.

 

What I have found is https://www.aliexpress.com and https://www.banggood.com

Shipping is prompt and often “free”. Maximum I’ve had to wait is 21 days. Bread board stuff is very cheap and every bit the quality of what Radio Shack was selling. For instance

 

 

 

Lots of small, complete kits for a couple of dollars each.

 

Don Bosman

 

 

 

I’ll show my age now…. It’s been decades since I dabbled in electronics, and Radio Shack, my former go-to place for electronic pieces and parts, is a thing of history.

 

I’m considering a few projects to do with my son this summer, but I’m at a loss to consider where I might go locally to get my hands on things like a prototyping breadboard with jumper wires, some alligator clip test leads, multiple probes for my dusty DVM, and a decent beginners soldering iron and supplies.

 

Anyone know of any place local where I could dig up such things?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

John Resotko

Assistant Director, Systems Administration and Support

Michigan State University College of Law

648 N. Shaw Lane, Room 208 Law Building

East Lansing, MI 48842-1300

 

email: [log in to unmask]

phone: 517-432-6836

fax: 517-432-6861

web: http://www.law.msu.edu/

 

MSU IT Council , Law College representative

https://tech.msu.edu/itcouncil/index.php