Growing up I usually had a little 50 in one or 100 in one electronics project kit.
Keeps all the stuff on one kit, and you connect wires under little springs. Still adult supervision required for sure, but on the upper range of what’s possible.
The oscillator is creating both DC and AC. The DC component is the average value of the signal. In the case of your 0-10v square wave, that is 5v. The AC compnent is the part of the signal that changes. The effect of the capacitor is to block the DC component, leaving only the AC component. The waveform is shifted vertically to be centered around 0v.
maybe something like littlebits kit? I haven't tried them myself, but they look fun, educational and kids friendly (not sure about 3yo thou) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7B0mWvnE1Q
Get them working on their mathematic skills, instead. You can give them a really good head start - mine could solve simple differential equations at age 11.
Play memory or with a wooden kitchen. I’d say 3 is too young. you can get some basic electronics kits for children. just visit one of the toy stores. But playing with electronics and doing experiments starts being fun at around 5 to 8 years. Maybe playing with an extension cord at 4. but you wouldn’t want to encourage a little kid to play with extension cords, plugs and mains power…
Don’t worry, we’re already doing all the typical toddler games and I’m not keen on raising a STEM child prodigy. That’s why I asked for hands-on experiences with prodcuts specifically for toddlers.
Alright. I think i misread things and thought you were after an (strictly) educational kit. Just wanted to say that. We gifted an (quite comprehensive) electronics kit to a seven year old and that seems to be a good age to start. but under 5 i can’t see a kid having the attention span, dexterity or mental abilities to grasp concepts aside from on/off, this is a light and this is a switch. but i may be wrong. there is certainly no harm in starting too early. i just think it wont be fun or of value for a 3 or 4 year old. in my experience they get bored quickly if you try and convey theoretical concepts. at that age i see kids playing with wooden tools, train their dexterity with a small hammer and nails game. or mimick their parents and play something like cooking or doing the dishes, that has something to do with their every day life. nonetheless. try it. i’ll bookmark this and read all the ideas and experiences of other people. maybe i’m completely wrong. one thing i observed kids are interested in all kinds of silly stuff. and they start asking questions as soon as they can. and i believe it is a good thing to encourage them in asking questions and figuring out concepts and how things (including physics) work.
edit: some dads build a big wooden box with (old) sturdy buttons, switches, indicator lamps, a vandalism-proof keypad, etc for their toddlers. i saw a few blog posts years ago. But that was completely DIY. I don’t think it teaches anything but dexterity, but toddlers like pressing buttons. And it’s a cool project. And a few years later you can use it as the main console for your imaginary space ship. ( youtube.com/watch?v=j6zseFi070E )
As a young child, I had a wooden board with a bunch of different light switches mounted to it. Nothing to tinker with, but I had a lot of fun with the physical sensation of switching them on and off. I think that’s all you can really ask for at that age.
Later on, I enjoyed taking the switches apart, figuring out how they work and using them in my electronics projects.
My point is, whatever you choose should be physically fun, even without understanding it. A few switches and maybe a blinking light can entertain a toddler for a long time. The tinkering can come later.
This was a few months ago so I can’t recall a lot of the specifics unfortunately.
What I can recall was using a 90w Ali Express soldering iron with a conical tip to solder a damaged original Xbox controller cable. The leaded solder seemed slow to melt on the tip but wouldn’t melt to the wire when I applied heat on the under side.
Sorry I can’t tell you more. I was looking to do some practice this weekend and wanted to know if I should be ordering a thicker tip or something.
The temperature is set too low. The solder should melt almost instantly when applied to the tip if the iron is set to 350°C.
Those fine point conical tips that typically come with soldering irons are terrible. Get a 2-3mm chisel tip, that will be suitable for most soldering jobs.
Wattage does not mean how hot it gets, it means how fast it gets to the desired temperature. Also Chinese vendors tend to exaggerate greatly with specifications, especially with cheap products.
Outside of a few specific cases, a standard chisel tip is all you need. Yes, even for surface mount.
The wires found in some thin flexible cables (like USB or headphone cables) are sometimes coated. Solder won’t stick unless you get it hot enough to burn off the coating, or scrape it off before soldering.
With soldering you want to maximize heat transfer at all times so flat surfaces (chisel tip for example) are usually ideal. If you want to remove solder from a hole in a PCB you’re better off with a round tip as that has the most contact area then. It will make it easier to use a solder sucker in that case for example. Personally I have the chisel tip on 90% of the time and might be willing to switch to the large flat one.
I suggest that you give details of the iron (and tip) and solder that you are using and a close up photo of the wires that are being problematic.
The iron temperature control may be faulty and the iron just not getting to soldering temperatures. Or you may have it set too low.
The thermal mass of typical USB wires is so low that, if the solder actually melts freely at the tip end when not soldering anything, it should do so when soldering these wires.
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