| | |  | Crafts & Activities | Home » » Snap Circuits PRO SC-500 | | | | | | WARNING:| CHOKING HAZARD -- Small parts. Not for children under 3 yrs. |
| | | Description: | | With Snap Circuit PRO, kids learn about 7-segment displays, meters, relays, transformers and how diodes work. It even includes a recording IC. Build over 500 projects, including: FM radio, adjustable light control, digital voice recorder and AC Generator. Contains over 75 parts. Requires 4 "AA" batteries. Measures 20" x 15.5" x 2.25". | | | Features: | |
• AWARDS: The National Parenting Center-Seal of Approval, Dr. Toy 100 Best Children's Products, Dr Toy Best Educational Products
• Contains over 75 Snap-Together parts. Build over 500 exciting projects.
• Clear and concise Illustrated Manual Included and Available Online.
• Build 500 experiments.
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 2.3 inches | | Product Width:
| 15.6 inches | | Product Height:
| 20.2 inches | | Product Weight:
| 4.45 pounds | | Package Length:
| 19.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 15.2 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.9 inches | | Package Weight:
| 4.25 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 84 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 84 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
187 of 201 found the following review helpful:
 You can read the manuals before buying!Nov 05, 2005
By David
Very much to the manufacturer's credit, the manuals that come with most Snapz products are online as pdf files. See www.elenco.com and click "User Manuals."
If you examine the manuals for this "Snapz Pro" product -- which is apparently called the SC-500 on the manufacturer site -- you will find that the entertainment value should be fairly high, there are a lot of whizzy gimmicks you can build. However the educational value -- in terms of learning anything whatever about electronics -- is about zero. All you do is match the color and shape of the components to a picture and snap them together. There is no attempt to differentiate the components other than by color and shape -- the relative meanings and functions of, for example, a "resistor" versus a "capacitor" versus an "FM radio chip" are simply not explained. It's just so many brightly colored units that are to be connected in a directed pattern.
The projects are not graded from simple to complex, the first ones in the manual are quite elaborate but simpler ones appear later on.
The same company also offers electronic training courses using the same components but with teaching manuals that are graded from simple to complex and do teach the meanings of the components, but this is not one of those.
107 of 113 found the following review helpful:
 More information available on the webFeb 28, 2006
By Eric Verwillow
I just played with this (Snap Circuits Junior) for the first time and came looking to buy one for my kids.
In response to the person who said the manuals have errors, see the web site http://www.snapcircuits.net/ (and also http://www.elenco.com/ as mentioned below.) In particular there is a page that gives corrections to all the manuals: http://www.snapcircuits.net/updates.doc .
Another concern I had is which kit to buy: Junior, Pro, etc.? On the snapcircuits web site they have a price list for replacement parts and upgrade kits. For the difference in price between the kits you can upgrade from one to the next so this takes some of the worry about of the purchase (for me at least). http://www.snapcircuits.net/scparts.pdf
141 of 151 found the following review helpful:
 Somebody at home better be a trained electrical engineer.Oct 20, 2004
By Paul Weaver
"mad scientist"
My eight year old son loves this toy, BUT...
The book is full of errors. I'm afraid that a child would quickly become frustrated without someone around to troubleshoot the mistakes. I estimate that about 50% of the projects contain some sort of error. They're all minor problems, but the projects won't work until they are corrected.
It's really amazing how many different kinds of problems seem to crop up. Examples are: Missing parts from diagram, wrong parts specified, circuits that no longer "fit" together because mechanical design was changed, some component values seem to have been changed causing some circuits to need adjustment, some illustrations make it impossible to tell which component they are using, etc. The manufacturer just needs to sit down and build each circuit and update the book.
I should stress, once again, that my son and I love this toy. If you have the necessary skills, you should definitely get it. It's just not something you can give a kid and walk away from.
34 of 34 found the following review helpful:
Buy one for each kidAug 20, 2004
By Kris G
This is a great toy! It is very educational, the direction books are easy to follow (our kids needed a 30 minute lesson before we left them on their own to make their discoveries), the snaps are a super idea (some of the other electronic sets I looked at which required twisting wires together), and it is FUN!
We gave it to our 8 year old for his birthday and he has been playing it ever since. His 10 year old brother is very jealous and wakes up early in the morning so he can play with it before his brother wakes up, however the experiments can get a bit noisy so he ends up waking all of us up with them. They both love showing off what they have made to us and their friends and they are learning about how electricity works.
Due to the nature of the toy a few of the pieces (such as light bulbs) have potential to break if not cared for properly so be sure when kids are finished playing with the set they put them away properly so they don't get stepped on.
20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
Fun, but not particularly educationalFeb 13, 2010
By badkitty
This is definitely a fun and creative toy, and by this virtue alone, it might be worth buying. That said, for a kit aimed at older children (8-10 years), it really disappoints when it comes to the educational value.
The included project booklets do virtually nothing to explain, in even the most rudimentary terms, the basics of electronics, and provide no narrative to explore with an adult. You are simply told to stack color-coded blocks in a particular order - the blocks are often not even called by their proper names, and their function in a circuit is not explained in most cases. Schematics are not included, so when you genuinely want to understand how things work with the help of external resources, you actually need to go through some extra hops.
Then, there is another problem: the choice of electronic components in the kit is odd, and clearly aimed at cheap thrills. For example, you get just one NPN transistor, one PNP, and maybe five resistors - which really is not much to experiment with; but no fewer than three different "mystery" IC modules that make funny sounds (!); one completely self-contained voice recorder module; and one self-contained FM radio, with integral "scan" and "reset" buttons. The internals of these units are not discussed, and they have *absolutely* no educational value. Connect batteries and watch the magic happen? Something perhaps acceptable in a toy for 2 years old kids, but that's about it: putting batteries in an MP3 player is about as much of a learning experience.
Because the number of general-purpose electronic components in the kit is fairly low - merely around 30 - you shouldn't expect to be able to build that much. Although the included booklet lists about 500 projects, most of them are just variations of a simple noise-making circuit ("space war sounds", "police car", "fire fan", "whiner", "lower pitch whiner", "hummer", "hissing foghorn", "siren", "steamship", "doorbell", etc). There is also an 8-segment LCD display in the kit, but all you can do with it is display a single pattern - there are no ICs to implement a counter or anything else of that sort.
Bottom line is: if you want your kid to just have some harmless fun with electronics for a week or so, this kit may be OK for you. If your kid is genuinely curious about electronics - well, a good book, a breadboard, and a handful of assorted components may be a better (and cheaper) option in this age range.
See all 84 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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