Gift to help a girl compete with Boys

Electronics
1

If you are a sarcastic / hasty / impatient / unkind / intolerant / condescending person, stop reading now.

Still here? Great.+

I literally have no idea what I am talking about, so I need lots of help and patience.

I am searching for a gift for a bright twelve year old girl who has no
previous experience with electronics or kit building.
I would like something that will introduce her to soldering, but nothing too complex.

As you can imagine, many kids tend to be spoiled and have short attention spans.
This has to have some heft to it, some wow factor.

Now, it doesn’t have to be a commercial kit, I am willing to buy parts…just so long
as there is some kind of instruction manual on how to build the thing, with the instructions not assuming the builder has any previous experience.

I want it to be a digital alarm clock, combined with the ability to stream music wirelessly from a cell phone and from a PC. Must have dual corded and battery power.
Case should be clear plastic, so she can show off a bit.
Size to fit on a bedside table.

I know it is a lot to ask, but would like to keep the price down to $50 American.
I have ZERO knowledge in this area. 12 year old girl will have adults who can help her a bit if she gets stuck.

2

I’m not sure you can meet all of your requirements.

Soldering projects aren’t really for a beginner. A bad solder connection can be hard for a beginner to track down, especially something as complex as what you are describing.

If you want a project for practicing soldering, I recommend something simpler like those little educational kits you used to be able to buy from Radioshack. A lot of those were from a company called Velleman.

https://www.velleman.eu/products/list/?id=456408

If you want something cooler, I’d recommend taking a look at Adafruit. They are expensive for buying parts but much of what they provide uses “standard” interconnects like STEMMA and their line of feather boards. You can take a look at their “Learn” section for some cool project ideas that aren’t too hard for beginners. And as long as you dont solder things together, you can easily reuse the parts in other projects.

https://learn.adafruit.com/

2 Likes
3

For instance, this project is pretty close to what you are looking for.
A wifi enabled clock with speaker. You might be able to use it as a jumping off point to make your own.

But you will notice its considered an intermediate project.

2 Likes