OT: learner kits (and NopeCraft)

All, thanks for all input! Many useful things to follow up here. Trying to summarize and including a bit more follow-up research. URL?s valid as of June 30, 2015, if you are reading this in the archive; folks suggesting good ideas referenced by name, search nearby here in the archive for contact info. Minecraft gets a special category because a) my son is already addicted and b) I have the suspicion that a *lot* of kids are in his category in that way. It was pointed out quite correctly (Toby Thain) that Minecraft is a *horrible* way to learn physics; my son and I calculated that his character could run and jump while carrying (in its pockets, apparently) a mass equivalent to approximately 7 Iowa-class battleships. ?Hands-on? electronics Raspberry Pi Gertboard interface. Servo motor interface in particular will add real-world interest. (Mark J. Blair) http://www.newark.com/gertboard/gertboard/atmega328-assembled-gertboard/dp/… LittleBits kits for plug-together components, ex-Radio Shack and available on eBay (Steve Algernon) http://littlebits.cc Modern CMOS should be BE series and hence ESD-protected. CMOS is more tolerant of supply voltage variation. (Dave G4UGM) 74LSxx TTL should generally be capable of replacing standard TTL. TTL is generally faster than CMOS, TTL is more tolerant of connecting two arguing outputs together. 74ALS series is CMOS internal but with TTL interfaces. (Dave G4UGM, Mouse) CMOS 4000 series is very static-sensitive; use a wrist strap and bench pad if you work much with this. (wulfman) http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/logic/gate-products.page#p1512=CD4000&o7=&… http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/catalogs/c151/P30.pdf http://www.ti.com/lit/ml/scyb004b/scyb004b.pdf http://eeshop.unl.edu/pdf/CD4000.pdf http://www.skot9000.com/ttl/ Arduino kits are well-established and have many options of kits, sensors, projects, etc. (Dave G4UGM) Arduino Experimenter?s Kit incl. breadboard, LED?s, jumpers, etc. Note Raspberry Pi pins are 3.3V and need voltage clamps on inputs from TTL (Brent Hilpert) http://www.elektor.com/arduino-sensor-kit http://www.adafruit.com/products/170 It?s possible to find packaged piles of components. Projects and manuals are tougher. http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&am… Emulators PDP-8 or PDP-11 recommended (Christian Gauger-Cosgrove) http://fms.komkon.org/comp/sys/DEC.html http://www.vandermark.ch/pdp8/index.php?n=PDP8.Emulator http://www.bernhard-baehr.de/pdp8e/pdp8e.html Cardiac emulator available as a web page, complete with examples and instructions. (Brian L. Stuart): https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardsim.html CAS/mathematics Raspberry Pi has Mathematica (included?) for Raspbian. This is a cheap way to get a running Mathematica. (Douglas Taylor) https://www.raspberrypi.org/mathematica-10/ http://www.wolfram.com/raspberry-pi/ Beaglebone Black is rumored to have Mathematica in work http://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/386736 Maple (similar to mathematica) http://www.maplesoft.com/products/maple/ Open-source Maxima (based on MacSyma from MIT) for multiple platforms. http://maxima.sourceforge.net TI NSpire calculators include a CAS descended from muMath/muSimp. TI offers a calculator emulation which runs on Win/Mac: https://education.ti.com/en/us/software/details/en/36BE84F974E940C78502AA47… https://education.ti.com/en/us/products/computer_software/ti-nspire-softwar… Minecraft/world simulation games Minecraft V.1.4.8 should run Eloraam's RedPower 2 which includes 6502 and FORTH interpreter http://ftbwiki.org/RedPower_2 Direwolf20 modpack (part of the Feed the Beast launcher) has Immibis' RedLogic, which is redstone wiring and logic gates; as well as dan200?s ComputerCraft which gives you a Lua programmable computer (and peripherals) that can do all sorts of neat things. (Christian Gauger-Cosgrove) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmZHDI72dVI https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaiPn4ewcbkHYflo2jl0OuNaHK6Mj-koG http://luacraft.com ?Giant Video of FORTH-ness?(Christian Gauger-Cosgrove) https://youtu.be/ARO1uVRSLJQ Minecraft/Pi/interaction kit is Kickstarted, orderable. The kit includes a Raspberry Pi 2 and components to stick together. (Steve Algernon) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/withpiper/piper-a-minecraft-toolbox-fo… Factorio apparently has some serious logic systems (William Donzelli) https://www.factorio.com Hopefully this is useful; I appreciate very much all the input I got. - Mark On Jun 21, 2015, at 7:01 PM, Tapley, Mark <mtapley at swri.edu> wrote: