For the young soon-to-be engineers out there, or anyone who wants to learn about the basics of transistors, logic circuits and how it all ties into modern computing, the Transistor Logic Pixie kit is a well-polished and easy to follow guide. Featuring a breadboard, pre-cut wires, and the “Pixie” itself (a small PCB with push buttons, resistors, transistors, capacitors, etc.) getting started is a breeze.
The guide walks you through setting up each circuit, using colour-coded wires to make it easy to follow. Starting with the simplest buffer circuits and moving up through all the standard logic gates, eventually arriving at multivibrators and flip-flops, all the essentials are covered. The spiral-bound printed guide has easy to follow diagrams and text which explain how each circuit works and how they can be used in combination to build more complex devices.
With the holiday season coming up, this might make a great gift for a young hacker interested in electronics, or anyone who wants to quench their curiosity about how computer circuits actually work at the fundamental level.
