Heathkit Continuing Education Courses

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 17 Aug 2007 at 0:07, Eric Wolf wrote:

> I'm looking for information on the older Heathkit courses,
> dc/ac/digital ect.  My son would like to complete the basics but I
> don't remember what was available from heathkit other than the basic
> courses.  I would also like to know what trainers were available, for
> example, they had a laser trainer and I think it was a 3300.  Any info
> would be great.

I have what I think may be a nearly complete set of the early blue and 
white ones, although I do not have the Laser course.

Mine covers DC Electronics, AC Electronics, Digital Circuits, 
Microprocessors, and I think one or two more, but I have them at work, 
where I offer them to beginning EE students at times, and do not 
remember what all was there. I believe there were 8 books all together, 
and two for the microprocessor course.

I'll try to e-mail you next week with other info.

There were at least three "trainers" included. One was equipped with + 
and - variable regulated 0-15 VDC supplies, a 1 Hz to 10 Khz signal 
generator with both sine and square wave outputs, an AC low fixed- 
voltage source, two pots, a 1K and a 10 K,  and a bread-board device 
to connect it all together.

I use mine regularly to build analog circuits.

The next one was a digital trainer. This one has fixed + and - (I think) 
5VDC regulated supplies, a +12 VDC regulated supply, various fixed 
and variable square wave and sine wave generators, and the same 
"bread-board" device as the previous one.

Again, I still use mine regularly to design and test digital circuits for my 
professors' projects.

The third one was a Microprocessor trainer. This one has various signal 
and voltage sources, plus a complete key-pad, a built-in Motorola 
microprocessor, RAM, and is, essentially, a complete small computer, 
which you can make do many different things. The board also aids in 
machine-language programming, and other higher level work.

I have not used this particular "trainer" very much as it is somewhat too 
specialised for my present work.

Included in each book are quite a few 33 1/3 RPM records which work 
together with the programmed instruction in the text.

I have not yet made either CDs or cassette tapes of the records, but 
intend to do that this winter.

There were several versions of each trainer, some quite complex. Some 
were blue and white, and some were the later brown-based color 
scheme. The trainers are very often available on Ebay for reasonable 
prices. Heathkit also sold many of the more complex brown versions to 
universities and colleges for their electronics courses, some under a 
different company name.

As far as I am concerned, these basic courses are still as up-to-date as 
any modern methods of instruction, and since they cover the basics 
very well, I find them to still be useful today.

I hope this information helps.

Ken Gordon W7EKB

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