Fischer Technik

I am hoping that the electronics course will leave the student with the desire to continue building circuits and models to control with them.  Lego is very common, quite inexpensive and a somewhat satisfactory building system to use for these models; however, I highly recommend Fischer Technik as the best building system for more complicated projects.  Though Fischer is available new through Timberdoodle, there is also a large quantity available through German Ebay.  You can see either large Fischer Technik auctions or the complete German Fischer auctions.  Shipping costs about 60 Euros (about 60 dollars) for 20 kilos (44 pounds) (12 kilo = 44 Euros, 8 kilo = 36 Euro) and an international cashier's check costs around $30.  It is best to contact the seller first to ask how much shipping will be and if they are willing to ship to the States.  Some sellers accept Paypal which would not require a cashiers check.  You will get the best buy if you purchase an auction of at least 10 kilos.  20 kilos would be a good sized collection for modeling.  For larger orders count on about 4 weeks for shipping.  Most auctions start around 10 Euros per kilo and go up much more if there are a lot of specialty items (motors, electronic parts) present.  I recommend purchasing motors new and the learning lab has all the electronic parts needed, so be patient and wait for an auction in the 10 Euros per kilo range.

There is an entire collection of Fischer manuals that teach physics through the use of Fischer models and though the manuals are in German, much can be learned from the illustrations.  The hobby manuals available for free download at:  http://www.ft-fanpage.de/ under the Bauanleitungen section.  Other good Fischer links can be found at: http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/cdeweerd/e14.html. 

Good sites for machine examples are:
http://www.staudinger-est.de/e/fisher/index.html  (Click on standard models)
 http://home.hccnet.nl/sj.dijkstra/index.html
 

Below is a pictures of a twenty kilo auction.  If you are looking at a particular auction, you can use these pictures to see whether it includes a good sampling of the parts available.