At the risk of being charged with heresy here I would suggest you take
a look at the BASIC Stamp Discovery Kit from http://www.parallax.com.
The BASIC stamp is similar to but less powerful than a BX24. However
there is a lot more handholding for the new user with Parallax projects
and this kit is very complete. It's worth the $150 if you want to be
tutored through every step and have everything at hand to do the
tutorials. When you're done if it doesnt meet your needs you can give
it to your kids, a local school, or sell it on ebay and move on to
something more powerful.

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Thank you very much for the recommendation.
--- In b...@yahoogroups.com, "billballbx24"
wrote:
>
> At the risk of being charged with heresy here I would suggest you
take
> a look at the BASIC Stamp Discovery Kit from
http://www.parallax.com.
> The BASIC stamp is similar to but less powerful than a BX24. However
> there is a lot more handholding for the new user with Parallax
projects
> and this kit is very complete. It's worth the $150 if you want to be
> tutored through every step and have everything at hand to do the
> tutorials. When you're done if it doesnt meet your needs you can
give
> it to your kids, a local school, or sell it on ebay and move on to
> something more powerful.
>

(You need to be a member of basicx -- send a blank email to basicx-subscribe@yahoogroups.com )