[bryanlarsen]

Has anybody tried Crunch Lab's HackPack? It seems it could be quite well suited for this purpose -- they claim to make it straight forward to go beyond the kit, and they've certainly taken some of the right steps in that direction.

[jsperson]

I tried it. First kit was speced with cheap parts that didn’t really work. Got a replacement kit - same thing. Overall a really disappointing experience. I cancelled and bought a 3D printer, which has been great fun.

Edit - fixed autocorrect