One of the few places left in Boston that caters to electronics hobbyists is YouDoIt Electronics on the Newton/Needham border (right off Needham Street near the entrance to Rte 128). While it’s great for hardcore hobbyists, there’s also something for everyone there.
On the first floor, they have a ton of electronics parts, connectors, switches, cables. On the second floor, they have consumer electronics (TVs, disco equipment, surveillance gear). For the last couple of years, they have also started stocking a lot of cool Maker gear for do-it-yourself STEM projects. This local store is actually out-doing online vendors: You can shop from multiple vendors in one place. They stock Sparkfun, Adafruit, Raspberry Pi, and a bunch of things that I hadn’t heard of.
They have a lot of the educational kits and tons of DIY robotics stuff, from bare motors to complete programmable robot kits (plus lots of sensors and extras to customize your own).
They also have fun stuff, like wearable electronics and EL-wire — a glow-in-the-dark “cool-neon” that you can sew into your clothes or glue onto your bike. With it, a beginner can make a TRON costume: You can easily add EL-wire, running off 2 AA batteries, to just about anything, and if you want to get fancy, YouDoIt has Arduino-compatible controllers that will allow you to sequence and animate different strands/colors of EL-wire to your heart’s content.
If you are in the mood for soldering but aren’t yet equipped, they have everything from the high-end professional stuff to beginner’s kits.
They also have lots of fun kits (circuit boards and parts) to build all kinds of fun and useful stuff, from voice changers to alarm circuits. In addition to single-purpose stuff and simple things like LED Christmas trees, they also have advanced kits from vendors like Adafruit and Sparkfun. (They carry one of my favorites, the Drawdio Kit, which I use in workshops.)
They have lots of Arduino kits, including starter kits from Sparkfun and Osepp. They even have a $20 discount on the Sparkfun inventors kit, which has a fabulous curriculum to go with it. This is “last week’s” version of their kit, where they basically changed the color of one of the components. Get ’em while they last!
I haven’t even begun to cover the wonders you can find in every corner of this store. Make sure you visit upstairs, if for no other reason than to visit their “Disco lighting room.” Be careful, though, and don’t drool too much over the fabulous 65″ flat screens they have in the back. After all the point here is to make stuff!