COVVY Rotating LED SMD NE555 Soldering Practice Board DIY Kit Fanny Skill Training DIY Kit Electronic PCB Board Module Suit

Have loved electronics since I was a kid and connecting up a circuit that hours before seemed like bits of plastic and metal and seeing it move a thing or light a thing up or any of the millions of things a circuit can do still feels like magic to this day.This was a great little project for practicing soldering very small, and sometimes VERY small, SMD (surface mounted device) resistors, capacitors, and diodes.The three traces on each side are purely for practicing and once you have soldered the parts on they do nothing so I have kept those parts for other projects. The centre part, once all the components are attached and power is connected (12v), flashes the lights in a particular pattern and order.I started it at around 7pm and when I looked at the clock it was 2am. Oops.I would say that the instructions are awful. They look like they have been photocopied from a photocopy of a picture taken with an old Nokia phone and even the parts you can read are, mostly, difficult to understand but I managed to get through it.There are a few videos on YouTube showing you how to do it but there seem to be several very similar kits with slightly different components so they don't always match up exactly with what we have here in this kit.Either way, I love it and will be looking for more like it.

Great practice PCB. Goes from moderate resisters to difficult capacitor's. The centre part of the board is a working circuit. I’ve added a pen nib in a photo to give scale (these were the biggest components) soldering practice is priceless yet this is amazing value. Good fun too.

Many practice kits consist of just a board and random components, and while that's more than enough to learn the principles, those kits provide no indication of whether one has done a good job or killed a component.This kit includes a very simple 555 based LED chasing circuit which serves to give an immediate indication that everything is functional after soldering which I think is a much better learning tool. It also has the added bonus of the rewarding feeling one gets from building something functional (or at least I do).Some have complained about lack of instructions and schematics, but from what I've seen in the pictures, passive components are all the same value (for the same size) and any polar/IC components have their oroentation marked on the board.Good instructions on surface soldering can be found on the web (quality flux is invaluable!) and while a schematic is attached as a product image (at the time of writing), for an added reverse engineering challenge you can always trace the circuit and create your own schematic.Even if they'd included a soldering guide, I would argue that one is better served finding a good SMD soldering tutorial online.It's worth noting that this kit is not for absolute beginners, but rather for those ready to learn how to surface solder, therefore it is assumed that sufficient knowledge of electronics is present to assemble the kit without any extra instructions.Will update when kit arrives and I build it.

The media could not be loaded. I purchased this as a novice to the world of smd soldering but wanted a practice board before starting a proper project involving soldering surface mount components. So in the little packet, I received a PCB and a bag of unlabelled components. As a novice it wasn't very helpful to receive a product with unlabelled components and no instructions. Firstly, I had to work out what the components were and where they should be soldered. OK, the resistors are easy enough but capacitor values, installing the led's and diodes wasn't easy for a novice. So a fair bit of time was spent online doing research. Although there are instructions online it wasn't helpful that the resistors in the main clock circuit supplied were 470ohm rather than 1K specified in an online manual. And some video's said they had 330ohm. Needless to say this was a bit confusing but it turns out the 470ohn resistors worked out just fine. Other online videos suggested installing the cylinder diodes opposite to the direction on the board. Not so I found. Follow the polarity on the board for the led's & diodes and the board works just fine. Another confusing point was that the picture shows blue and red led's. Turns out all those supplied in my kit were red. Even more confusing is that they are coloured with a green band which denotes the cathode. There are several columns of components to install resistors and capacitors of different sizes. These are great and what I liked about this part of the board is that by using a multi-meter it is possible to check that each component is installed correctly as you can check the capacitance or resistance as each is installed. A nice touch. The size of components decreases across the board too which is good for training. I amazed myself by successfully soldering in the smallest resistors. I should say a magnifier headset is a real aid to soldering these components. Although initially it was a bit frustrating to receive the product with no instructions it was actually quite rewarding to do the research and end up building a working product. OK my soldering of the IC's is not neat at all but hey it worked first time. I also recommend using flux as this really helps. Another nice touch was that a small amount of solder was supplied with the kit. This melted really easily and so much better than a high tin 0.3mm solder I purchased. The high tin solder I purchased turned out to be rubbish so I used a combination of the solder they supplied with the kit and some lead solder I had from years back. Both worked well. I don't recommend using a high tin, thin solder as the product I had needed a really high temperature and often came detached from the pads. In summary, it s challenge but do some research and take your time and it'll prove very rewarding. Oh and my proper project turned out OK and I tackled it with confidence after having completed this practice board successfully.

I do a lot of soldering in my day to day and I just found that having this to fiddle with when it's quiet is perfect! Actually bought another one!

hi, i bough this kit and it has taught me to be great at SMD component soldering. however the item's name mentions fanny skills. well, i have made the kit, but according to my wife my fanny skills haven't improved.

Excellent little practice board,good couple of hours practice,nice to see it light up when your done