SMT kits

My friend Charley, the author of Intruderchron software for the adafruit's Monochron clock, sent me this SMTCylon kit he sells through his web site. It is an SMD-only kit, that is, all components are surface mounted.

Although I soldered SMDs before, this was the first time I built an entire kit made of SMDs.

As challenging as it looks at first sight, after warming up by soldering a few LEDs, one may be inclined to give up through-hole soldering altogether. Soldering SMDs is not as scary as it sounds once one gets the technique, described in 4 steps: "wet" one pad, place the SMD on its pads, solder one terminal to the "wet" pad, then solder the other terminal.

The step-by-step tutorial for assembling the "SMTCylon" is very good, in the adafruit style, with lots of photos. Assembling takes about half an hour. The attiny microcontroller comes already programmed.

I highly recommend this kit as a great introduction to SMD soldering. And after the soldering fun was over (with absolutely no glitches), the playing fun started. I am thinking of incorporating the small board into a bigger project.