Gikfun DIY SMD SMT Welding Practice Soldering Skill Training Board Ek7028

I've been soldering through hole parts for many years, thinking that SMD was best left to factories with specialized equipment. Working through this kit made me realize that soldering SMD by hand is not only feasible, but actually faster and easier than through hole in my newly-formed opinion. Completing this project was fun and meditative and now I have confidence in this skill and am eager to apply it to a project. The kit has a smart design. Your first 78 parts have no real penalty for mistakes because they are not part of the final "light show" circuit. Yet there are still some basic test points for these areas so you can check your connections with a multimeter. You start with 1206 size components (0.12 x 0.06 inches), then move to 0805, then 0603 and finally 0402. As you would expect, it gets progressively more challenging. After all of that practice, comes the LED blinking circuit. These are all 0805 components which should feel pretty manageable after finishing 0402. A schematic is provided but I never needed it - the board is already marked with what goes where, including the polarity of the LEDs and diodes. I did use the parts table to determine which part values to use. It's also useful to know how to read a SMD resistor code (e.g. 473 = 47,000 ohms). I experimented with a number of different techniques and tools and suggest you do the same, below is a small account of my experiences: Soldering Iron vs Paste + Heat Gun. Between these, I preferred a soldering iron with a small chisel tip. For the paste I was putting it on with a syringe and trying to fix it up with a toothpick - it looked a bit sloppy. For the larger components, it all worked reliably and components "magically" flowed into place. At 0603, about a third of the parts didn't settle correctly and needed corrections with the tweezers and heat gun. At 0402, about half of the parts needed corrections. I think that a solder mask and reflow oven would be quite a different (better) experience here but I don't have either of those. For the soldering iron, I prepped the area with rosin fluid (Kester 951) and held the component in place with some high-quality tweezers. I put a very small amount of solder on the tip and touched the pad, then the corner of the component for less than a second each. I never needed to use the solder wire directly on the board, which is great because I was already using both hands. After doing one side, I put down the tweezers, rotated the board and did the other side in the same way (touch the pad, touch the component side, done). I then went back to the first side and touched it with the soldering iron for another second or so for a finishing step. It takes longer to type this than to actually do it. You can also batch the work by doing one side of a bunch of components, then doing the other side in a followup pass. USB microscope vs headband magnifier (Donegan DA-4). They both worked but I preferred the headband magnifier for several reasons. In short, the headband magnifier was more comfortable to use, the "real" 3D image was nicer than the 2D LCD image and it was nice to easily see where my tools were as I worked. I found the 2x magnification on the magnifier was plenty enough for every case except the 0402, where a little more would be nicer. Silicone work pad. I recommend using one because these pads are heat resistant, and make it easy to see the tiny SMD parts. I placed the board right on the work pad while soldering. This allowed me to use the table to support my hands and keep them more steady during the work. Multimeter. My multimeters will light up an LED in the continuity testing mode. I used this to spot check the LEDs as I installed them, placing the negative probe on the "-" pad at the bottom center of the board and the positive probe on the resistor that is associated with the LED. The correct resistor can be discovered using the multimeter or by looking at the traces under the soldering mask.

Provides all parts needed to construct the kit, plus spares of the most fragile and losable parts. Includes instructions in English; however, they're somewhat cursory, neglecting to mention the needed power supply (9 volts, supply your own connector) and providing little detail as to which parts go where. (You can figure this out from the bill of materials, which does not provide component markings, but does indicate how many are needed and the size of the component. Some logic is required, as the capacitors are unmarked.) This isn't a beginner kit. However, if you already know how to use your soldering iron with through-hole components, you are familiar with electronics in general, and you want to learn about SMDs and practice soldering them, this is a very good kit for the experienced hobbyist. To succeed, you are going to need the proper tools, which obviously aren't included: A soldering iron with a very fine tip, appropriate solder (eutectic lead strongly recommended), a good set of very fine tweezers, and good magnification—preferably a stereo microscope. That's the price of entry for hand-soldering SMD components. The kit includes a number of resistors and capacitors in 1206, 0805, 0603, and 0402 sizes. The 0402 capacitors are about the size of deer tick nymphs—large grains of sand. You start by soldering rows of components, from the larger size on down, gaining skill and confidence as you go. You can then move on to using those techniques to build the light-flasher circuit in the center of the board, which uses a 555 timer and a 4017 decade counter. The center-circuit components include LEDs, transistors, and glass diodes. The reverse of the circuit board includes a handy reference, including SMD component and pad sizes, circuit trace widths, and rulers. I found this kit to be vastly superior to Elenco's SMD kit in terms of helping me master the techniques needed to hand-solder SMD components.

This set comes with a piece of paper describing what goes where - if you're lucky. Or you can use the online description on the link provided. This will tell you the important part of the center components that makes the leds light up in a sequence - the type of component and HOW these components are put on the board is important, but don't expect a lot of help here. So besides practicing your soldering skills, prepare yourself for learning how to identify basic components that are so small that having a microscope will be helpful! In particular, you should learn about diodes and how to identify their direction. NOTE - to me this practice board uses non-standard markings for the diodes - the WIDE line isn't the line from the diode symbol where + is - it indicates GROUND. On the other hand, this also allows you to do a bit of diagnostics if you cannot get it to work. Here's what I'll recommend you do - first order the component types without breaking them out of the tape they're in. Know what will go where. The good news is that you'll get a few extras for most components. Once organized, open ONE at a time, and solder them to the board. For the diodes where how you mount them on the PCB matters, use your multi-meter and use the diode tester. When you have a forward voltage, you now know what's negative and positive on the LED/Diode. Be sure to mount them like that where the negative is positioned where the thick line is on the PCB. I use a hot-air system - I find it easier than a traditional soldering iron on these small components. Just be sure to set the blow rate and temperature so you don't burn things off, or blow them off. To me, this is what this board is great for - getting skills soldering small SMD components so you can home in your iron settings, solder type etc. I use solder paste, which means I can "stick" the components to the board before heating and the paste holds the component in place. With a small tweezer I can hold the component while heating the paste - this seems mainly necessary on the first ones before the paste starts melting - as the melting point is reached the component is most often pulled into place by the paste - if you don't over-paste. Then use the test probes to be sure all components on the sides are seen. Start with those non-functioning lines, it's easy to test stuff and if you mess up here you can still make the led lights work. As you lay out the components please pay attention that one of the resistor packages are meant to be used inside the circle. You can recognize it by having more resistors than the rest - or look up the size and check your paper to see which resistors to use in the middle. So don't solder this type on the test strips on the outside. Or you'll have to desolder them to move them later :) All in all - the guide could be slightly better but it's not bad. It's good practice and gives you a fun little light show when you get it all right.

The education value that you can get from this product for soldering and electronics is amazing, especially for such a cheap price. It really helped me understand how to micro-solder and how to get used to using a rework station. I got the whole thing to work perfectly and I'm very pleased with this product. My biggest criticism is that the instructions are a bit unclear and not really geared for beginners. Somebody who is buying this product is likely not just practicing how to solder these micro components, but also learning how to identify each one. I eventually figured everything out with very careful reading, but I do wish the included instructions clarified a lot of those things for beginners.

This little board is laid out in a way that makes surface‑mount practice feel approachable, even if you’re just getting comfortable with smaller components. The instructions are easy to follow, the pads take solder well, and the mix of part sizes gives you a nice progression as you work through it. It’s a quick, low‑stress project that helps build confidence with SMD techniques and offers a satisfying result when finished. A solid choice for sharpening fine‑detail soldering skills

Great practice but it's very much not a beginners piece. Before starting this you'll want a super fine tip soldering iron. Also the instructions didn't tell you which resistors when in each location so it's like you get a puzzle to figure out while you're learning to solder small components. I guess that's a plus. I'm not sure if the lights are supposed to all light up at once or move around in a circle but mine light up at the same time. Another big thing is it didn't come with anything to connect power to it. I had a spare 9v battery connector that I used. Might want to pick one of those up with this. I'll post a picture of how I have mine arranged later.

Pros: affordable compact SMD soldering practice board multiple test points to verify that your solder connections are electrically valid over 100 components to practice soldering in place final assembly is a functioning circuit that can be power up with about 4.5 -12 VDC spare components in the event one drops a component Cons: minor- it may not be ROHS compliant, some might consider this a plus, as it is easier to solder on a non-ROHS compliant board minor- components not marked, the biggest issue was the 0805 resistors and capacitors, there were extra components so matching up the strip of 14 resistors to the 12 specified for one part of the circuit was a bit of a head scratch, particularly since the circuit diagram calls out a range of resistance of 330 to 1K ohms, and both sets of resistors were in that range. Perhaps that is part of the challenge? I was able to do the assembly with a fine tip on my Hakko FX-888D. I used .023" diameter solder, much larger would be a problem, also get a decent syringe filled with flux. You don't need a hot air gun to do this. It helps to have some magnification setup to more easily see what you are doing, that and decent tweezers. This is for practicing SMD soldering, not through hole components, most of these parts are quite small, SMD components are pushing the limits of manual assembly. It requires tools for doing this kind of work. If you already build electronic circuits you are probably there for the most part.

Board itself is very well done as far as silk screen, pads and resist are concerned. However, the parts included did NOT include the resistors required to complete the working portion of the board. Instead of led resistors in the range of 200 to 1k, I got a strip of 3.6 ohm 0805's (checked with DMM). Instead of the 10k bias resistors for Q1-Q4 and 555, I got a strip of (6) 620 ohm 0805's (again checked with DMM). I suppose I could fiddle with the various values (my 0603's are 180 ohm and should work for the led's, and one of the practice 0805 strips are 5.49k which I could put in series for 10k by tombstoning) , but to me the kit should come with the proper components to permit correctly assembling the board. For these reasons I would rate this kit as a fail with 1 one star even though the board itself is well done.

Although I think this could be cheaper I think it gets the job done for learning new skills or brushing up on old ones. I bought this to brush up on some soldering after some time leaving university doing electronics. I thought it was a good quality board. Easy enough to do with some patience. I used 0.6mm diameter solder with a thin tip iron and a pair of helping hands. I say easy enough to do I have bought 3 of these since the first two I messed up. Put the polarity of some components the wrong way round and second one put the battery the wrong way round... Best to check to be sure to save yourself money. Instructions arent as easy to follow as they could be but all works one you finished.

È buono ma potevano essere 5 stelle ma no si capisce gli smd da montare non sono spigati i valori e come montarli

I was very positively surprised by the quality of the included PCB. It's relatively thick, feels very solid, and has very good quality solder mask applied to it. The components themselves came in the usual stripes cut from reels. For most component types, few more were provided then needed, making things easier if one of the SMD components gets lost. The kit comes with a small printed manual, written in English language, which provides basic information on how to do surface-mount soldering, and has several illustrations explaining the steps needed to solder the components, how to identify the correct orientation of the included integrated circuits and diodes, and includes the schematic of the LED Blinker located in the middle of the PCB. The back side of the PCB has several rulers, in centimeters and in 1/10ths and 1/100ths of an inch, as well as examples of several popular PCB trace widths, and popular component footprints. As for the bad sides, there are few small points: The manual seems to be translated from Chinese. In general, grammar of the translation is very good, and manual is easy to understand, however few technical terms have been incorrectly translated: The manual always refers to the procedure as welding, instead of soldering, and it refers to the transistors as triodes. The direction of the SMD LEDs is not shown on the silkscreen, so it needs to be manually determined by following the traces on the board and using the included circuit schematic. Additionally, the measurement unit of 1/1000 of an inch is misspelled as mli instead of mil on the back side of the PCB. All in all, this is a great kit, but it does require some very basic knowledge of electronics.

I solder for over 50 years by now - now way less these days, but I felt for small repairs you need to work with SMD's, and so far I guess I was lucky. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and I can see my solder joints improve with every new component, and I can work out what works for me in placing and holding, etc. One issue with THIS kit I received, the 402 components are missing, annoying but I am not sure if I could freehand solder them anyway - but it would have been good to try. Had the kit for a few months before I spent time with it, so I did not complain to the vendor, who knows, they may have rectified it if I had. Update: when building the rest of the kit i found the 402 components in the other sealed bag.

Te dan un montón de cositas para soldar pero no te dicen que son ni están marcadas para que las coloques donde van