Solder side of my finished Velleman MK102 Flashing LEDs kit.
Electronics

Ah, the Lovely Incense of (Lead Free) Solder

Since I’ve been doing Arduino work, I’ve accumulated a few board and Shield kits that I need to put together. I haven’t soldered since college, so I decided to brush up on my rusty skills by buying one of those little electronics project kits: a Velleman MK102 Flashing LEDs kit.

It turned out really well, thanks to my Hakko FX888D Soldering Station from SparkFun, and my QuadHands 3rd hand from Amazon. The circuit worked right away.

Check out the really, really boring video of the finished board blinking away at YouTube – whee!

The front of the board doesn’t look too bad; only a few parts pulled away from the board a bit:

The component side of my finished Velleman MK102 Flashing LEDs kit
The component side of my finished Velleman MK102 Flashing LEDs kit

The back is the real giveaway that I’m a newbie: most of the soldering looks pretty good, but I see a couple cold solder joints, a couple dirty solders, and one pair of soldered points that are a bit too close for comfort – fortunately they didn’t short out.

Solder side of my finished Velleman MK102 Flashing LEDs kit.
Solder side of my finished Velleman MK102 Flashing LEDs kit.

Not bad for a first effort, and on par with the handiwork on many cheap electronic gizmos you might buy. Next I’m planning to solder one of those little Flashing LED Christmas Trees, which has many more components. Then I think I’ll be ready to have a go at one of the Arduino board kits!