LED Digital Hourglass DIY soldering beginner kit

The Digital Hourglass is still considered to be a soldering beginner kit, but already a little more challenging than just a blinking NE555 LED.

The Digital Hourglass is a DIY soldering built on two circuit boards. One carries the LEDs, the other one carries the electronics. Soldering is as easy as it is with all our kits, but we will give some hints to make it a little less challenging for beginners:

• The LEDs have a notch on one side - make sure it matches the print on the PCB.
• Start soldering only one row of LEDs, or maybe two, then check if they all sit straight and upright before you keep assembling the next row(s).
• When assembling the electronics PCB, start with the resistors. Watch out for the one position where the 1M resistor goes; all others are the same value.
• When bending the leads for the tilt switch, be super careful not to break them, and bend them as close as possible to the component's body to avoid a short with the nearby IC pins.
• The direction of the ICs is crucial; make sure you get them right. The same applies to the electrolytic capacitor. Accidentally switched polarity can let the whole thing blow up.
• Assemble the headers by attaching only 1 pin per strip first, then make sure they are straight, before soldering all other pins. Start with the electronic PCB and solder the female headers to it. Then break the male header strip into the 4 required pieces and insert them into the female headers. Now set the LED PCB on top and solder the pins.

Watch out for the markings (A) and (B) on the bottom of both Digital Hourglass PCBs. Both (A) and (B) markings must line up (be on the bottom of the module).

Now you can connect a power supply between 3.5 and 5V (3 standard batteries, a USB charger or a lithium cell).

The shots we took are pretty clear and show the position of all components very well. The included Chinese manual is absolutely not needed to assemble this kit successfully.

Note: The pictures show a module with blue LEDs, but the color of the LEDs in the kit is randomly picked.