I used a large lighted magnifying glass while soldering and it helped quite a bit.
If you use blue painters tape to hold your parts in place be carefull and make sure that the tape is stuck to the part and the board on each side of the part. I used it to hold the opto isolators in place (or so I though) and there was a sag in the tape so when I flipped the board over and soldered them in place there was a nice wave effect in the postitioning of the optos.
I do fine pitch surface mount soldering at my work. Therefore we have 20x to 80x microscopes, you can see lots of things bad about a solder joint in one of those. I did look at my LOR boards under it, they didn't look pretty. But with the pins being so large they don't have to look pretty like .012" spaced small surface mount parts.
I built three LOR 16 ch. delux kits and 1 Ramsey fm25 transmitter kit this year. All worked fine on the first try. I'd never assembled an electronic kit before. Two things to help new guys with limited budgets and experience:
2) get a good pencil-type soldering-iron at Wal-Mart. only $9 and comes with 3 sizes of tips. Found it after buying 2 others at differnet places (D'OH!). Harbor Freight also sells a bigger, gun-type iron for the heavy-duty components like power terminal lugs and the fuse holders. I think it is $15.
Those two things will eliminate most of the aggrevation of building the kits and improve your results.
markm wrote: I built three LOR 16 ch. delux kits and 1 Ramsey fm25 transmitter kit this year. All worked fine on the first try. I'd never assembled an electronic kit before. Two things to help new guys with limited budgets and experience:
2) get a good pencil-type soldering-iron at Wal-Mart. only $9 and comes with 3 sizes of tips. Found it after buying 2 others at differnet places (D'OH!). Harbor Freight also sells a bigger, gun-type iron for the heavy-duty components like power terminal lugs and the fuse holders. I think it is $15.
Those two things will eliminate most of the aggrevation of building the kits and improve your results.
Well Said, The key to it all is Patience. Dont rush thru kits.
njamateur wrote: How long should it take a novice with some electronic kit building experience to build a 16 channel board kit?
Less then 3 hours... People have built the kit in less than an hour.
My first board took me 4-5 hours, since I wasn't sure about what I was doing and was afraid the board wouldn't work. I've had no PCB trouble-shooting experience and little knowledge of electronics. The last two boards took about 2 hours each. the LOR instruction manual is very good and the new blue boards are easier to assemble. My biggest problem: mounting the resister packs correctly (got one backwards). De-soldering an 8 pin pack is NOT FUN.
I have to say that the LOR kits are probably the BEST kits I have ever purchased as far as instructions and packaging go.
The boards are pretinned and masked. The instructions include RECENT pictures of the completed board. The instructions have a picture for locating the parts on each page. And generally, the kit is just easy.
Compare it to the Ramsey Fm100B kit- their pc board is not pretinned and mine was dirty and needed cleaning. The silkscreened part numbers were hard to read and some of the parts were difficult to know where they were to be located as there is NO PICTURE of the board with the parts like LOR usess.
The LOR board instructions are simply the best I have ever had. I've put together kits since the Heathkit days and even though the LOR board seems like it is a board designed for automated assembly, it is still great for hand soldering.
Again- what a great kit. I get a kick out of the assembly and enjoy it immensly.
My only gripe if any would be that I wish the kit (16 channel high power) was offered as a COMPLETE kit with enclosure, cords, and all.
markm wrote: snip...My biggest problem: mounting the resister packs correctly (got one backwards). De-soldering an 8 pin pack is NOT FUN.
I soldered R2 in backwards and caused the board to fail. This is a very good tip! I've noticed the instructions now have a highlight about getting the orientation right on the resistor networks. Please take your time and make sure you get the parts placed in the right direction. You'll be glad you did!
Well Said, The key to it all is Patience. Dont rush thru kits.
Mike
I must also say Patience, Patience, Patience and double-checking everything before you solder. I also built 3 kits and a Ramsey tranmitter. When I got to the third board, I was getting cocky and in a hurry. I have assembled several projects over the years and it is easy to get in a hurry or begin to think you can't make a mistake. It pays to double-check your parts placement before you solder. Just try unsoldering a whole line of power terminal strips because you placed them on the board upside down. It was a really foolish mistake that I could have avoided with just 2 seconds of double-checking.
Don't go back to work on your board when the kids are fighting and yelling. I had all the pieces lined up in order and trying to be so efficient at building the second board. The first board went so smooth. Anyway, the kids were what it seemed like trying to reenact a scene from ultimate fighting. I got up so separate them and when I got back I was so frustrated I put in 3 parts and soldered them in place. As soon as I did that I realized I had just soldered the microprocessors in place. I hate to tell anyone this but I am afraid that I may have fried them. To scared to even try the board. If board does work are there any ways of taking them off or should I just leave them alone.
Remember DO NOT SOLIDER WHEN KIDS ARE FIGHTING !!!!!
clee wrote: Don't go back to work on your board when the kids are fighting and yelling. I had all the pieces lined up in order and trying to be so efficient at building the second board. The first board went so smooth. Anyway, the kids were what it seemed like trying to reenact a scene from ultimate fighting. I got up so separate them and when I got back I was so frustrated I put in 3 parts and soldered them in place. As soon as I did that I realized I had just soldered the microprocessors in place. I hate to tell anyone this but I am afraid that I may have fried them. To scared to even try the board. If board does work are there any ways of taking them off or should I just leave them alone.
Remember DO NOT SOLIDER WHEN KIDS ARE FIGHTING !!!!!
As long as the chips are in correctly you should be okay. No harm in trying it.
