Busy hands | Disquiet mind

I'm not of an Alpine culture, I didn't know what a Krampus was, but I mean look at how cool this Merry Krampus surface-mount soldering kit looks! I wanted it. (It's also available on Tindie, but the Challenge version seems permanently sold out.) I found and ordered it last year, but it arrived in January, so I put it in a drawer until recently. I got the Challenge version, because a little challenge in your life can be good for you.

Slight hitch being, I didn't have any surface-mount soldering tools. So I had at the kit with my regular soldering tools. The instructions are thorough, and it even comes with a programmer that you need to assemble. But when I got to the point where I could program the board it just wasn't working. The LEDs at the eyes would blink, but then the Arduino IDE would complain that it couldn't communicate with the board. I emailed the creators, and was surprised when they replied, with even more detailed info to help me through the process! Seriously, they are lovely people.

I examined the circuit diagrams, figured out which pins on the board were which on the diagrams. I multi-metred my way through all the connections. It all seemed good. The next step was removing the transistors. I did not fancy that with my standard soldering iron, so I ordered a SMD Repair station (a.k.a. a very hot air gun). Before trying to remove the components I hit every single solder joint with the hot air. I couldn't see anything happening, but the plastic parts of the switches are very toasted, so stuff was happening. Then I tried programming the board, and it worked first time! My guess is I had made connections (multi-metre said so) but that they weren't good enough. Reflowing the solder must have helped strengthen the connections. After that you can add decorations and ways to attach the board to things/you. (There is also the challenge of changing the programming, but I might save that for next year.)

( Pictures )

Finished, and programmed board, all lit up
Photo by chebe

Of course, if you don't enjoy this kind of challenge you could buy the presoldered version, or even the solderless version, which is new this year. But as frustrating as it was doing this kit without the proper tools, it really does feel like an achievement to have it working!