Please note that in the instructions it clearly says to start on one side of the board and work to the other side. I did not do this. I don't know why but I didn't! It IS a good idea to do it their way though!
Above is one of the instruction pages that came with my kit.
I circled the parts on the list on the right to remind myself which parts
they sent (some of them have different possible markings, you'll see when
you get the kit) and I put a check mark next to the parts to verify
that I had it. At the top of the page is the schematic. I used
a highlighter to mark off a part after I had installed it on the board
and made sure that it was in the right spot! For me this cut down
on the confusion. The picture at the bottom of the page
is a layout of where the parts should be installed.
Here is a nice shot of the board! Note that the trace side of the board is DOWN. Look at the back corners of the board and you will see the alligator clips of my "helping hand" holding the board for me! This is really cool since it keeps the board in the air and I don't have to be concerned about the parts coming back out because I'm laying it on the table. If you don't have one of these you could probably set up two stacks of hardback books on either side and place the board between them so that a corner on each side was pinched between two books. It's also perfectly possible to just hold the board with one hand and insert the parts with the other and use some books to hold the corner if you need both hands.
Look at the Electrolytic Capacitors. Those are the round barrel looking things. The two flat brown things on the left side of the board are also capacitors but they are not electrolytic. The BROWN ones can go in either direction but the electrolytic need to go in a certain direction! Note the black stripe on the electrolytic (barrel) capacitor furthest to the right. There is a "-" (or Minus Sign if you prefer) on the stripe to let you know that is the negative side terminal!
The Integrated Circuit (IC) between the 3 electrolytic Caps also has to go in a certain way. Note the slight indentation on the left side as well as the stripe and the number '1' on the left side of the chip. You can kind of figure that out by looking at their picture and the diagram but they don't bother to tell you how the pins are numbered! The numbers start on the bottom left at 1 and are 1234 left to right on the bottom. On the top starting from the RIGHT is where number 5 is so the chip is actually numbered like this:
| 8765 |
| 1234 |
Just remember that it is numbered, starting from the Bottom Left Corner, Counter Clockwise! This will cut down a lot of confusion when you are trying to figure out the schematic.
Here is another shot with 1 more part installed. Just a slightly different angle. The parts on the left side with the colored stripes are resistors. The little part in the middle of the picture (the yellow one) is another type of capacitor! (I wonder how many kinds they make, hehehe:)
You can see by looking at the Far Right electrolytic capacitor that I had trouble getting it in. There wasn't quite enough clearance room between the pinholes to install it and the IC Chip. ...so it sits at a slight angle. For some reason they don't give you much wire sticking out the bottom of those parts. Don't know why!
In this shot above everything is installed on the board except for the resistor that goes on the BACK of the board as shown on the diagram and the crystal! You'll notice in the top right hand of the board that I put in an inductor with the windings on the outside. I'm thinking that this might cause some problems later picking up outside signals but will give it a test first anyways :) I used this part as a replacement for one of the ones that came with the kit that I wasn't sure about.
This is just a similar shot with the one above except I backed out to get the 'helping hands' in the picture :)
This is just a close up shot of how I like to shape the wire on the parts with a pair of needle nose pliers. It sets the width equal to the space between the holes. I don't know wether or not the excess wire that is exposed affects anything or not though. I'll have to ask someone!
Here's a close up picture of 'that inductor' that I put in.
Yes, I did shape it kinda funny. I just wanted to try and get it
down low :)
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