For the past couple years, Deanna Schmalz has designed a simple circuit board which we then use to teach learn to solder classes. We make enough boards and buy enough parts to teach all of the 4th graders at Glen Lake Elementary School in Minnetonka Minnesota, USA how to solder.
This site contains all of the information related to this year's Learn To Solder board. If you want to learn more about how to solder, if you want to know what you need to purchase so you can solder at home, or if you want to make more of these boards for yourself or your organization, this site has everything you'll need.
If you want to reach Brian Schmalz (brian@schmalzaus.com) or Deanna (deanna@schmalzhaus.com) to ask us any questions, please do so.
All text files and designs on this site are Open Source. You are free to use these files and do whatever you wish with them.
- Qty 1 Circuit Board - with pre-programmed PIC12F1572 CPU soldered on
- Qty 2 Switches
- Qty 2 Switch caps (various colors)
- Qty 2 Red LEDs
- Qty 2 Green LEDs
- Qty 2 Yellow LEDs
- Qty 2 Blue LEDs
- Qty 1 CR2032 Battery Holder
- Qty 1 CR2032 Battery
- Qty 2 random value through hole resistors (for Octopus eyebrows)
To solder electronic kits together, you will need (at a minimum)
We do not recommend buying a soldering iron unless it is 'temperature controlled'. This means you get to set the tip temperature with a knob or buttons, and the iron will only heat up as much as it needs to in order to maintain that temperature. Using a non-temp controlled iron has, in our experience, led to lots of frustration and failed kits.
This is the iron we recommend, as we've had great experience with it and it is very inexpensive : [http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/_19240__Soldering_Station_with_Adjustable_Heat_Range_US_Warehouse.html]
You can also by this same type of iron from many other places, including Amazon and Ebay, but the price tends to be a bit higher. Some of the companies listed below under Other Soldering Kits also sell tools like irons.
For beginners, we strongly recommend using leaded solder (rather than lead-free). The safety risk is very minimal (just be sure to wash your hands with soap when you are done) and it is far, far easier to get good soldered joints with leaded solder when you're just starting to learn soldering. You can buy leaded electronic solder at many on-line stores like SparkFun [https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9161] or Adafruit [https://www.adafruit.com/products/1886]. Make sure to buy 60/40 or 63/37 (those numbers represent the ratio of tin to lead in the solder) electronic solder - there are other solders out there (like silver solder for jewelry for example) that won't work for electronics.
When you buy your iron, buy a bras sponge if the iron doesn't already come with it. These are much better than the watter sponge that comes with the iron for cleaning the tip of the soldering iron.
All of the companies listed below sell small wire cutters, or you can get them locally at hardware stores too. The best kind is something that will allow you to cut off wires flush with the board - sometimes called 'flush cutters'. For example [https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11952] or [https://www.adafruit.com/products/152]
There are lots of other tools you can get to help you while solder. Third-hands can be very useful. Needle nose pliers, solder suckers, magnifying glasses, solder wick, wire strippers, etc.
There are only a couple steps to assembling this kit, as it is very simple. If you have done soldering before, you can just walk through this overview of the steps to complete your kit. If you want to learn more about how to do the actual soldering of a joint, the following websites and resources will give you plenty of background materials and explanations:
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-solder---through-hole-soldering
http://www.howtogeek.com/63630/how-to-use-a-soldering-iron-a-beginners-guide/
https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pdf/adafruit-guide-excellent-soldering.pdf
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Solder the eight LEDs. Follow the color guide on the circuit board. Long lead (wire) goes into square hole. You sometimes have to wiggle the LEDs a bit to get them to press all the way flat down on the top side of the board due to a thick spot on the LED leads. Bend the leads apart on the back side to keep the LEDs in place as you solder the LED wires on the back side of the board. Clip the excess leads on the back of the board once soldered.
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Insert the two switches into the board. Make sure all parts go into the board from the top side (with the thick white lines) to the back side. The switches snap down into the board - you sometimes have to press them in hard to get them to snap. But be careful - sometimes the pins come somewhat bent and pressing them down hard will bend them further if all four are not in the holes as you press down. Solder the four pins of each switch on the back side of the board. Snap the two switch caps down on the switches.
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Insert the battery holder to the front of the board, being careful to align the outline of the battery hold to the white outline on the top of the board (there is a square tab on the battery holder than needs to match up to the square tab part of the outline). While holding the battery holder into the board, flip it over and solder both pins.
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Insert the two eyebrow resistors. They are not part of the circut but are just for looks. Bend each lead of the reisstor so that the leads go through the board and the resistor sits flush on the board. Solder the leads on the back side of the board and clip excess lead length.
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Insert the battery into the holder, flat shiny + side up. Press the buttons to see your LEDs light. If you hold down a button, the octopus will display a pattern.
There are SO MANY kits available today, it's impossible to list all of them, or even the good ones. If you do a Google search for "electronic soldering kit" you will find lots of them out there. Some are easier than others, and some come with great instructions (and some don't).
We buy a lot of high quality soldering kits from the following on-line companies:
Evil Mad Scientist [http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/]
- Their Boldport Buggy is excellent [http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/]
- The Flickery Flame is a great beginner kit [http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/793]
Spark Fun Electronics [https://www.sparkfun.com/]
- They have a whole catagory of 'kits', some of which are soldering kits [https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/157]
- The SparkFun Simon Says - Through-Hole kit is really fun [https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10547]
Adafruit [https://www.adafruit.com/]
- The Drawdio is quite fun [https://www.adafruit.com/categories/28]
- Their Minty Boost is actually quite useful [https://www.adafruit.com/products/14]
SeeedStudio [http://www.seeedstudio.com/]
- Their 4-Soldering Zoo Kit looks super cute [https://www.seeedstudio.com/item_detail.html?p_id=1950]