IS Soldering Project Clock, Icstation 6-Bit Digital Clock Soldering Kit DIY Soldering Practice for School Science Projects Student STEM Learning Teaching

I got this so that my 8-year-old could learn to solder and learn the value in a job well done. He did a great job, and no burned fingers! I'm a happy daddy! He uses the clock for many things, and has really liked finding new things to do with it.The kit arrived with the parts in helpful order. The transistors and voltage regulator look the same, but the regulator is stuck into a foam block, separated, so it's easy to find. The assembly was easy. All of the solder masks are good, the components are high quality, and the hole spacing is wide, so solder bridged for beginners are easy to deal with.From an electronics point of view, the 7805 in a TO-92 package is a little under-spec'd. It gets very warm at 12V. Not dangerously warm, but pretty warm. The kit draws about 30mA, so at 12V, that regulator is generating some heat. 9V supply is very comfortable, but don't plan on running this kit from a 9V battery for a long time. It draws enough power that the battery won't last a day. A wall power adapter is perfect.The clock is accurate enough to use as a real clock. I measured less than 1 second per day of drift. I've paid much more for clocks that kept worse time than this! The 6-function ability is nice. The alarm is LOUD! It's great! It has a standard alarm function, as well as a countdown timer alarm. It can function as a stopwatch with 1/100 second precision. Setting it is easy and the instructions are good. They even point you to where you can get more detailed instructions via a QR code printed right on them.This is a 24-hour clock. You cannot set it to a 12-hour AM/PM display. Keep that in mind. Since I only use 24-hour clocks, this is not a big deal for me.I've already recommended this kit to co-workers who like building things.

I like small projects and for the price this is a small fun one. Figured I'd 3D print an enclosure for it at some point. I give it 5 stars but with just a couple issues.The first kit that was sent to me looked good aside from having 2x10uf capacitors instead of 1x10uf and 1x100uf. I brought this up with the seller and they sent me a replacement immediately. In the interim I took a closer look at the circuit and it appeared that the missing cap was to filter the power supply. I soldered it in and the clock works fine. The second kit came in and surprising the same issue happened, a duplicate and a missing cap. Seller was understanding and told me to keep both kits.Another issue was the directions, they could use some clarification if the person putting the kit together is a beginner. A description of resistor color codes would be helpful. Other than that, the kit went together in about a half an hour and right up.I didn't like the LED colons so I removed them. The instructions weren't great but it wasn't hard to figure out what the functions did.I'd recommend this kit, it was enjoyable and will be interesting to build something around it.Note:I have to change my review. While writing this the clock started to malfunction. One of the segments started to fail and the clock is slow. I'm losing 1 second for every 5 minutes while using the stopwatch. Less so when using the clock function. The oscillator probably isn't great.It's fun to put together but isn't really worth using for any serious project.I'll probably mess around with these kits some more but I'm unsure if I'll use them in a project yet.Update: the seller has updated the directions to make them clearer for the novice. I figure that's worth an additional star on the review.

I got this kit considering it as a gift for my grandson, for when he is ready to learn about soldering, and I am reviewing from the perspective of an absolute beginner.The product's visual functionality (and video) is interesting enough to motivate, say a 10 year old, to complete the project so they can tinker with it.The board is nicely laid out and well labeled. Some of the labels are a bit hard to read for my eyes, but the photo in the manual is very clear and can be zoomed large enough to make everything readable. The photo has the added benefit of serving as a nice assembly guide, and all of the silkscreen labels are visible on it except the labels on R9 through R13. There is plenty of spacing to help avoid the risk of novice solder bridges. The only tight spacing is between R9 .. R13 and U1, and it turns out that they are connected by the circuit board so a solder bridge would not be a problem in that case.I recommend adding a beginner section to the user manual with links to a soldering tutorial, resistor color charts, LEDs and capacitor polarity guides, button switch orientation guides, and a AT89C2051 datasheet. These are all readily available online, but a beginner might not think to look for them. The manual does not give any step by step instructions, but they are probably not needed. Between the well labeled board and the list of components in the manual, everything is pretty obvious.The assembly went very smoothly and it worked perfectly the first time. All in all, a very good experience. I would not hesitate to get one for my grandson when he is ready.

Anyone can go down to the local electronics store or online and purchase each of these components separately. I am in class and was drawn to the product being packaged as a kit with everything I would need for the project, included. All parts were present and accounted for. Instructions are terrible. Admittedly I did not scan the QC code for more details but I felt the instructions should have been more inclusive as the product is targetting the "Beginner". For more advanced electronics makers, this kit is probably perfect. The layout of the PCB was a bit misleading and almost conflicted with the instructions when it came time to wire up. Also, components were sturdy except be wary of twisting the transisters much at all, as their terminals will snap right off. And I mean it withstands, maybe, a full twist - twist-and-a-half.