Gikfun 60 Seconds DIY Electronic Timer Soldering Practice Board Kit for Arduino 61 Red LED EK1904

This was a fun kit to refresh my soldering skills. The board was high quality and all the components were there. The instructions were straightforward, clear, and easy to follow, even though the author is not a native English speaker. I could not find the four triode tubes called for in the instructions, so I made do with the four NPN transistors included. I would suggest installing the ICs before the rest of the components. It was tricky trying to fit the leads in the small holes with the other parts in the way. I had one LED not light up. Since I destroyed it during replacement, don't know if I put it in backwards or it was defective. There were spare LEDs, which was nice! If the power supply socket is installed on the silkscreen side per the instructions, the ground is not connected to the B- power solder hole. I put a jumper between the two outside holes of the power supply socket which fixed the problem. I recommend this kit as a fun project. We will use it as a game timer / conversation piece. Take your time and make sure each solder joint is good!

Just got into soldering, this was a great place to start off. Easy to assemble, lots of fun to put together and see it come to life. The only issue I had was with the buttons, they don't work at all, and the instructions are not very well put together, I just soldered according to the pictures.

Great fun to put together (well, the 60 LEDs get a bit "old") and all parts as expected. The instructions do not seem to mention D61, a red LED that flashes when the PAUSE button is active. But here's something to watch out for. I tested it using a power brick. The timer seemed to work fine for about 30 seconds, then "go crazy" with the LEDs only dimly lit, and illuminating far more frequently than one per second. I thought I had messed up. Then, finally realized, the power brick was putting itself to sleep after those 30 seconds. (The current draw of the timer is so small the brick shuts off, thinking nothing is connected.) So if your circuit works, then stops working properly after 30 seconds or so, and you are using a power brick, you may be having this same scenario. You would need to put a load on the brick to keep it awake, or use a device that pulses a load every 25 seconds or so, to force it to stay on.

The instructions were clear and concise with pictures showing layout of all components and a detailed parts list that even had what the actual components were labeled as (what is printed on the component) - the board was also well labeled. I bought this kit to brush up on my soldering skills as it has been several years since building anything. I overheated 1 led soldering (or maybe had it in backwards) and destroyed it taking it out, but the kit came with 4 or 5 extras so all good - as a bonus it even works! This was a fun kit to put together.

First this kit was easy to build. Clear instructions, and parts are labeled on PCB. Once assembled, I plugged it into a power bank to run it. It would cut out at 20 seconds. I looked over all my joints and ensured things were correct. I started a return, then read the comments here, someone pointed out that a power brick will shut off if not enough power is being drawn. So I tried a regular usb plug in and it worked perfectly. So canceled my return. The docs show a green LED for the pause indicator, but there is no green in the kit (I had plenty of my own so added the green one). They include extra LEDs incase some are bad or don't glow enough. I would buy this one again.

Pretty bad instructions and poor quality parts. A beginner would struggle to build this easily.

I don’t get it. LEDs are the last to install but the only way to know if you failed or not. The only test to know if u messed up or not. Resistors, capacitors, diodes, etc are all first in the instructions before you move on to the more non-essential components. No additional parts are sent in case u mess up so order a new kit if you do. Instructions are last luster and require ur own research! Instructions provided do not adhere to a new learner what so ever and inquire independent research for a “learners kit” but not resources included. Order multiple kits so u can practice. I only got by because my boss knows soldering but even then I ruined my first kit because I messed up one piece and no extras of anything were included. A $10 soldering kit has a suction kit but one extra piece for each step is not necessary? How do I learn without messing up? This is basically a “test yourself kit without messing up.” I’m not at that point which is why I picked up such a kit, now I’m out money because the kit doesn’t inform u precisely.

This board has a ton of good soldering practice, and the functionality is something that is very easy to test and check your work. The instructions were clear, and overall as easy as a soldering project with 100 pieces can be to put together. It comes with a USB cord to power it, which is very helpful for actually putting it to use and testing it. Overall, if I were to want a board to put together just to practice through-hole soldering, this is the best pick.