Soldering Practice Kit, DIY SMD SMT Welding Practice Soldering Skill Training Board (Soldering-All)

I mostly soldered all of the boards by hand, which was great practice/learning. I did use solder paste and hot air for the 0402s - they are simply so small to handle. I did do a couple by hand and it is possible, but I also wanted to practice some with the solder pasted - worked well.Some tips, mostly on the large board:** Tape the qfps down on two sides (one piece of tape). I just cut some thin masking tape. Tape it down, solder the two sides, remove the tape, solder the rest.** The electrolytic capacitors - the leads are very small and they don't hardly extend on the solder pads - just barely. I tinned the pads first, then put down the caps, but it was iffy. When cleaning the board I popped one off and replaced it with a regular cap instead, with real leads.** The board requires 9V AC power to test and see if it works. I had a doorbell transformer set to 10V AC that I used, and that worked. You will need to locate an adapter, AC to AC to test it.** Use some extra flux if soldering by hand. I used flux-core leaded solder and also extra flux - it worked well.** Use a fine-tip solder iron, some fine tweezers, and good reading glasses. I had my iron set at 625F.** I used the tweezers to hold the component in place, and with a dab of solder on my tip, I tacked the component down on one side to hold it, then finished soldering - worked well.These are some challenging and satisfying boards to do. Whatever your skill level, after you finish these boards correctly, you will definitely have moved up a couple of notches in your soldering skills. I've done some through-hole projects and a couple of small smds prior to these. I saw the big board and wanted to tackle that - I'm glad I did. I would not suggest this project to a beginner. Get some easier through-hole projects first, a couple of easier smds, and then maybe try this - there are a lot of things that can go wrong and if one part is not done right, the board will not work... Enjoy and good luck.

The instructions were barely readable, I basically had to count the components and figure out what was what and where it went. Believe me when I tell you you're going to need a hot air station and solder paste for this, and if you're just breaking into this hobby it honestly might behoove you to buy two of these. The board quality is pretty low (but again, cheap demonstrator) so the risk of delamination for hot air is pretty high. The electrolytic capacitors, diodes, and crystal aren't fans of soldering irons, so you're going to need some paste, hot air, and some patience. I borked the first one (could be a multitude of reasons, really) so I'm re-buying it just to say I slayed the dragon.

I've been doing all my soldering with a bulky pencil type iron I bought at Radio Shack 30 years ago. I treated myself to a hot air rework station during last year's Amazon Day sale. I'd never done any SMD work with hot air, so I bought these to gain some skills. It took me a hot minute (pun intended) to figure out the Engrish instructions that came with the kits. Once I got it figured out, though, it was a lot of fun assembling the boards. They were even thoughtful enough to include extras of the very small components. I definitely fat fingered some of the packages and sent tiny parts into orbit, never to be seen again. Everything lit up beautifully when I finished and applied power. I'm thinking about adding the smallest as a project for the engineering classes I teach at the local university. I was already a skilled at soldering, but I was better by the time I finished.

These are great practice kits for those who want to learn SMD soldering. Before you start on these kits, watch as many instructional youtube videos as you can. Get the right tools. Of course, there are a number of different opinions on how best to do SMD soldering and with these kits you have plenty of components to experiment with. Always test your work, if possible. It is unfortunate that on ICs, it is difficult to know if you have succeeded.

Great to hand off to my undergraduate students before assembling a full and more important board.