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Old 10-07-2008, 08:12 AM   #4 (permalink)
lyd
It smells funny in here.
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Southern Wisconsin
Posts: 63

GeeOh - '97 Geo Metro Base
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I got this kit yesterday, and started to build it last night.

Initial impressions were sort of meh. Complete contents as shipped was just a bunch of loose parts in a zip-lock sandwich baggie. No schematic, no assembly instructions, no nothing. Not the best presentation I've ever seen. On the other hand, the price for this compared to anything else that I've found out there with the same features is very low, so I'm not going to gripe too much. Just note that you probably shouldn't make this the very first electronics project you ever take on. The board is decent quality with nice, legible screening though, so I don't think a beginner will find it too difficult to puzzle out from the parts list on the website.

I forgot to take a pic when I first got it, but here's one shortly after I began assembly.



There are two SOIC surface mount chips on the backside of the board. Luckily, I have a good iron and a small tip for it. I still may have cooked the damn things. In retrospect, I should have let the chips cool down fully after soldering each pin, rather than go bang-bang-bang like I did. Just have to wait and see on that. I probably should have looked up the thermal tolerances in the data sheet for those chips before I tried to solder them, to determine how careful I needed to be with them. If anything is going to cause trouble for the inexperienced in this kit, it is these guys.

I'll post further pics and a report on functionality once I get time to finish up.

Last edited by lyd; 10-07-2008 at 08:37 AM..
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