Preamble : prepare before acting
In order to assemble the kit you will need the following tools:
- soldering iron
- solder wire
- flat pliers
- cutting pliers
- a multimeter (voltmeter, ohm-meter, shorts)
Sort the components on a tray, and compare them to the parts-list. Make sure you’ve got the right amount of parts!
It’s a good idea to work on a clean table. Placing components on a tray allows you to pause your work and come back to it later if necessary.
The kitchen is the perfect place to find containers for components.
You will solder components from the shortest to the tallest.
Notice that some components are polarized and need to be inserted in a certain way (respective of their positive and negative leads) while others are not and can be installed in either orientation. Non-polarized components like jacks or potentiometers need to be inserted correctly to work as expected by the firmware (follow the footprint).
unpolarized : resistors, small capacitors, trimmers, potentiometers, encoder, jacks, switches. polarized : chemical capacitors, diodes, LEDs, ICs, DC barrel jack.
It’s now time to solder.