Gikfun DIY SMD SMT Welding Practice Soldering Skill Training Board Ek7028

This little board is laid out in a way that makes surface‑mount practice feel approachable, even if you’re just getting comfortable with smaller components. The instructions are easy to follow, the pads take solder well, and the mix of part sizes gives you a nice progression as you work through it. It’s a quick, low‑stress project that helps build confidence with SMD techniques and offers a satisfying result when finished. A solid choice for sharpening fine‑detail soldering skills

The education value that you can get from this product for soldering and electronics is amazing, especially for such a cheap price. It really helped me understand how to micro-solder and how to get used to using a rework station. I got the whole thing to work perfectly and I'm very pleased with this product. My biggest criticism is that the instructions are a bit unclear and not really geared for beginners. Somebody who is buying this product is likely not just practicing how to solder these micro components, but also learning how to identify each one. I eventually figured everything out with very careful reading, but I do wish the included instructions clarified a lot of those things for beginners.

I would have rated 5 stars but there are a few things the seller did a poor job of explaining. 1. The first thing they didn't spell out very well is the fact that the 6 vertical columns of components (1206, 0805, 0805, 0603, 0603, 0402) on the left and right side of the board ARE FOR PRACTICE ONLY AND ARE NOT ACTUALLY FUNCTIONAL. If you screw them up or skip them entirely the device will still function so long as you get the rest of the components correct. 2. The second thing is that the user manual is inadequate by itself for identifying the components in the kit much less figuring out where they go. The manufacturer's website says they uploaded the user guide to the Amazon listing but that's misleading. THE NECESSARY KEY TO MAKING SENSE OF THE ENTIRE KIT IS THE 4TH IMAGE AT THE TOP OF THE AMAZON LISTING! (I also included it here in my review) All in all it's a good little practice kit for SMD soldering but probably not for beginners. If you read it carefully, the two page manual is easy enough to understand for having been written by someone who didn't speak English. One thing I particularly liked is that they start you out soldering the 6 columns of non-functional components first. And they start with the larger components first and move gradually to the tiny stuff. Then, only after you've had all that practice will they direct you to completing the functional parts. For under $9 it's a pretty good deal - as long as you recognize you will need the image from the Amazon listing.

Provides all parts needed to construct the kit, plus spares of the most fragile and losable parts. Includes instructions in English; however, they're somewhat cursory, neglecting to mention the needed power supply (9 volts, supply your own connector) and providing little detail as to which parts go where. (You can figure this out from the bill of materials, which does not provide component markings, but does indicate how many are needed and the size of the component. Some logic is required, as the capacitors are unmarked.) This isn't a beginner kit. However, if you already know how to use your soldering iron with through-hole components, you are familiar with electronics in general, and you want to learn about SMDs and practice soldering them, this is a very good kit for the experienced hobbyist. To succeed, you are going to need the proper tools, which obviously aren't included: A soldering iron with a very fine tip, appropriate solder (eutectic lead strongly recommended), a good set of very fine tweezers, and good magnification—preferably a stereo microscope. That's the price of entry for hand-soldering SMD components. The kit includes a number of resistors and capacitors in 1206, 0805, 0603, and 0402 sizes. The 0402 capacitors are about the size of deer tick nymphs—large grains of sand. You start by soldering rows of components, from the larger size on down, gaining skill and confidence as you go. You can then move on to using those techniques to build the light-flasher circuit in the center of the board, which uses a 555 timer and a 4017 decade counter. The center-circuit components include LEDs, transistors, and glass diodes. The reverse of the circuit board includes a handy reference, including SMD component and pad sizes, circuit trace widths, and rulers. I found this kit to be vastly superior to Elenco's SMD kit in terms of helping me master the techniques needed to hand-solder SMD components.

Although I think this could be cheaper I think it gets the job done for learning new skills or brushing up on old ones. I bought this to brush up on some soldering after some time leaving university doing electronics. I thought it was a good quality board. Easy enough to do with some patience. I used 0.6mm diameter solder with a thin tip iron and a pair of helping hands. I say easy enough to do I have bought 3 of these since the first two I messed up. Put the polarity of some components the wrong way round and second one put the battery the wrong way round... Best to check to be sure to save yourself money. Instructions arent as easy to follow as they could be but all works one you finished.

È buono ma potevano essere 5 stelle ma no si capisce gli smd da montare non sono spigati i valori e come montarli

I was very positively surprised by the quality of the included PCB. It's relatively thick, feels very solid, and has very good quality solder mask applied to it. The components themselves came in the usual stripes cut from reels. For most component types, few more were provided then needed, making things easier if one of the SMD components gets lost. The kit comes with a small printed manual, written in English language, which provides basic information on how to do surface-mount soldering, and has several illustrations explaining the steps needed to solder the components, how to identify the correct orientation of the included integrated circuits and diodes, and includes the schematic of the LED Blinker located in the middle of the PCB. The back side of the PCB has several rulers, in centimeters and in 1/10ths and 1/100ths of an inch, as well as examples of several popular PCB trace widths, and popular component footprints. As for the bad sides, there are few small points: The manual seems to be translated from Chinese. In general, grammar of the translation is very good, and manual is easy to understand, however few technical terms have been incorrectly translated: The manual always refers to the procedure as welding, instead of soldering, and it refers to the transistors as triodes. The direction of the SMD LEDs is not shown on the silkscreen, so it needs to be manually determined by following the traces on the board and using the included circuit schematic. Additionally, the measurement unit of 1/1000 of an inch is misspelled as mli instead of mil on the back side of the PCB. All in all, this is a great kit, but it does require some very basic knowledge of electronics.

I solder for over 50 years by now - now way less these days, but I felt for small repairs you need to work with SMD's, and so far I guess I was lucky. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and I can see my solder joints improve with every new component, and I can work out what works for me in placing and holding, etc. One issue with THIS kit I received, the 402 components are missing, annoying but I am not sure if I could freehand solder them anyway - but it would have been good to try. Had the kit for a few months before I spent time with it, so I did not complain to the vendor, who knows, they may have rectified it if I had. Update: when building the rest of the kit i found the 402 components in the other sealed bag.

Te dan un montón de cositas para soldar pero no te dicen que son ni están marcadas para que las coloques donde van