I got the kit, had it assembled and done in around 3 hours. It would have been faster but I took my time and took the photos for this instruction tutorial. Even still, the surface mount USB chip was definitely the most challenging part of the assembly. I would recommend that most just pay the extra $5 to get the vendor-added USB chip option along with the kit.
My plan for this controller is to use it to help me experiment with and create a rocket telemetry and ejection controller for my high powered rocket hobby.
The parts of the ZIFduino kit.
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The surface mount USB chip.
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Tinning the solder pads for the USB chip.
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Cleaning up the tinning.
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Testing for solder bridges & shorts.
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Two intentional shorts.
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Tinning the pins of the USB chip.
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Cleaning up a solder bridge on the pins of the USB chip.
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Checking USB chip's pin alignment.
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Sticking the chip in place.
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Tips for surface mount soldering.
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Final USB chip checks.
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Just pay the $5 and have them do the USB chip for you.
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Component stuffing...
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Clipping back leads.
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Soldering tip for larger components.
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Using custom LEDs.
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Everthing installed but the headers, ZIF socket and clock.
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All Done!
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Glamor Shot.
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Ready to test!
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VIDEO: Demo of compiling, uploading and running "blinky light" code.
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VIDEO: blink... blink... blink...
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