Different mindsets - assembling a kit versus building electronics from scratch - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: vk3yedotcom
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2017, 12:39:14 pm
content: (or what a crusty kit can tell you about yourself)It was only when I started putting together a very cheap and nasty kit that I realised that (at least for me) one's mind works differently when assembling a kit vs building something from scratch.The kit came with sticky drilling templates that you stuck on the box. You'd think that if you followed the templates all would be fine. But no. The spigot of the actual rotary switch supplied was a different distance from the main hole than that shown on the template. As a result it needed to be redrilled.Later on there was a need to mount a socket. Again I followed the drilling template. What the instructions didn't say was that the template had to be on the side of the box a certain way. I found out the hard way - when I mounted the socket it fouled a variable capacitor.There were other issues (due to sloppy kit design and poor instructions) that made things a less than perfect fit.I wouldn't have had any of these problems if building the project from scratch. That's because my mind would have been alert. I'd have been aware of where things fitted. I wouldn't have trusted templates that turned out to be wrong. Most of all I wouldn't have had the expectation that 'she'll be right' (as it's a kit) and let my guard down.The lesson is that a shonky kit can take longer than building something from scratch. You are also more likely to make mistakes as the mentality is different. Another lesson to would-be kit manufacturers is that the sum should be greater than the parts, and there should be care that all the supplied parts fit together as per instructions.(video of what may be the world's worst currently-available radio equipment kit)

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2017, 01:05:06 pm
content: Been there...not as bad as you though.My feeling here is that the kit designer is an amateur guy who pieced something together with parts from his from his junkbox.Then when his entrepreneurial spirit exceeded its knowledge, decided to sell an improperly validated and debugged kit.Can you leave feedback?

author: vk3yedotcom
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2017, 08:13:26 pm
content: Quote from: schmitt trigger on September 18, 2017, 01:05:06 pmThanks! Luckily there's plenty of blogs/videos showing how other constructors fared and their difficulties - should have looked at them first. In any event I didn't even buy this kit - it was sent to me by a viewer who ordered too many. He though it would make a good video. He wan't wrong.Anyway I eventually got it working, and as I have many similar units, am making it a competition. Also I can't be too harsh since it's reasonable value for money for parts.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2017, 03:05:54 am
content: I enjoy building kits, but sadly, nearly all kits are pretty much devoid of any educational value, other than gaining assembly/soldering experience. They almost never have proper theory of operation descriptions, or anything else beyond basic assembly instructions and a schematic. No troubleshooting, either, which is itself a valuable skill to learn.I wish Heathkit still existed. It was already in its death throes when I was just beginning with electronics as a kid. I don't think they had many meaningful kits towards the end.

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2017, 03:16:05 am
content: You people need to stop buying crappy kits from China and that would solve all of your problems. However, beware as there are still garbage kits from reputable companies *cough* Ramsey *cough*...

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2017, 03:33:16 am
content: Quote from: Cyberdragon on September 19, 2017, 03:16:05 amQuality kits such as...?Around these parts, all you find is Velleman, whose instructions are scarcely better than the Chinese kits.ELV has a handful of nice kits, with nice documentation, but it's such a small selection of things, and all the complex ones are MCU-controlled, but they don't provide you the source code.

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2017, 05:00:42 am
content: WOW, even the garbage kits from Ramsey come with technical data and theory, albeit even if some of there kits resemble Magyver more than a kit. There's so much out there, just get your head out of the Ebay/AliExpress gutter and go searching. Not sure how much is available locally in certain countries, but if there are no import restrictions, you should find stuff online.http://www.electronickitsbychaneyelectronics.comhttp://www.owirobot.comhttp://www.jameco.com/Jameco/content/electronic-kits.html(probably alot of crap here, but maybe some gems)http://www.elenco.com(these are mostly project based part kits)https://www.canakit.com/electronic-kits(not sure about their manuals though)

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2017, 05:48:39 am
content: Quote from: Cyberdragon on September 19, 2017, 05:00:42 amWow, pot calling the kettle black??? You use insulting, condescending wording and then the list of kits you show is that kind of crap? I want to build useful devices, not bare-board color organs and whatnot.Again, look at the kind of stuff Heathkit used to do. And ELV's test gear kits (lab PSUs, function gen, etc). I did my fucking homework, otherwise I couldn't have listed the deficiencies!!Seriously dude, you need to lay off with the snark. Maybe you thought you were being funny, but actually you were just rude.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 19, 2017, 10:58:43 am
content: Yuk, that was pretty horrible, not so much a kit as a bag of crap parts and a box, the holes in the PCB were epicThe last decent kit I built was an Elecraft K2, that thing was a work of art but you get what you pay for.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2017, 11:21:30 am
content: Quote from: vk3yedotcom on September 18, 2017, 12:39:14 pmOMG, that kit is bad...

author: vk3yedotcom
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2017, 12:19:39 pm
content: These kits are good - and Aussie designedhttp://www.ozqrp.com/Have also heard good things abouthttps://www.qrp-labs.com/

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 19, 2017, 06:14:51 pm
content: I'm old (and lucky!) enough to have been around when Heatkit actually made those excellent kits.The kits were really complete: components, board, wire, hardware, knobs and a silkscreened enclosure were included.Instructions were superb. The theory of operation, without going into deep details, was sufficient for you to understand and debug the circuit.I would say, that building those kits were one of the primary reasons for my early interest in electronics.