Fun & Easy Soldering Kit for Beginners: 2 Sets of Christmas Decoration Projects

This was my first soldering project ever attempted. The kit came with everything and the instructions were clear. Ended up buying four in total and gave them out as christmas gifts. Super neat project!

Fun project! Needed to practice with soldering before moving on to bigger more expensive projects. I plan to build more as gifts later this year. Took maybe an hour to build. As other reviews have stated, the capacitor, microcontroller, and LEDs need to be installed in a certain orientation. If the chip is oriented incorrectly the whole circuit does not work. Position the capacitor or LEDs with an incorrect +/- position they will not work. Be mindful when soldering where the battery holders are installed. You want the joints flush with the board, do the best you can, otherwise clearance between the board and battery holder becomes an issue. Resistors do not have polarity however for an improved attention to detail set them in the same direction. Pro: Simple circuitry. PCB is well made with clear component locations. Documentation was good enough to work through the build. Con: Power hungry. After 5-6 hours the LEDs were losing intensity. Plus, the flashing sequence becomes a bit lazy over time. Turn off the circuit for 15-20 minutes then turn it back on resolves the issue. Like anything else battery powered, as the batteries drain dim light and slower flashing frequency becomes more pronounced. I tried capturing the effects on camera. It’s more obvious in person.

The kit is packaged very nicely in a thick clear plastic box. Beware: no batteries included (2 CR2032 needed). Extra resistors and LEDs are included, which is important for a beginner oriented kit. The LEDs are very bright and the components I received looked to be top-shelf quality (Nichicon capacitors and a REAL TI NE555N IC). Instructions are decent and include good pictures. I didn't notice any obvious Engrish (no Google Translate), but I wasn't looking too hard as I only glanced at the instructions. Battery life is a few days before one of the colors of LED stops lighting up. If you intend to give a completed kit as a gift, the included box is not deep enough to fit the completed ornament as it is too tall with the battery sockets installed. If you're crafty, I would replace the included ribbon and chain with your own supplies, an ornament hook is nicer and the ribbon is folded up in the package. I suppose you could try flattening it with an iron on the lowest setting (ribbon is made of synthetic material).

Looked great when finished building this. The light-emitting diodes are shown in rainbow displays. Good project to practice soldering. One downside. The complete color show takes a lot of battery power. After a few hours, the chips shut down to just red flashing led's.

I really enjoyed this kit. In fact, I ordered three of them! They are super easy to put together. There is just one thing to know - the silk screened parts images and the printed manual disagreed with each other as to the direction to mount the LEDs. LEDs are polarized, so it is vital to mount them correctly. I ignored the printed instructions and went with what was printed on the PCB. Doing so made them work perfectly the first time, and every time since. The seller has since contacted me and told me that they have corrected the issue. Even so, the kit is great fun, and easy - even for a beginner like me. I did make one change to how it goes together, though. There is no on/off switch or button. So I bought one and wired it into series with one of the batteries. This gives me the option to turn the lights on and off without having to remove the batteries. See the pictures for the modification I made. You can see where the left battery was supposed to be by the lines printed on the PCB. I just cocked it a bit sideways and wired a switch in one of the holes for the battery holder, then connected the battery holder and the switch with an extra length of wire. The wire you can see is just an off-cut from one of the LEDs. It works perfectly. All in all, I highly recommend these kits.

Package contained all parts. User will need to supply four (2x each) 2032 watch batteries. Be sure to install them correctly.

Kids loved it

Great gift for the tech in your family.

This was so much better than i expected. The end ornaments look great, and my kids were so proud. *** without an experienced adult this would have been way too difficult ***

部品が不足して作れませんでした。 電池ケースが1つありません。 送ってほしいです。 完成出来ないものを 買ってしまい、後悔してます。 送ってください〜。。 電池ケースがないと 作れませんー。 その後アマゾンに問い合わせし、 お店（海外）に連絡がいき、 付属の部品を送ってもらいました。 助かりました。 送って頂いただけでも、誠意ある対応だと感謝してます。 が、クリスマスツリーオーナメントのために購入しました。間に合わなかったので残念です。

beau cadeau a faire avec les enfant

Though there are no instructions, the kit is quite easy to assemble. I soldered both concurrently within about an hour. The blinking red/green effect isn't unpleasant (of course, that's a matter of opinion). It's a great geek tree ornament.

This is an easy to assemble and solder. Great for beginners.