1) The other kit comes with a good soldering iron. Both kits have a spool of solder, but you'll have to buy a soldering iron if you get this kit.
2) This kit, when finished, gives you a board that blinks two alternating red lights. The other one is an alarm system that not only blinks the two LED lights, but also plays the sound of a European alarm when it's turned on.
Maybe it's just because I built this kit after the Elenco AmeriKit Learn to Solder Kit, but I was highly disappointed when I saw the very few amount of parts that came with this kit. That feeling was only reinforced when I put it together, turned it on, and was rewarded by...two blinking lights. The other kit was much more satisfying, and I would highly recommend that one if you need to learn how to solder.
I don't think anyone would need both kits to learn how to solder, either. One is sufficient to get you moving on to bigger and better projects, like robot kits.
EDIT 12/16/2011: The price on this kit has gone down since I purchased it, and is now competitively priced compared to the other kit I bought. If you already have a soldering iron, this kit would be a reasonable purchase, but for only three dollars more, I still recommend the other kit mentioned.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
This was a pretty fun little project and through doing it my soldering did improve a LOT. It was worth buying because of the learning aspect, but if you were to look at what you actually get in the way of parts, the price seems a bit steep.Best Deals for Elenco SP3B Practical Soldering Project Kit
This is an excellent resource for those wanting to learn to solder. The instructions are clear and concise and the kit provides lots of practice. It does help if you have a multimeter to check your work but this isn't rocket science so that isn't really necessary.Honest reviews on Elenco SP3B Practical Soldering Project Kit
this kit does a good job of introducing you to basic through-hole electronics components and introducing you to the nuances of soldering.the pamphlet that comes with it states you should have a 15-40 watt soldering iron. I purchased a 30 watt iron and burned the tracks on the first kit I bought. it should really advise you to purchase a 15 watt iron, or better yet -purchase a temperature controlled soldering station and set the temp to around 350 degrees F, perhaps more for lead free solder.
the solder that the kit comes with is lead free and extremely thick (perhaps 1mm) for such small through-hole work. it is much much easier to solder with ~0.3mm gauge solder. I recommend you purchase your solder separately.
all in all you're probably better off buying a prototyping board, some thin solder, and a good beginner electronics book. this kit attempts to do a lot of things and is only 'okay' at all of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment