recommendations for electronic soldering kit
December 1, 2015 11:18 AM   Subscribe

I enjoy building electronic kits, and am looking for a new one to work on. Ideally, I would like a reasonably complicated and advanced kit that will be more than an evening or two of work. Any recommendations?
posted by fimbulvetr to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (7 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
My former employer sells a bunch of robot kits:
https://www.pololu.com/category/3/robot-kits-with-soldering
posted by Jacqueline at 11:38 AM on December 1, 2015


bottlehead have various tube amp kits. the instructions are very good. i was not so sold on the sound myself, but i think that is more that i unfashionably don't like "the tube sound" rather than any issue with their kits (they have a very good reputation).
posted by andrewcooke at 11:49 AM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


I recently built a CP/M computer. Took a couple of weeks. The one I built was a Zeta SBC V2, but there are similar models based on the N8VEM.
posted by scruss at 12:37 PM on December 1, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was going to recommend a Bottlehead kit, but it looks like it's already been said.
posted by Slinga at 4:24 PM on December 1, 2015


A few years ago, I built the Softrock RXTX SDR kit, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

It has a bit of surface-mount stuff, but nothing that's too hard to do with just a soldering pencil (which is all I had at the time). You also get to wind some of your own inductors, which I thought was pretty cool.

It's a surprisingly good performer. I have made transatlantic contacts with it using JT65A, and I have nothing special in terms of antenna or location.

If you aren't a ham, you can always build one of the related receive-only kits.

(de NF3H)
posted by sourcequench at 9:12 AM on December 2, 2015


Best answer: I received a Nixie tube clock kit for Christmas last year. All through-hole components, with only minor fiddling needed to get the tube leads soldered in. Makes a nice desk clock.

If you're into audio, JDS Labs sells kits and enclosures for the O2 headphone amp and the ODAC USB audio DAC. Fun little projects.
posted by gox3r at 3:59 PM on December 2, 2015


Response by poster: Thanks for the ideas. I decided to go with this transistor clock kit, as it looks like a truly epic build. Over 1200 components! I may try a Nixie tube clock next . . . those look fantastic.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:23 PM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


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