Great instruction on schematic reading! They don't teach you this in any school I attended. Most students can't troubleshoot a piece of equipment using schematics, coming out of school, I believe. There are a lot of scam schools out here. Thanks Paul for posting this.
Thanks for the video. I wished I had seen this before doing my Starlight Water Kit. I heard you say, to put the anode in the square hole, which is non-conventional. If you Google proper orientation of LEDs on circuits you will find numerous locations that say the Cathode or shorter lead always goes in the Square Hole. But this Kit is apparently very non-conventional, you had better put the flat side of the LED which denotes the Cathode side in the round hole and or the long lead or Anode in the square hole. Read on if you want to know my nightmare with this kit. I also bought this kit, I looked at the diagrams on the one and only sheet of paper instructions and decided to put the anode in the square hole. I had installed 6 of the 8 rows of LEDs and got tired and quit for the day. Next day I decided to look up proper orientation of LEDs and found numerous explanations saying the Cathode always goes in the square hole and the anode in the round hole. I wanted to cry, because I had installed 57 of the 73 LEDs wrong. So I thought what the heck, this will give me practice de-soldering and see if I can keep from ruining the races on the board, while trying to de-solder and clean the holes. One whole day later, I had all of the LEDs out and the holes clean of solder and the now short LEDs leads, because I had cut them, clean of solder. I began re-installing the LEDs, the conventional way, with the Cathode in the square hole this time. Since the legs were now the same length, because I cut them after installing them the first time, it was hard to see the flat sides of these LEDs which would denote the cathode side, but turning them numerous times in my fingers and dropping them numerous time I thought I had them all correctly oriented. I completed the job and only two lights would flash. I took a close look at those two LEDs and decided I had installed them with the Anode in the square hole and the cathode in the round hole. It was really hard to see that flat side on some of these cheap LEDs! I took those two out and turned them around, but did not solder them since they fit really snug, with a little solder left on the leads and in the holes. Plugged in and no lights flashing. Pulled those two light out again and stuck back in with the Anode in the square hole and they flashed. None of the other LEDs did anything because I had installed all of them the conventional way. I then went back and looked at the One and Only terrible sheets of instructions and decided, they do indicate the positive side is on the left which when holding the board so you can read the writing on it would put the anode on the left and in the square hole. Just as I had initially started out doing. I tried hooking up the battery, but put the red wire to the ground and the black to the VCC and sure enough all LEDs came on except for the two that were installed non-conventional, confirming that all LEDs had good connections. But, they would not flash and the two I.C.s' got pretty hot. So disconnected right away. Did I try to take all 73 LEDs out again and re-install? Hell no! I just gave up on China’s non-conventional boards and terrible instructions. Maybe someday, if I feel like I need more practice de-soldering and cleaning solder out of the races, I will do this job one more time. NOT!
Great video Paul as always. I really like the idea of explaining what each component is for. I may understand this kit easily but I know there will be more down the road where I will learn stuff.
I must admit that I buy and build lots of different kits from China. The funny thing is, I am usually a little disappointed if they work first time as I really enjoy retracing the circuit and trying to find where I went wrong. Great video as always. Thank you so much and have fun, Joe
It always impresses me just how many different effects you can get out of the good 'ol 555 + 4017 combination. Such a fun combination of chips to play with.
Looked like the green LEDs 2nd from the outsides of the board weren't firing also? Looks like a nice easy kit to build. I definitely like this format for kit builds. It gives a little more info about the kit and how it works. Thanks for the video!
First, i really like this format of u explaining as you go. Nice kit. One thing that caught my eye as odd was the load (LEDS) was on the emitter side and not the collector side. This is not the preferred method when using NPN. Any idea why they did it this way?
Nice kit Paul, isn't it fun to solder kits ? I just ordered a cheap kit from china , its a small 18 W*2 audio amp DIY kit cant wait to get it !!! Thanks for the video
I just sat thru this entire kit build, brings back memories. Love to see people keeping new up and coming EEs interested!
Great instruction on schematic reading! They don't teach you this in any school I attended. Most students can't troubleshoot a piece of equipment using schematics, coming out of school, I believe. There are a lot of scam schools out here. Thanks Paul for posting this.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
I like this format a lot Paul. Thanks.
Thank you
Wonderful project, I like it.
Thanks
Thanks for the video. I wished I had seen this before doing my Starlight Water Kit.
I heard you say, to put the anode in the square hole, which is non-conventional. If you Google proper orientation of LEDs on circuits you will find numerous locations that say the Cathode or shorter lead always goes in the Square Hole.
But this Kit is apparently very non-conventional, you had better put the flat side of the LED which denotes the Cathode side in the round hole and or the long lead or Anode in the square hole.
Read on if you want to know my nightmare with this kit.
I also bought this kit, I looked at the diagrams on the one and only sheet of paper instructions and decided to put the anode in the square hole. I had installed 6 of the 8 rows of LEDs and got tired and quit for the day. Next day I decided to look up proper orientation of LEDs and found numerous explanations saying the Cathode always goes in the square hole and the anode in the round hole. I wanted to cry, because I had installed 57 of the 73 LEDs wrong. So I thought what the heck, this will give me practice de-soldering and see if I can keep from ruining the races on the board, while trying to de-solder and clean the holes.
One whole day later, I had all of the LEDs out and the holes clean of solder and the now short LEDs leads, because I had cut them, clean of solder.
I began re-installing the LEDs, the conventional way, with the Cathode in the square hole this time. Since the legs were now the same length, because I cut them after installing them the first time, it was hard to see the flat sides of these LEDs which would denote the cathode side, but turning them numerous times in my fingers and dropping them numerous time I thought I had them all correctly oriented.
I completed the job and only two lights would flash. I took a close look at those two LEDs and decided I had installed them with the Anode in the square hole and the cathode in the round hole. It was really hard to see that flat side on some of these cheap LEDs! I took those two out and turned them around, but did not solder them since they fit really snug, with a little solder left on the leads and in the holes. Plugged in and no lights flashing. Pulled those two light out again and stuck back in with the Anode in the square hole and they flashed. None of the other LEDs did anything because I had installed all of them the conventional way. I then went back and looked at the One and Only terrible sheets of instructions and decided, they do indicate the positive side is on the left which when holding the board so you can read the writing on it would put the anode on the left and in the square hole. Just as I had initially started out doing.
I tried hooking up the battery, but put the red wire to the ground and the black to the VCC and sure enough all LEDs came on except for the two that were installed non-conventional, confirming that all LEDs had good connections. But, they would not flash and the two I.C.s' got pretty hot. So disconnected right away.
Did I try to take all 73 LEDs out again and re-install? Hell no! I just gave up on China’s non-conventional boards and terrible instructions. Maybe someday, if I feel like I need more practice de-soldering and cleaning solder out of the races, I will do this job one more time. NOT!
Soldering practice is all.
Great video Paul as always. I really like the idea of explaining what each component is for. I may understand this kit easily but I know there will be more down the road where I will learn stuff.
I must admit that I buy and build lots of different kits from China. The funny thing is, I am usually a little disappointed if they work first time as I really enjoy retracing the circuit and trying to find where I went wrong.
Great video as always.
Thank you so much and have fun,
Joe
Thank you
@@learnelectronics No sir, thank you.
The 555 capacitor first mentioned is not the timing cap, but a decoupling cap on the internal 3 resistor divider
hi L...
coool nice pretty LED spread out starlight...
i have same LED starlight kit this video
555 everywere indeed :P The kits helps improving you're soldering skills for further DIY projects
It always impresses me just how many different effects you can get out of the good 'ol 555 + 4017 combination. Such a fun combination of chips to play with.
Looked like the green LEDs 2nd from the outsides of the board weren't firing also? Looks like a nice easy kit to build. I definitely like this format for kit builds. It gives a little more info about the kit and how it works. Thanks for the video!
I have to dig in further into this kit, but I was running out of time.
Glad it wasn't just my eyes. What with the new eye and all! 😁
Great stuff, keep it coming.
hi L...
'
i put color LED on the kit and so beautifully...
already in my channel video
First, i really like this format of u explaining as you go. Nice kit. One thing that caught my eye as odd was the load (LEDS) was on the emitter side and not the collector side. This is not the preferred method when using NPN. Any idea why they did it this way?
High side/low side they certainly broke with convention here but it works.
Looks (to me) like R6 and R21 should have been swapped? Either way nice video! Keep up the good work!
Paul,What you think about the TI Power Management Lab Kits
TI-PMLK ( TPS54160 and LM3475)
I'll have a look
Thats a great kit
Nice kit Paul, isn't it fun to solder kits ?
I just ordered a cheap kit from china , its a small 18 W*2 audio amp DIY kit
cant wait to get it !!!
Thanks for the video
Merci 👍🇫🇷