Cant build Gertboard.

[RattyDAVE]

I have a Gertboard and and just realised that I am getting.

Is there a person there that can build one for me? (I have the kit.) And what is the going price?

Thank you.

[rickseiden]

I want a Gert board, but I'm not sure I'll be able to assemble it myself, either. I think that's half the reason I want one. To stretch and see if I can do it.

There are a couple of good videos out there, by Gert himself, showing how to do it. Apparently, if you've ever soldered before, you can do this. Have you given it a shot?

GOOD LUCK!

[RattyDAVE]

Its the Surface mount components that are the problem. I having problem seeing them let alone unpacking them.

[rickseiden]

Yea. If your vision is a problem, I can see where this would be difficult. I wear bifocals myself, and the little surface mounts will be tough, but I've practiced on an old video card that didn't work anymore, and I can see them well enough to do it.

Not that I'm offering to do it for you, as I'm not even sure I can do it for myself!

[jamesh]

I have reached the age where a desktop magnifier (all sorts available) is useful for loads of stuff....would certainly help here - even people with 20:20 use them for SM components.

[SN]

magnifying glass on a stand sorted it for me

this is what I'm using http://www.maplin.co.uk/helping-hands-w ... ifier-4017

[ChadP]

Ill assemble gertboards or anything that someone needs help putting together. Ive worked with electronics for years. I use a hakko soldering station.

[exartemarte]

I'm not going to say anyone could do this - if you've never soldered before then, in my opinion, this is not the place to start.

But, if you can solder normal through-hole components into a pcb then you can also solder up a Gertboard. That's where I was: I had never soldered smd components before and I thought that would be difficult verging on the impossible, but it wasn't. I followed Gert's advice and it worked. I used a combined lamp/magnifier, tweezers, fine solder (0.4mm) and a 25W Antex iron with a fine tip. The first smd took a while, and several attempts, but I soon got the hang of it. One piece of advice - only hold with the tweezers in the final second or so as you solder the component into position - there's a danger of the component pinging off out of the tweezers, never to be seen again.

[karl101]

I built my Gertboard yesterday. It was the first time I'd soldered SMD's, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, following Gert's advice from the videos.

Using the Gerboard as a feeble excuse to buy new things. I bought a soldering iron station that controls the temperature and has a fine tip: http://uk.farnell.com/tenma/21-10115-eu ... dp/2062627 as well as a magic solder tip cleaner http://uk.farnell.com/duratool/sh-1025/ ... dp/1467280

I also got an magnifier headband, this one is quite expensive: http://uk.farnell.com/edsyn/ma10/magnif ... /dp/353760 but this one is cheaper: http://uk.farnell.com/linear-tools/59-6 ... dp/2102054 it was really useful with the SMD's

Problems I encountered when soldering the SMD's: components sticking to the tweezers. Dropping the component onto the board and not being able to find it, and using a little too much solder.

Finally, here is my timelapse video, a Gertboard built in 60 Seconds:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kazzle101/8151557008

Karl.

[Grumpy Mike]

Ok here is my time time lapse
http://vimeo.com/52334414
Took me a bit longer, note the clock in the corner.

[RaTTuS]

what sort of headset do you use mike?

[Grumpy Mike]

what sort of headset do you use mike?

It is the sort with a light but I took that off, it is like the one in this link:-
http://www.sulit.com.ph/index.php/view+ ... ier-P1,180

I did get one at the last job from RS and that cost £45, I bought an identical one at the Harrogate model engineering show for £7.00 when I left. That was this type:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33177304@N03/6305319953/
It is a posed photo, looks natural enough but you could not actually work like that.