Build your own electronic dice with this beginners DIY soldering kit. Even better - it's solar powered so will never need batteries (ok - that's the same as normal dice, I know!).

When you shake and wake the unit, the seven LEDs in classic 'dice dots' formation will glow in sequence and slowly stop on one side of the dice. We have added a solar power twist to this beginners DIY electronics kit.

It’s solar powered, so will never need batteries! It uses an ultra-capacitor to store the solar energy, so will work even if left uncharged for a long time. But it will need to be left in sun to recharge and then you get in the region of 10-20 ‘rolls’ of the dice!

This is a relatively simple solar powered DIY electronics kit and is good for beginners learning to solder. It should take in the region of one to two hours to make.

Once made, it should look great on a bright bit of desk or a windowsill and will be ready for your board games!

I wanted to build a fun and interactive beginners soldering kit that was fully powered by solar power. I'd seen some charlieplexed LED circuits (on Tindie and Hackaday), but usually powered with a battery. I'm trying to do more kits powered by solar photovoltaics to learn a bit more about how they work and what they can do.

It’s designed as a fun and interactive way introduce solar photovoltaics as a power source for low power circuits.

It also has a programming port for the ATTiny85 microcontroller and full access to the code (on GITHUB) which can be programmed via the Arduino IDE, if that’s your thing (note: no programming is needed – the microcontrollers are already programmed!). Also full PCB design files (done in KiCAD) are available.

The LEDs are ‘charlieplexed’ which is an interesting way of running lots of LEDs from a small number of micro-controller pins. The unit automatically goes into sleep mode and is woken up by a vibration switch.

Assembly required. All the parts needed to make this fully working kit are supplied. This includes:

• Printed Circuit Board
• Solar photovoltaic panel
• Ultra-capacitor
• Programmed microcontroller
• LEDs, resistors, diode and capacitors to make it all work
• Rubber feet for the PCB