Good kit, it could use a tweak or two
For Bee Merry Christmas Ornament
This was my first kit working with such fine SMD parts and also my first kit attaching LEDs upside down! It's an interesting technique but a little challenging
The instructions should include notes about testing the circuit before soldering in the battery holder. Since fixing anything requires removing the battery holder, it's best to find any misplaced parts before needing to unsolder it.
I made some mistakes and ended up reversing two of the LEDs I'd installed, One I was able to correct, but the other ended up having the pad on the LED delaminate, so I wasn't able to reconnect it effectively. I wish the kit had included a spare LED or two to allow for recovery from mistakes like this.
The effects are very nice shining through the PCB and even with one wing out, it will still look good on my holiday shelf.
Response from snurkle engineering | Dec. 9, 2019
I'm sorry that it was confusing, I'll update the instructions to be more clear. Did you follow the build instructions at https://github.com/hamster/bee-merry/ ? The paper insert gives an overview but perhaps is not as clear.
As for the extra parts, I usually include a few extras but due to an unexpected number of orders I was running low. I'd be happy to send you some extra LEDs if you would like to message me your address.
Thanks for the review!
