As I said, a very nice kit (high quality PCB, well packed etc). It took me about five/six hours to build and was pretty straight forward. A bit tricky for a beginner. The only fiddely bits were the transisters which had very close pads, I would lay them out with a little more space (even if the builder has to spread the legs a little they would still be easier to solder). I also like the chunky tact switches.

I've had a few hours play with the kit and it's a very good replica of the KIM-1. The missing second RIOT chip means that a lot of the vintage hardware projects can't be easily replicated. I would suggest that a little expander kit would be a good idea for this. I might try and find a chip online and build it fo myself (the extender bus is good for this).

I keyed in a few programs and all worked as expected. I also used the serial interface (using Tera Term on my PC) and all worked well. I found original manuals, articles etc. online very easily and there is lots of interesting stuff if you want to explore a very interesting point in micro-computer history. I myself started in the business around 1979/1980 but all my early experiences were with Z80 based computers (Nascom 2 & CP/M) so I was interested in digging into an early 6502 board.

Just a few notes on my review/scores.

Product - *****
See above.

Shipping - *****
Shipped the day after I ordered it. Took 4 weeks to get here but I kinda expected that (from China, Covid, Christmas etc.)

Documention - ***
Ok, I had no problems but I have a lot of build experience. Beginner might find it tricky. Build order guide and a few more pictures would help.

Communication - ****
Good, there was a littlle hand written note in the box. I sent an email to seller to let him know I enjoyed the kit etc. and he replied.

In summary, I would recommend this kit and think it's good value at this price.

I really enjoyed building this kit. The authentic components are all high quality, from the _heavy_ PCB to the better-than-expected tactile switches. Construction was straightforward, and it worked first time. I was able to enter 6502 machine code from the keypad and then connect a Mac and use the serial connection to enter longer programs, and even load some existing apps I found online. Looking forward to seeing what extra options appear to make use of the expansion bus!

The KIM-1 was a pivotal system in the later 1970’s, and I’m very pleased to be able to add this version to my retro computing collection!

Excellent seller and product. Nicely designed PCB with small transistor pads although very good hand-solderable. . Packaging is excellent and access to seller is easy (but not needed till now). I would recommend greatly !! Online documentation, here on Tidie is great. Supplied IC's are refurbished/old stock but in perfect working order en very clean. Kit is working perfectly. Thanks Liu!