Tindie

Just as advertised, the misery did increase once past the 0402 parts. I couldn't complete it due to parts flying away but I did manage to get one 0201 and 01005 parts down. I did a live stream while doing the challenge:

Part 1: https://youtu.be/aKSAb9lbrFI
Part 2: https://youtu.be/GNeI7xGzH98

Communication just OK because I didn't communicate with MakersBox. :)

Mark KA6WKE

Bob | Nov. 23, 2018

Nice little kit

For Soldering Kit for Doctor Who Fans

Almost perfect.

The only thing I would change is to have the light slowly fade in-out when in sound mode like is does in silent mode, instead of on/off. However, I expect that is a limitation of the hardware.

Still great value for money. I wear it on my lanyard and get lots of comments.

Response from MakersBox | March 28, 2020

Thanks to a customer's help with the code, the current firmware has been upgraded to do this!

Andrew | July 2, 2018

Great little bot for getting kids excited about robotics

For Open Source Turtle Robot Kit

There is something about a physical robot putting pen to paper that excites and stimulates young minds more than the prettiest graphics on a screen could ever do. Amazingly, there is a huge "hole" in the robotics market to serve this purpose. OSTR stands alone, but is by no means a compromise.

The electronics kit is straightforward and easy to assemble. The parts shipped are packaged correctly and the components chosen are easy to differentiate and assemble. The instructions on how to assemble them are also organized well and the order of assembly is correct for making sure that the parts are easy to solder (short components first, etc.). We have not used the IR wall detection yet, but this was a very nice touch which helps give the robot some additional educational opportunities.

The 3D printed body shipped is also very good quality. I was nervous at first because the holes for the metal nuts were not well shaped, but I found that pressing the nut into place by sticking the bolt through the hole, then threading the nut on to "pull" it into the plastic and finally removing the bolt, leaving the now-captured nut in place worked very well. The wheels also fit on to the motor shafts perfectly. I don't think that the "grub screw" method in the documentation would have worked at all with these wheels at all, but thankfully was unnecessary. The instructions also recommend threading the (long) motor and servo wires under the chassis but I found that this caused considerable interference with the movement of the pen.

The overall design of the robot is very well thought out -- putting the four AA batteries as low on the chassis as possible gives the robot a great low center of gravity and also adds considerable weight which helps the robot move around on the paper. The robot is pretty robust and other than it being stepped on or falling off of a table, I would not be worried about it being man-handled by excited children. I found that calibration was largely unnecessary, especially given that dead-reckoning movement is highly inaccurate to begin with. We were printing simple designs in only a few minutes. I think that adding a few washers to the caster so that it helps keep the robot from "rocking" would improve movement even more, but we really are talking about finicky little details.

There are only two "downsides" to OSTR, and neither prevents me from recommending this to anyone. The first is that you must connect a cable to the robot to program it. This is however easily solved with any of the BLE-to-UART modules that you can find online. The other downside is that for younger kids, programming the robot in Arduino's IDE is a little challenging. I am looking to see how difficult it would be to use any of the Blockly-inspired GUIs to program the robot with any tablet or computer.

OSTR really is a wonderful, relatively inexpensive Turtle Graphics robot. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who would like a basic drawing robot platform.

(Please note that Tindie doesn't let me not rate the communication; I did not try to communicate with the business owner but could not mark this field "not applicable")

Philip | May 30, 2018

Fun to put together

I really enjoyed assembling the Fidget Spinner. I purchased it pre-programmed with a message which worked out great. It was magic at first spin to see the message show up.

I highly recommend getting the flush wire cutters (Hakko CHP-170 recommended); they really improved the feel of the underside of the spinner. Has anyone tried a 3d printed case for the spinner?

I'd also recommend some PTFE lubricant for the center bearing. It makes the spinner much smoother.

Ken | May 24, 2018

Turtle Robot a good first tech project

For Open Source Turtle Robot Kit

The Turtle Robot is a good first tech project for anyone wanting to learn more about programming Arduinos, electronics, 3D printing, CAD and design. It gently guides you through each step to complete the project step by step. It also gives you enough information and access to modify the programming to explore further. If you have access to a 3D printer, I suggest you buy the kit minus the printed parts. Many libraries not have 3D printers you can use for free, including plastic. Check you local library.

The weak point on the robot is the wheel design. The spooks are thin and the center hole is a little too big making them loose. This is a perfect chance to also learn a little CAD by importing the files and modifying them for a better fit. I also drilled the stepper motor shafts and tapped them for a M3 screw where the wheel holes are. Putting the screw all the way through the motor shaft makes a very strong connection.

The link to code to test the LEDs in the documentation is missing. It would be nice if the code were put back on GitHub.

Response from MakersBox | May 24, 2018

Thanks for the review! I hope you'll consider uploading a photo in a comment on the Instructable page at https://www.instructables.com/id/OSTR/ or your favorite social media with the tag #TurtleRobot. I'd love to see how it turned out!

I agree about the wheels. I've uploaded a thicker wheel on the Thingiverse page at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2881396. Getting the hub right requires calibrating your printer, but the M3 screw works as well.

I've upload the firmware for testing the eyes, writing text, and making patterns to the Github at https://github.com/aspro648/OSTR/tree/master/firmware.

Thanks again for the feedback!

Timothy | April 12, 2018

Fantastic kit at a great price!

Assembled quickly and easily. Instructions were done visually and documented well. This is exactly what I needed to program stand alone chips. No need to use 2 Arduinos or make a breadboard. Excellent price for this kit! The PCB is excellent. The jumper that lets you select different chips is what made my mind when it came to purchasing. Looking on the web for one that would do many kinds was difficult, or only did one or two types. Thank you for offering a great deal on a great shield that I will use to make my own stand alone things! I wish you great success with this and your other offerings. Well done!

Jan | March 5, 2018

Great Project

I think the SMD - Challenge is a great project. The delivery was very fast and I have learnded a much about soldering and the smd - components.

All in all i gave a positive feedback for this project.

Ben | Feb. 11, 2018

Very fun; very challenging!

This will definitely be a challenge but success is worth it!

The PCB is well designed with good pads for soldering to and nice test-pads as well. The only issue I found was that the hole for the pin is close enough that the pin can short out against the battery if the pin is soldered in place and the battery is fully inserted.

I really enjoyed this challenge.

Jasper | Feb. 10, 2018

It was fun

The product is great. When I picked up the 0201 LED with my tweezer it slipped and it shot away to a place and I ould never find it back. I failed the SMD challenge, but it was fun.

Ludovic | Jan. 20, 2018

I love this kit :)

For I Can Surface Mount Solder

The kit is really nice. Once done, you have a tiny led blinking in a breathing patterns hand soldered.

Only little details bothering me is the lack of doc specific to the kit. The only doc is for the idea of the kit, written for someone gathering the parts by themselves. I spend a few minutes wondering about the orientation of the led even if the doc clearly say that some led have a tee shape with two leg crossing the part and the third one giving away the orientation. The kit come with one of these led clearly labelled. Also, the part are not labelled. I spend a few minutes before being confortable with a black shape with white number being a resistor, a brown shape being a capacitor and the white one being a led.

Anyway, beside theses nudges, the doc was good. The attiny is clearly marked with a red dot in the corner. Everything came together quite nicely. There was also a pair of extra part for turning the kit into a pin. After a suggestion from the author, I spend maybe 6 bucks in a DIY store and I now have a nice blinking necklace. I'm currently wearing my kit :)

Response from MakersBox | Jan. 20, 2018

Thanks for the constructive feedback. Since this is a beginners kit, any thing that causes confusion could be improved. I'll work on getting some additional photos and details about the parts and identification. You can post a photo of the necklace in the comments of the Instructable. I'd love to see it!

George | Dec. 15, 2017

Excellent first project for young person

Great project! I bought this to build with my 14 year old grandson. It took a couple of hours. He did all of the work, following the excellent video instructions. (The text version on Instructables is also well written.) This makes a unique spinner that intrigues adults and young people alike. It's a great tool to explain the concept behind persistence of vision. Try spinning it backwards and watch what happens to any of the options that use text.

Casey | Nov. 22, 2017

Great Kit

Great product. Just as described. Lost all of the smallest components. Had a blast putting together and brushing up on my soldering skills.

Casey | Nov. 22, 2017

Great Kit

Great product. Just as described. Lost all of the smallest components. Had a blast putting together and brushing up on my soldering skills.

Bryan | Oct. 7, 2017

Fun project, well packaged.

Very nice design. Easy to assemble with clear directions. Fun to challenge each other when playing with assembled product. Nice job

Mark | Sept. 23, 2017

Works perfectly

All the parts were in the package and the instructions were overall good. There were just enough pictures included in the instructions to figure out the proper direction of a few parts. I liked that the chip came with default code as I didn't have the parts to reprogram it. Overall a good exercise to solder lots of parts which allows the kid to feel that they made it themselves.

Daniel | Sept. 18, 2017

Really enjoyed this little project

Wanted a little kit to demonstrate the joule thief circuit and this is perfect! Easy to assemble and compact; it makes the perfect little desk widget.

Brian | Aug. 27, 2017

Great way to break into Surface Mount Soldering!

For I Can Surface Mount Solder

The kit was complete and the instructions were clear. With my through-hole experience all these years, it became a great excuse to finally try surface mount soldering. Recommended. The video is helpful, but refer to the URL provided on the packaging for the true instructions. I watched the video first, soldered up the board... and then read the instructions. Oops. But in the end, the circuit worked as expected.

Manuel | Aug. 20, 2017

Excellent Arduino hat

The device arrived took some time to arrive - had a New Zealand Post sticker, which is strange for something coming from the US. I'd like to imagine that some post error made it go to meet the Kiwis before arriving in Europe. In the end I was not expecting it with urgency, so it was OK.
The build is simple and straightforward. The excellent OSHPark board is a pleasure to work and look at.
My initial test started with a Arduino Leonardo - I couldn't program several ATMega328P - always got inconsistent signatures and failures. When I changed to a UNO it worked immediately and I could easily program a bootloader into one of my ATMegas328P. Changing the Blink example to use pin 3 allows the "Prog" yellow LED to blink - all good and as it should!
The standard ArduinoISP code does not have buzzer support. I soldered a buzzer and was dismayed to see that it did not work. I checked the documentation again (always read the documentation!!) and the buzzer was implemented for Adafruit's take on ArduinoISP. I flashed my Uno with it - the buzzer works, but programming not really. Checking the versions, Adafruit's code is for IDE version 1.6 and I'm running Arduino IDE 1.8, so I'm sure that with time I can discover why it doesn't work.

I recommend this board and it's a nice addin to your Arduino development.

Response from MakersBox | Aug. 20, 2017

Thanks for the thorough review. The Adafruit project is pretty dated and hasn't got much support. The buzzer is really for the stand-alone version, which is also not very well supported. I have been using a fork from https://github.com/sowbug/adaStandalone that will nearly instantly program either a 328P-PU or 328-PU (which normally causes device signature havoc when people try and skimp and buy the cheaper version), but I have to use an Arduino 1.0 IDE to get it to compile and load. It is super fast and uses the buzzer to signal success or error, but is only really worth the effort if you have to program a number of chips.

I've never had my hands on Leonardo. Adafruit has a disclaimer on their Leonardo page that says "It is probably not going to work with shields designed for the UNO only", but the don't elaborate on the details. In the Instructable https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Leonardo-as-Isp/ there are a couple of hints. Can you try and change the ArudinoISP sketch line "#define RESET SS" to " #define RESET 10" and tell me if that works?

I don't think it would be too hard to add the buzzer code to the standard Arduino as ISP. I might look into that.

Ken

Wesley | Dec. 3, 2016

Makes chip writing a breeze

For SnapNsew Kit: A Soft-Circuit / Embedded Platform

This board was 30 minutes of work and works like a charm. Already have programmed my first chip. Really simple kit with great advantages.

Jorge E | Oct. 12, 2016

I really liked the kit!

The kit was simple to use. I didn't have any issues with the string that came with the kit either. I used it to animate a teddy bear. Whenever I pressed the button, it would make a sound. Then when the lights go down, the bear deactivates.
Really nice product.

Jerry | Oct. 11, 2016

Great First Kit for Beginners

Used it as a first soldering kit for middle school students. They enjoyed the construction and the fact that it worked upon completion. They are now asking what the next project will be!

Patrick | Aug. 2, 2016

Great little kit

The Joule Thief is an excellent little project. I chose the older, more compact version, and it was easy and fun to build. The instructions were thorough and easy to understand. I assembled my Joule Thief in about 45 minutes, and I was taking my time. Highly recommended as an introduction to soldering and electronic principles!

Aaron | April 13, 2016

Cool little kit, easy to assemble, feels like good quality

Great little Joule Thief kit; easy to assemble, the components look like they're good quality, the finished product looks good.

Michael | April 7, 2016

love these kits! easy to assemble, clever design

I'm using these kits as part of a DIY basic electronics class I'm teaching at the Artisan's Asylum makerspace here in the Boston area.
They fit together well, the instructions are clear, I like the design. Great stuff!
Mike

Rick | Nov. 23, 2015

Easy Joule Thief kit

Purchased a few of these kits. The assembly was easy and pretty straightforward. They work as expected. The only thing I noticed was that if you use the jumbo LED, the battery clip can be in the way a little bit. Not a big deal really, but the LED just does not sit flush as expected. It could become crooked if you don't allow for the leads to extend out a bit.

Again, easy to assemble, and I really like the on/off switch that so many of the thief kits do not have. Would buy again and recommend.

Happy soldering folks.

Stephane | Aug. 18, 2015

Excellent product

The documentation is very good. works beautifully with the Adafruit library ... I really recommend this programmer that works really and easily. Congratulations!

Stephen | July 1, 2015

Great product!

I received it quickly. Communication with the vendor is excellent. I have received great support after receiving the item. I highly recommend this product and Kenneth.

Karl | May 25, 2015

great programmer

Great product....easy to use...just starting to learn about programming attiny chips...doing a little work with visual displays (leds )...

Roger | Feb. 10, 2015

Nice, easy kit