At this year’s Bay Area Maker Faire, the SparkFun booth was host to soldering classes, where aspiring Makers could learn soldering by assembling kits for functional devices. SparkFun donated the kits and asked for a small donation that went to local charities. The SparkFun blog mentions that they raised $4970, way to go SparkFun! There were classes on both through-hole and surface-mount soldering, each featuring a SparkFun soldering kit. The project for the surface-mount class was the SparkFun Simon kit, which consists primarily of surface-mount components, including an Atmel ATmega168, and also features SparkFun’s slick LED-lit, monome-inspired button pads. I was lucky enough to be able to attend the surface-mount class. Even though I’m very inexperienced at SMT soldering, I successfully assembled the kit during the class. (Thanks to the expertise and moral support of the SparkFun team!) This is a great kit and a wonderful confidence booster for anyone considering creating their own surface-mount project. If you’re curious, you can see my handiwork in the pictures below. I’ve bought commercial products from China that looked worse, so I’m fairly happy with the results.
After the class I mounted programming headers and was able to load a modified version of the SparkFun example code on it. (N.B., there are multiple versions of the board. If you have the older 6-25-08 revision, try the files listed here which more closesly match that board.) I spent some time cleaning up the example code and making minor improvements; I’ll post a link shortly.
Having quickly become bored with the Simon game, I’ve been exploring what other possibilities the board may have. Still working on them; I’ll post details and source code when I get a chance.
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