Two packages arrived for me today. One was my long awaited (ok, not long at all, ordered last thursday!) mcHF Transceiver kit. More, probably much more, on that later!
The other contained two items, both simple, low cost electronic project kits to build with Tom. In this case, they were the two different clock kits. Hence the post title...
As with most of these cheap Chinese kits, documentation is rather sparse, consisting of a parts list and schematic, and in the case of one of them, a layout diagram as well, plus a fare bit of 'instructions' in the form of ideograms!
But, these kits have come on in quality terms recently, now, the PCBs are generally excellent, if sometimes a little unconventional (who else has built Pixie CW transceivers with all the tracks on the same side as the components?) and the silkscreening on both boards shows not only the part number and placement, but also the value. Armed also with the schematic.... sorry, circuit diagram (im appalled with myself for the level of Yankish I find myself talking these days!) building these things is a doddle, ideal for a beginner.
On the subject of instructions, or lack thereof, we come to the mcHF. This open source (and hence much copied) Software Defined QRP HF Transceiver is of course intended to me a foundation from which modifications and developments can be made. Trouble with that of course, is that it means there is no one, single, immediately relavent set of instructions for building it!
Thta doesnt bother me really, but I am a little apprehensive as to how to be sure that some essential error correction of modification hasnt occurred that im unaware of! Much of this though is just the need for me to trawl all the available data, of which there is considerable, and find the pertinent info.
The photo above shows the mcHF kit removed from the box but not yet the rest of the packaging. One the left is the anti-static packaging containing the two PCBs. As these are pre-populated with the SMT components, I have not yet opened this up to look, and will only do so when I have them on the anti-static bench. The two packets in the center contain the 'though-hole' parts, the top pack the parts for the RF board, which comprises, hardly surprisingly for a transceiver, a heck of a lot of toroids and binocular cores to wind, plus connectors, relays and the like; the bottom pack is the parts for the User Interface (computer/AF) board, and is mostly connectors and switches. To the bottom right is the LCD display, and above right the metal case and hardware pack.
I intent to construct this sloooowly! Although there are not that many parts involved, the boards are complex, and although I expect that the pre-population should be good, my first two tasks will be to carry out a complete inventory, to ensure I have all the supplied parts, and a thorough detailed inspection of the PCBs, looking for any defects, errors, dry joints, solder splashes etc. This is not intended to detract from the kits production - i dont expect to find anything! - But with such a complex system, an hour spent with a magnifying glass ans continuity tester could easily save many many hours of confused fault finding later!
