CAPACITRON, meet your maker!
Part one - Resistors
The first components you will need while assembling CAPACITRON are resistors.
First, take off the paper packaging placed on both ends of resistors.
Gently bend them in the shape of the letter U.
Take them one by one, and place them on the circuit board.
Be careful to place them on the right spot - the CAPACITRON’s forehead.
Now is the time to use your soldering iron.
Flip the circuit board.
We will solder the resistors on CAPACITRON’s back.
After you solder all resistors, take one more look at the solder joints to ensure there are no cold joints.
Watch out! Cutting off the resistors’ legs must be done with caution!
Take out your cutter pliers. You will use them for cutting off the excess legs of your resistors.
Be careful!
Do not point the legs upwards when cutting them!
They might fly away and hurt someone!
They might fly away and hurt someone!
When cutting them off, always turn the legs of the electronic component towards your table like shown in the last photo.
This is what the circuit board should look like after you have cut off the resistors’ legs:
Part two - The switch
Place the switch on the front side of CAPACITRON’s head.
You'll need to use a bit of strength for this since it can be a bit hard for the switch to come into the circuit board.
Now is the time to solder the switch to the circuit board.
Before you do so, please make sure that the switch is vertical to the circuit board.
Please clean your soldering iron tip with the sponge before soldering the switch.
Soldering these pins requires a bit more precision since they are very close together.
The switch’s soldering joints should look like this after you have successfully soldered them:
Part three - the pushbuttons
You'll have to put the pushbuttons on the left and right sides of the CAPACITRON.
Make sure the pushbuttons are placed vertically to the board before soldering.
After putting them on the circuit board, press the pushbuttons a few times to check that everything is okay.
Turn CAPACITRON around, take the soldering iron, and solder away.
After successfully soldering the pushbuttons, your CAPACITRON’s back should look like this:
Part four - The LEDs
Now, take the LEDs and place them in the CAPACITRON’s eyes
We need to watch out for the polarity of the LEDs, or they won’t work.
Flip your CAPACITRON and solder the LEDs.
After making sure there's no bridging between the solder joints, take your pliers and cut off the rest of the LEDs' legs that you don't need.
Watch out!
The legs of the LEDs must face towards the table when you are cutting them.
The legs of the LEDs must face towards the table when you are cutting them.
This way, they won’t fly away and hurt you!
Check all of the solder joints once again to ensure there are no cold joints or bridging.
Part five - Capacitors
The capacitors will go in CAPACITRON's ears.
There is a white part and a black part of the capacitor. Those colors represent polarity. The white part has a shorter leg, and the black part has a longer one.
Also, you may notice that the circles that represent CAPACITRON's ears have a plus (+) sign.
The longer leg of the capacitor must go into the hole marked with the plus (+) sign.
Make sure to put the capacitors in properly. Check the photo:
Take a soldering iron, and solder the legs of the capacitors to the circuit board.
Part six - The battery holder
The battery holder goes on the back side of your CAPACITRON like this:
Now, turn CAPACITRON around, and let's solder the two pins of the battery holder.
Once again, make sure all of the solder joints look okay!
And we’re done with soldering!
Please turn off your soldering iron by unplugging it from the power outlet.
Leave it on the soldering iron stand for at least five minutes, so it cools off before you put it away.
If you need help with cleaning the tip of your soldering iron, please check our video tutorial.
Batteries first
Now you can put the coin cell battery into the battery holder!
Watch out; the battery needs to be put in on the right side.
The tiny plus (+) sign on the battery must be facing upwards!
Check the photo:
Your CAPACITRON is assembled, well done!