Comments on: Aurora 18×18 kit and PCB

By: Havoc

Havoc — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 17:50:50 +0000

Oh SHEESH Mark, not everyone is comfortable with soldering, and especially at this level. I have been building and designing circuits for a long long time, and I ended up returning this kit because (thanks Aki)as it was WAY to hard to assemble those tiny parts without very good and expensive soldering tools, and a lot of skill.

I too would consider a preassembled “kit”, at least for the tiny parts which I did not feel comfortable installing. So if you get there, I would consider a partially assembled kit as well with the tiny pieces already installed.

By: Mad Cat

Mad Cat — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 21:28:11 +0000

This is indeed a challenging kit. The SMT soldering is the easy part; the LEDs are the worst and are very prone to shorts, so I assembled it in sections, testing after each section was completed and fixing any shorts in the section. There were also quite a few “bad LEDs” (maybe some were shorts). But the kit includes enough extra LEDs to take care of it either way. In the end the results are awesome, and worth the effort. Now all I need is some sort of case or display to finish it.

Bottom line; this not a kit for novices, it’s challenging for intermediate level (not a weekend project), and it takes about 12 hours to assemble and debug at expert level.

By: Newbie

Newbie — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:46:05 +0000

Newbie question: what battery configuration would you recommend for power?

By: Darrell

Darrell — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 19:41:03 +0000

That would be so cool!!

By: Mark Ostrom

Mark Ostrom — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 05:18:16 +0000

Oh SHEESH… just learn to solder! You can solder them all at once in an oven for that matter. Soldering is FUN! Enlarge your Skilset! Get that feeling of accomplishment… ( and maybe a burnt finger or two! lol )

By: The LED Artist

The LED Artist — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 15:22:54 +0000

Yes I ship worldwide. In fact, I just sent an order to South Africa!

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 10:23:42 +0000

Hi do you ship to South Africa?

By: Thaddaeus

Thaddaeus — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 03:00:07 +0000

Dang a 30… Now that would be extremely impressive (and I assume very difficult to solder) hopefully one day you do reach that feat and when you do I can’t wait to see the result!

By: The LED Artist

The LED Artist — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:15:10 +0000

Well there are 10 unused pins on the PIC micro with Aurora 18×18. So I can easily add 10 more circles. If I try hard I can add another two, so 30 total. I did not go that far because of other issues, such as the power supply requirement, and cost :) But maybe some day I will go all the way…

By: Thaddaeus

Thaddaeus — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 23:19:01 +0000

Also curiosity has struck me, what is the largest possible Aurora you could make without compromising stability?