Elenco Practical Soldering Project Kit User Manual

SOLDER PRACTICE KIT

MODEL SP-1A

Assembly and Instruction Manual

Copyright © 2012, 1994 by Elenco®Electronics, Inc. All rights reserved. Revised 2012 REV-T 752601

No part of this book shall be reproduced by any means; electronic, photocopying, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher.

ELENCO

®

PARTS LIST

If you are a student, and any parts are missing or damaged, please see instructor or bookstore.
If you purchased this kit from a distributor, catalog, etc., please contact ELENCO®(address/phone/e-mail is at
the back of this manual) for additional assistance, if needed. DO NOT contact your place of purchase as they
will not be able to help you.

RESISTORS

Note: Please refer to page 3 for the resistor reading exercise. This will familiarize you with the resistor color

band coding.

Qty. Symbol Value Color Code Part #

r 1R3 68Ω 5% 1/4W blue-gray-black-gold 126800
r 2 R1, R7 470Ω 5% 1/4W yellow-violet-brown-gold 134700
r 1R2 1kΩ 5% 1/2W brown-black-red-gold 141001
r 2 R8,R9 10kΩ 5% 1/4W brown-black-orange-gold 151000
r 2 R4, R6 22kΩ 5% 1/4W red-red-orange-gold 152200
r 1 R5 47kΩ 5% 1/4W yellow-violet-orange-gold 154700
r 2 R4A, R6A 56kΩ 5% 1/4W green-blue-orange-gold 155600
r 1 VR1 200Ω Trim Pot 191321

« See Desoldering Practice, page 13

CAPACITORS

Qty. Symbol Value Description Part #

r 2 C4, C5 .02μF (203) or .022μF (223) Discap 242010
r 3 C1, C2, C3 10μF Electrolytic (Lytic) 271045
r 1 C6 100μF Electrolytic (Lytic) 281044

SEMICONDUCTORS

Qty. Symbol Value Description Part #

r 2 Q1, Q2 2N3904 Transistor NPN 323904
r 1 IC1 555 or 1455 Integrated Circuit (Timer) 330555
r 2 LED1, LED2 Red LED (Light Emitting Diode) 350002

MISCELLANEOUS

Qty. Symbol Description Part #

r 1 PC Board 511500
r 1 Solder Wick 556000
r 1 Battery Snap 590098
r 1 Speaker 590102
r 3 Wire 22AWG Topcoat Blue 12” (save one piece for the speaker assembly) 814600
r 1 Solder Tube Lead-free 9LF99

Resistors

Capacitors

PARTS IDENTIFICATION

Electrolytic

Miscellaneous

-1-

Battery Snap

LED

Transistor

Speaker

1/2W

1/4W

Integrated

Circuit (IC)

8-pin

Discap

Tr i m Po t

Semiconductors

«

-2-

Warning:

If the capacitor is
connected with
incorrect polarity, it
may heat up and
either leak, or
cause the capacitor
to explode.

IDENTIFYING RESISTOR VALUES

Use the following information as a guide in properly identifying the value of resistors.

BANDS

METRIC UNITS AND CONVERSIONS

Abbreviation Means Multiply Unit By Or

p Pico .000000000001 10

-12

n nano .000000001 10

-9

μ micro .000001 10

-6

m milli .001 10

-3

– unit 1 10

0

k kilo 1,000 10

3

M mega 1,000,000 10

6

1. 1,000 pico units = 1 nano unit

2. 1,000 nano units = 1 micro unit

3. 1,000 micro units = 1 milli unit

4. 1,000 milli units = 1 unit

5. 1,000 units = 1 kilo unit

6. 1,000 kilo units = 1 mega unit

IDENTIFYING CAPACITOR VALUES

Capacitors will be identified by their capacitance value in pF (picofarads), nF (nanofarads), or μF (microfarads).
Most capacitors will have their actual value printed on them. Some capacitors may have their value printed in
the following manner. The maximum operating voltage may also be printed on the capacitor.

Second Digit

First Digit

Multiplier

Tolerance*

Note: The letter “R”
may be used at times
to signify a decimal
point; as in 3R3 = 3.3

103K

100V

The letter M indicates a tolerance of +20%
The letter K indicates a tolerance of +10%
The letter J indicates a tolerance of +5%

Maximum Working Voltage

The value is 10 x 1,000 =
10,000pF or .01μF, 10%, 100V

*

Electrolytic capacitors have a positive
and a negative electrode. The
negative lead is indicated on the
packaging by a stripe with minus
signs and possibly arrowheads. Also,
the negative lead of a radial
electrolytic is shorter than the positive
one.

Polarity
marking

BAND 1

1st Digit

Color Digit

Black 0
Brown

1

Red 2
Orange 3
Yellow 4
Green 5
Blue 6
Violet 7
Gray 8
White 9

BAND 2

2nd Digit

Color Digit

Black 0
Brown 1
Red 2
Orange 3
Yellow 4
Green 5
Blue 6
Violet 7
Gray 8
White 9

Multiplier

Color Multiplier

Black 1
Brown 10
Red 100
Orange 1,000
Yellow 10,000
Green 100,000
Blue 1,000,000
Silver 0.01
Gold 0.1

Resistance

Tolerance

Color Tolerance

Silver ±10%
Gold ±5%
Brown ±1%
Red ±2%
Orange ±3%
Green ±0.5%
Blue ±0.25%
Violet ±0.1%

1

2 Multiplier Tolerance

Multiplier

For the No. 0 1 2 3 4 5 8 9

Multiply By 1 10 100 1k 10k 100k .01 0.1

(+)

(–)

(+)

(–)

Axial

Radial

-3-

RESISTOR READING EXERCISE

Before starting assembly of your solder practice project, you should be thoroughly familiar with the 4-band color
code system. Many of the resistor values will be identified by color bands and it is easy to mistake their value
if you read the colors incorrectly or read the value from the wrong end. Do the following exercise in resistor
values. Place your answer in the box beneath the resistor. Answers are on the bottom of this page.

(1) brown-green-red-gold

(3) brown-black-yellow-gold

(5) yellow-violet-brown-gold

(7) yellow-violet-black-gold

(9) orange-orange-red-gold

(11) brown-black-green-gold

(2) brown-black-orange-gold

(4) red-red-orange-gold

(6) blue-gray-orange-gold

(8) brown-blue-brown-gold

(10) green-brown-red-gold

(12) brown-gray-orange-gold

Answers to Resistor Reading Exercise: 1) 1.5kΩ+5%; 2) 10kΩ+5%; 3) 100kΩ+5%; 4) 22kΩ+5%; 5) 470Ω+5%;

6) 68kΩ+

5%; 7) 47Ω+5%; 8) 160Ω+5%; 9) 3.3kΩ+5%; 10) 5.1kΩ+5%; 11) 1MΩ+5%; 12) 18kΩ+5%

Almost every electronic device today has a printed
circuit board. Whether you are assembling a PC board
or repairing it, you must understand the basics of
working with these boards.

Good soldering requires practice and an understanding
of soldering principles. This solder practice project will
help you achieve good soldering techniques, help you
to become familiar with a variety of electronic
components, and provide you with dynamic results. If
the circuit has been assembled and soldered properly,
two LED’s will alternately flash, and the speaker will
produce a wailing sound.

Safety Precautions

Like all electrical devices, the solder station must be
handled with care. The soldering iron and tip can reach
high temperatures and these simple safety rules should
be followed.

• Keep children out of reach of the soldering station.

• To protect your eyes, use safety goggles during all
phases of construction.

• Keep flammable material away from the soldering
iron.

• DO NOT cool iron

by dipping it into any liquid or

water.

• Always assume that the tip is hot to avoid burns.

• Work in an area that is well ventilated.

• Be careful that the hot soldering iron tip or the barrel
of the iron does not come in contact with any electrical
cord.

• Do not hold solder in your mouth. Wash your
hands thoroughly after handling solder.

• Locate soldering iron in an area where you do not
have to go around it or reach over it.

Solder

Solder is a fusible metal, ideal for forming a metallic
joint between two metals. Lead solder is composed of
tin and lead, identified by the ratio of tin-to-lead. The
most common ratios are 63/37, 60/40, the first number
indicates the amount of tin, and the second is lead. It
has a melting temperature around 360

O

to 370O.

For health reasons, lead-free solder is widely used and
included in this kit. Lead-free solders contain high
percentages of tin, almost always over 94%. The lead­free solder in this kit contains 99.3% tin, 0.5% copper,
and has a rosin-flux core. The melting point of lead-free
solder is about 40

O

F higher than leaded solder.

Tin is a corrosive and active metal and when it mixes
with iron (the protective layer on the tip), an inter­metallic compound is formed that wears away more

quickly than the iron would either by itself or when used
with leaded solder.

When using lead-free solders it is very important that
tips are properly maintained, otherwise tip life will be
reduced significantly. Tips should be cleaned frequently
to remove oxidation before it becomes impossible to
remove. The tips should always be tinned when not
being used, otherwise oxidation will quickly form on the
tip. The iron should be turned off if not used for
extended periods of time.

Flux

Most solder contains flux in the hollow core of the
solder allowing it to be applied automatically when you
heat the solder. The flux will remove any oxide film on
the metals soldered creating a good metal-to-metal
contact. This is called “wetting the metal”. There are
three types of solder fluxes: chloride, organic and rosin.
In the electronics industry, only the rosin type is used.
Rosin flux comes in two types, pure and active. The
most reliable is the pure type, since it doesn’t cause
dendrites between tracks on the PC board as the active
type does. Due to the highly corrosive and moisture
attracting characteristics of the chloride and organic
type fluxes, they should not be used in electronics.

Surface Preparation

In order for the solder to adhere to the connection, the
metals must be clean and free of nonmetallic materials.
Flux in the solder can remove oxides from metal but not
other materials like dirt or grease. To remove these, use
a small steel brush or fine emery cloth.

Mechanical Connection

When all the surfaces are clean, the metals should
have a solid mechanical connection. Wires should be
tightly wrapped around each other or to the terminal.
This will eliminate large gaps that create weak solder
joints. Solder should not be used as a mechanical
connection.

INTRODUCTION

-4-

Solder

Figure 1

Rosin Core

Solder

Wire

Terminal

Figure 2