“Used it for school was great came with everything, only problem was the main chip to the board was bad, radio didn’t work. Placed all my capacitors and resistors on someone else’s radio and it work.”
“Having 30+ years in electronic repair at board level, I was disappointed after starting this project with my Grandson. As with many other reviews I also see that the copper cladding is not well secured to the board and the pads come loose easily and may tear the trace. My biggest complaint is the quality control of the product. Im glad I caught that the main IC that's solderd on the board already had a huge solder bridge across the pins (See pic) I was able to remove the fault and get the radio togetherExcellent job on the manual though!”
“Bought the kit for my 14 year-old son who enjoyed putting it together but found it never worked. I confirmed every component was installed correctly w/no solder bridges but alas, no luck. Also read the theory of operation section which went well over my son's electronics understanding.Not a great project for beginners.”
“I received the kit with all the parts and a very detailed assembly guide. It definitely helped me keep my soldering technique up to par, but unfortunately the radio didn't work after I had finished. It turns on and the speaker is getting power, but it will not find any stations. It just sits quietly, even at full volume. I confirmed that other radios in the vicinity aren't having any issues. I'd be the first to chalk it up to user error, but I can't find a fault in my assembly. I went through all the troubleshooting steps outlined in the manual, tried different batteries, checked that each component was properly placed and that my solder joints weren't bad. I even broke out the multimeter and looked at voltages and connectivity. At the end of it all, the only thing I can work out is that maybe the U1 chip (TDA7088T) that comes pre-soldered on the board may have been faulty. The voltages it's outputting on pins 1, 3, 9, 10, 13, and 16 don't match what it says in the manual and it's behaviour when I press the buttons doesn't seem to match either.Overall, it's a useful soldering lesson and would be a cool kit, had I gotten a working one.”
“Excited to do this with my grandson but unfortunately the board was defective. Small parts fell off, solder wouldn't adhere... disappointed... reviews look good, so my assumption is this was defective and not common.”
