If you are looking for a fun project for your next weekend then the DSO150 Oscilloscope from JYE Tech might be the right thing for you. It is a kit which requires basic soldering skills, 1-2 hours of work and some concentration.

First I have to warn you: I can’t really give you advice if this oscilloscope is any good. But I can tell you about my experience of putting it together! And I can already tell that I had a lot of fun. It has been a while since I have put together a electronics kit for soldering which was not one of my own products. And I was also curious how other producers of kits document the steps.

 

The Parts

As you can tell form the photo above the kit comes with about 20-30 parts which you have to put together. All SMD components have already been soldered on the two PCBs which leaves only through-hole components for you to put in place. Here are the tools I needed which were not in the kit:

• Regular soldering iron (20 Watt)
• Solder
• Something to cut the excess wires
• 9 Volt power supply with barrel jack (+ on the inside)
• Phillips screw driver

 

The Instructions

The instructions come with two 2-sided sheets of paper with color printed photos and tell you everything you need to know. I’m a regular composer/ puzzler of IKEA furniture and the oscilloscope instructions required far less guess work than the average IKEA manual. Just follow them step by step, since they make sure that you solder bigger components in the end which makes it a lot easier to place the smaller ones. They even have a nice little test in the beginning where they ask you to power up the bare board to see if the screen comes up as expected. Later you have to remove a SMD resistor which is only there to allow this test to work since you will solder the power switch only later down the road.

 

Summary

The instructions were really thorough and it took me about 90 minutes to put the components together. It was a good experience since I could train my soldering, have a glimpse how other people write electronic kit instructions and also how components on multiple PCBs can be put together in a tiny case.

 

Where to buy

I got this kit from Banggood. If you want to support his blog please use this link and I will get a small kickback for your purchase:
Original JYE Tech DSO-SHELL DSO150 15001K DIY Digital Oscilloscope Kit With Housing