Gertboard - The Element14 strikes back

Fluke PiStalker - laff   

Seriously though, soldering is easy and surface mount is also easier than one may think.  I can see though that it may not be possible for some that may have a physical limitation.  In that case, a local hackerspace may be able to help or, as Gert mentioned, assembled versioned will probably pop up on eBay.

May the flux be with you,

Drew

It may not be a lot of help, but i'm in the UK (Essex) and if that is near, i'd be happy to solder for you.

I'm no expert solderer, but i've built a few things and not ruined anything (yet)

Yeah... I had the same reaction as Ray. I wonder how the law stands on needing to solder something together when it has been pre-pictured all assembled?

I've just soldered one of the capacitors back onto the Pi and that was my first attempt at it.

I'm really not happy about needing to do it to something that costs £30... Perhaps one of the other starter kits would be a better idea?

--

Mike

Just posted this to the Foundation's blog entry as a comment. I wonder if I shall incur the wrath... (Not that that was the point of doing it).

"

Okay, in principle, the Gertboard is a great idea.

However...

I think I'd pay another £10 to have it put together for me by the manufacturers. I've just soldered my first thing - the capacitor near the power point on the Pi came off REALLY easily. So it's now back on, though the Pi seemed to work better without it, which is odd.

I'm very worried about paying £30+ for something and then having to solder it myself and possibly (probably) wrecking it. Plus, there are other (cheaper) starter kits out there (breadboard based) which have less on them, but do not require assembly.

It's a shame because it's not the encouraging push I was hoping for to get into the electronic side of the Pi.

"

I kind of understand, although Gert has answered some of the questions like this in the front page post on Raspi.org.

I was a bit taken aback at the price myself to be honest, but I'm very much a beginner in all things interfacy and i'm expecting this will be the best supported. For that, I'm guessing it is worth the premium, although like many other times, I could well be wrong.

Yeah... I had the same reaction as Ray. I wonder how the law stands on needing to solder something together when it has been pre-pictured all assembled?

Hmm.. would be interesting..  but given it's quite clearly described as an unassembled kit for self assembly It's not like they're misleading anyone.  There must be other instances - not necessarily electronics related - where a kit is shown assembled, if for no other reason than it gives you a better idea of what you'll get when it's built.

For example, I think it would be slightly odd if you walked into IKEA and they had to have a jumbled pile of parts on display instead of the assembled wardrobe.

You haven't seen my local Ikea ! :-)

I was a bit taken aback at the price myself to be honest,

I don't think it's too bad when you start to look at it, and could be quite close to straight parts cost.  You can get a good idea of the BOM from looking at the user and assembly manuals, but for example the 'Arduino' is 6.55, the motor driver 8.49, so it soon adds up.  I'd hope the kit comes as only the required number of parts - there's a 0.1 ohm resistor that's 19p, but a minimum order qty of 50 which would be painful.

Still, in some ways and for some people it might be better to simply sell the PCB on it's own and provide a BOM. That way if you're not interested in the motor controller or Arduino you could save yourself a bit of money. I seem to remember one of the original suggestions was to sell a bare PCB, so maybe Gert will do that later.

Meanwhile I'm blaming Gert for buying up all the stocks of 0.1" headers and various caps, leaving the ones I want on backorder

Steve wow. Thats a terrifically kind offer thanks. I may take you up on it if assembled versions dont be available soonish. Thanks again.

Incidently I would like to say that I think the Gertboard as a kit is a fantastic thing and not a bad price at all. But my hope was for assembled and kits. It will be great for those kids that can to solder their own boards. I clearly states kit on the Element14 site too.

I hope my little attempt at humour didnt start a solder war.

Good luck to one and all, solder on and thanks Gert for a fantastic GertroidIO thingy.

Ray

Ray, no problem

I thought your humour was great and certainly bought a smile to my face on a Thursday morning, even before I had any coffee, and that is not a feat achieved by many !