MIOYOOW Rotating Ballerina Soldering Practice Kit, RGB LED Ballet Girl Music Box DIY Soldering Project Kit with 3 Music, Learning Electronics Kit ...

I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of instructions within the kit itself. However, it is a challenging practice kit for a novice like myself. Good practice.

So I actually got this for myself. I thought I was gonna give it to my cousin who really is getting into stem and electronics, but Ive got this for me so I could see if it was something that I could give to him and when I tell you, I started this for a hot minute, trying to understand what I was looking at. Uh yeah. Thats why Im giving this a four out of five because I didnt feel like I could comfortably give this to my 12-year-old cousin and be like here you go you can enjoy this. I just didnt feel like the instructions were really there and I felt like if I gave this to him, he would be like whyd you give me a box of trash. I know its ballerina, but I got it for me and I would obviously not get him to ballerina he likes dinosaurs more than ballerinas anyway but yeah, I just felt like it was a little bit like if I wasnt there to explain what it was he would ask why I gave him trash and thats a bad first impression so I kind of wish they had like another plastic container or something that kind of tells you like oh its a circuit kid and youre gonna be doing this and whatever just a little more organization less Plopped in the cardboard box

I suppose if you split hairs, this is a practice kit, because it's going to give you lots of practice. There's nothing about this that teaches you anything. It's a fun little project to make for the tiny ballerina in your life while sharpening your skills. That's about it. I'm not the best solderer. This was pretty hard for me to put together, but I sure did get alot of practice. I guess that's the point. It's cheap and easy, mostly a useful way to fill time.

I ordered this MIOYOOW Soldering Practice Kit, Ballerina Girl Solder Project to assemble as a STEM project with my granddaughter. My expectation was to receive a nicely packaged kit, with assembly instructions. What I received was a small plastic bag, with a bunch of unlabeled IC components stuffed loosely inside. There was a small piece of paper in the bag, with a QR code, supposedly to view the instructions. But when you scan the code, a bunch of Chinese characters pop up. After translating the Chinese, there is a button to press to take you to the website (after receiving a warning about security - which made me nervous). Then, upon pressing the button, everything locks up. 2nd comment I have about this project is that the size (if you were to ever manage to assemble it) is only 3" x 6". So what I have is a bag of useless parts, which will quickly be thrown in the trash. Save your money and avoid this product - there are many other quality STEM projects available.

This was a fun kit to put together and I had no major issues. The instructions were easy to follow and all the parts were there plus a few extras. There were 2 things I particularly liked about it: 1) There are 12 RGB LED's at the base of the ballerina. I didn't know they made 2 wire addressable LEDs. I was surprised to see them as multicolor LEDs even through it was indicated on the kit. The 2nd thing was the motor control. Nothing particularly amazing, but most kits are just lights and sound; so I liked this one because it incorporates motion and transfers power to the rotating platform with springs. There were a few things I thought I'd point out that might help putting this together. 1) U1 is a little hard to solder. Be sure you have a fine tipped soldering iron. The pads for U1 are small, so it makes it difficult to heat the pad before the pin of the IC. Therefore, solder will tend to wick over to the pin before actually going down to the pad to solder it in place. Perhaps there was a better way, but I just applied pressure to push the pin into the pad and that seemed to help get the solder to the pad. Just be sure not to short anything, heat it too long, or install the IC in the incorrect orientation. 2) There are 2 screws that you have the option to solder in; be sure to use the 10mm screws (the largest ones). I used the nut as it can be hard to solder in a screw. There are 3 screw sizes in the kit. However, the instructions that I received only mentioned 2, 5mm and 10mm. But there are also 8mm screws. The 8mm are to hold the motor in. The 5mm are to hold the brass standoffs. The 10mm, the largest, are to hold the springs that transfer the power to the platform for the LEDs. I inadvertently used 8mm screws for this and it didn't work well. The 10mm screws keep the springs in good contact with the rotating platform. Otherwise, with the 8mm screws, the springs will bend over. It will still work but it will make a grinding sound. It might also help to add it little grease to quiet down the spring contact a little more. 3) The instructions are clear about getting the IC, LED and capacitor orientation correct. Just make sure you check that as you go. There are quite a few orientation specific devices and getting just 1 wrong may be a pain to go back and fix. Overall, it was quick and fun.