I recently bought a K8028 kit and after assembly and soldering it with a Velleman VTS30LF it doesn’t function… It does nothing just dead… The only thing it does is LD5 lights up when i close the input switch… After checking all the components and solderings its seems that both pads of C11 and 1 pad of D3 came loose from the PCB. Tried to correct that with making new connections, but it still doesn’t function. There probably more pads and tracks broken i can’t seem to find…
Now after searching the forum with the qeustion if there is something known about a bad batch of PCB’s of wich the pads or tracks come loose. I came across a topic about soldering instructions where was stated by a staff member that overheating can cause pads and tracks to come loose.
So this tells me the obvious answer i will get from Velleman support if i send the product back to Velleman Product Support. The answer that i overheated the PCB and it’s my own mistake… The PCB is defective and probably beyond repair… Anyway i understand this puts me in a impossible position to argue an answer like that… And understand i just have to take for granted that the PCB is trashed. Tho it’s not my first soldering project and this never happened to me before with soldering PCB’s… This is the first time it happened to me and my first Velleman product i ever purchased. It’s not that i have doubt in the Velleman products, but i sincerely doubt the quality of this particular board in this kit i got.
Now my question is… Is it possible to purchase a K8028 PCB only without components from Velleman?
So i can reuse all brandnew and never used components i already have now, on a defective board.
Well thank you very much… No reply is also an answer, isn’t it?
Anyway, reviewing your instructions and recomendations probably isn’t such a bad idea after all… It might be convinient for some customers to inform them, that whit a Velleman 30 watt soldering iron 25% bellow the max recomendation of 40 watt given, still it’s very likely to burn the crap out of a Velleman PCB.
What good is it to give a max 40 watt recomendation? People use a lesser one to think they are on the safe side and burn the PCB because of an underpowered iron??
There is no quality problem with the current PCB’s, as you already said, the temperature or the soldering iron was too high (or incorrectly displayed), or the track was heated for too long.
What you can do is ask the shop to make a special order for product P8028’2, this is the PCB itself, which you can use to get a functional kit.
Thank you for your answer on my initial question how to obtain the pcb only… Nice to know. I’ll be very carefull with the next one.
There might be no problem with the pcb quality regarding the modern production/quality standards. But these standards certainly have changed to the worst of it. I’m just an old fart picking up on an old hobby and can tell you i never ever burned or cracked a pcb in the past (hence i used to make pcb’s myself with an acid resistant paint marker and sulpheric acid).
But i did read many reviews from retailers webshops on velleman kit products and obviously i’m not the only one complaining about the fact that the soldering pads and pcb tracks crack very easily. Messages about this are rather common where user reviews can be given.
Lets call it my mistake, that i didn’t read these reviews before i started soldering the kit (??) Or maybe you should do something with feedback like this and look again at the instructions manual and put some warnings in there your self. And not wait for the customer to find out with reading other users reviews after the damage already is done.
Is it possible to purchase a K8028 PCB only without components from Velleman?