There are lots of soldering kits out there for you to learn the basics of soldering. But once you get past the very basic kits, you need something more fun and challenging! The Tinycade 8-bit Handheld Arcade is a great way to get some soldering practice in and have a cool toy to play with afterward.
Consisting of entirely through-hole parts, the Tinycade will probably take an hour or more for a newbie solderer; for experienced pros, probably under 20 minutes. The kit is based around the venerable ATtiny85, programmed with one of the games that has been made for this platform. There’s a list of a few more that they’ve compiled, available to download as .hex files for easy flashing with avrdude. Note that you will need an AVRISP or similar programming tool if you want to change the game loaded on the ATtiny85. However, we have a huge selection of those to choose from, if needed!
So if you know anyone getting into electronics and soldering, this would make a great gift that will help them hone their skills. Though this item is marked as a pre-order, we imagine it’s probably ready to ship very soon.
