Soldering is an essential hacker skill, which anyone even passively involved in electronics should have in their skill set. All too often we learn with little instruction, producing results that may pass electrical current, but look unsightly and may not stand the test of time. A little instruction in the beginning should go a long way toward many years of happy and productive soldering.
For a fun way to get started, the new Spacehuhn badge features the iconic space chicken’s head, helmet, and collar, along with LED eyes and the battery, switch, and resistor needed to properly light them up. Besides a fun revised design (an older version was featured here), what really makes this badge stand out as a learning kit is that it uses both through hole components (LEDs) and several styles of surface mount components as well. How to apply them is outlined in the video below, as well as on a color business card for easy reference.
Unfortunately, as of this writing, the badge doesn’t list shipping to the United States where I reside, though you can sign up to get notified if it becomes available. Spacehuhn stickers, featured in this post, do ship to the US, or for another space-themed solder kit option, you could check out the Space Girl Soldering Kit seen here.
