Many LED badge kits nowadays have SMD parts, or perhaps an onboard microcontroller animating all kinds of RGB goodness. This excellent Gundam-themed badge eschews all this by using 4 fading and flashing through-hole RGB LEDs mounted on the reverse side.
This badge is emulating the look of the classic Gundam RX78 which can trace its heritage back to the very earliest of Gundam history. With the badge being designed with teaching young people to solder we wonder if it also opens the door to some modern cultural history lessons about Gundam and other pre “Transformers” cartoons and comics.
The badge makes use of white silkscreen on red PCB and there is a section behind the eyes where the reverse side has no copper or mask so should allow a decent amount of light through. There are large pads to receive a CR2032 coin cell holder and the badge also comes with a brooch pin. All in all, we think this an excellent choice for teaching younger hands to solder, but also if you are a Gundam fan of any age it may very well appeal!
Finally, if you want a step-by-step walkthrough of assembling this badge, or indeed you would like to see the LEDs in action hop over to the Instructables page which is listed as the project documentation for all the details.
