How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love To Solder My openVolver
Welcome, proud owner of a openVolver. It will probably take around 2 hours to solder your blinky.
YOU WILL NEED:
A soldering iron. Any iron will work, though a smaller tip will work better. If you have a big battleship style soldering iron, you may want to hit the local Radio Shack and find a smaller tip.
A wet sponge to clean your soldering iron with.
Some solder. Just about any solder, including rosin-core or silver-bearing, will work just fine. Do not use acid-core solder.
A nippy cutter to trim leads with. A pair of dykes will work but not as well.
RECOMMENDED:
Solder braid in case you make an error.
A magnifying glass to check your work with.
A clean, well lit working space away from cats.
Hot glue or double-sided foam tape.
OPTIONAL:
Flux Remover
A nasty old toothbrush
Your blinky kit comes the the following parts:
The process of assembling your blinky kit consists of three things that you will do over and over again. They are:
STUFFING parts into holes in the circuit board
SOLDERING those parts into the circuit board
CLIPPING the leads that stick out
HOW TO STUFF
Place your part through the holes in the board. Make sure it is pressed flat against the circuit board. You may need to bend the leads out so it does not fall out when you turn the board over. You can also use a piece of cardboard or anything else flat and stiff to hold parts in place when you turn the board over.
HOW TO SOLDER
Soldering isn't hard to get the hang of. The key thing to remember is to heat the joint, not the solder.
First, make sure your iron is tinned. This is done by melting a bit of solder onto the tip of the iron and wiping it on the sponge. It should be shiny and silver. If you cannot get the tip of your soldering iron to become shiny and silver, you may need a new tip.
Hold your iron on the pad (the shiny part of the circuit board) where the lead comes through. Hold it there for a few seconds to heat the joint up. Then, when it's good and hot, touch the solder lightly to the joint. You don't need to use a lot of solder to make a good connection. Your solder joint should look like a tapered volcano. If it looks like a volcano with straight edges, that's OK, but you can use less solder. If it looks like a ball, you are using too much solder and you may not be getting the joint hot enough.
This is what the process looks like. Notice that the solder is not touching the tip of the iron. It is melting in the joint.
Here is a picture of some well-soldered pins. From last year's blinky.
HOW TO CLIP:
Use your nippy cutter to clip the leads off the board after you've soldered them. Clip them just above the solder joint - do not force your cutter to be absolutely flush with the board and clip the entire solder joint off.
OK, on to assembling your blinky. You will want the contents of your kit sorted out in front of you.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE ON ASSEMBLING:
This is the bottom of the circuit board!
STEP 1: THE ICs
There are 5 ICs in the kit. Two of them, the MBI5026 LED drivers, have tiny pin spacing. These go into IC2 and IC3. There is a notch at one end of the IC. MAKE SURE THIS NOTCH LINES UP WITH THE NOTCH IN THE CIRCUIT BOARD. This is hella important for the functionality of your piece. IC5 is labeled SN74L5245 and is the only IC of that size. IC4 is labeled MBI5169 and is also the only chip of its size. IC1 is the AVR MEGA328P and it is the electronic brain that runs the show. All of these guys must have their notches lined up with the notches on the circuit board.
You may find that the pins of the ICs are a little too wide to fit in the holes. To fix this, place the chip on its side on a flat hard surface. Place your thumbs over the pins on the other side. Squeeze evenly and gently until you feel the pins bend inward just a little. Do not squeeze too hard and over-bend the pins. If you do, you can carefully bend them back with a pliers.
You will see the chip on the left has carefully bent leads.
When you have stuffed the ICs, turn the board over and solder them in. You do not need to clip the leads of the ICs as they are already short.
STEP 2: LOTS OF SHORT PARTS
You will see two different types of resistors and two different types of small capacitors in front of you. There are two different values of each of these. The values are labeled on the tape holding them together. The 10K resistor is the one that's floating around. Stuff them into the board in the following places:
.1 uf capacitor: C1, C2, C3, C4, C12
1 uf capacitor: C10, C11 (make sure not to get the 1uf and .1uf capacitors mixed up!)
22pf capacitor: C5, C6
1.87K resistors: R1, R2, R3
10K resistor: R4
Crystal: Q1
Button: S2
Potentiometer:VR1
3.3 volt regulator: U3
Switch: unlabeled but it looks like a switch, you can't miss it!
You should stuff and solder all of these parts except for the voltage regulator and switch first.
Do not worry about the orientation of any of these parts.
If you get the capacitors or resistors mixed up, fear not. The .1uf capacitors have '104' printed on them in tiny letters, and the 22pf capacitors have '22J'. The 10K resistors have brown, black, orange, and gold bands. The 1.91K resistors have brown, grey, red, and gold bands.
You may need to bend the legs of these parts to keep them from sliding out when you flip the board.
While you're at it, put the crystal (metal and shiny) into Q1. The button will snap into and S2. The potentiometer goes into VR1, and you may have to cram it in there a little -- the holes are a tight tolerance.
Then turn the board over, solder the parts in, and clip the leads that are sticking out. You do not have to clip the leads of the button.
After you've done this step, you will solder the 3.3volt regulator. It has the 3 leads. This is where we confess to fucking up a little. We got the part outline wrong on the board. This is why your board has Sharpie on it. Follow the Sharpie! The flat edge of the voltage regulator should be on the same side as the 2 1uf capacitors and the switch. We are sorry!
After soldering the 3.3V regulator, solder the switch.
As you solder these connections, you will notice that some of the pads need more heat than others. These pads are part of the ground plane, which makes them take longer to solder. Be patient and apply heat until the solder melts into the joint.
STEP 3: THE POLARIZED CAPACITORS AND THE 5V VOLTAGE REGULATOR
Next up is the switch. It likes to fall out, so you may want to grab a piece of cardboard or a book and hold it against the switch and the board as you turn it over. It goes in the only place it will fit, though it is not labeled.
Next up, you will stuff the polarized capacitors. They go in C7 and C8, and they are the same, so it doesn't matter which goes into which. It is important that you get their orientation correct! The long lead is closer to the outline for the battery holder.. This puts the grey stripe facing out towards the edge of the board. There is a mark around one of the pads on the board -- the shorter of the two leads should be enclosed by that mark.
Also stuff the voltage regulator at this time. It goes into U2, the only place it will fit. Align the silver backing of the part with the line on the circuit board. Be careful while soldering it as the pads are closer together than on most of the other components.
AT THIS POINT CHECK OVER YOUR WORK TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NO BRIDGED CONNECTIONS OR UNSOLDERED PARTS. ESPECIALLY CHECK THE SWITCHES, VOLTAGE REGULATOR, CRYSTAL, AND 22UF CAPACITORS. IF ANYTHING LOOKS SUSPICIOUS, TOUCH YOUR SOLDERING IRON INTO THE JOINT AND REHEAT THE CONNECTION UNTIL YOU SEE IT MELT. THIS IS KNOWN AS 'REFLOWING'.
Also, if you want the front of your board to look extra-good, you will want to use flux remover on all the pads you have soldered.
STEP 4: THE SPACER AND THE LEDS 
The next thing to do is place the acrylic spacer on top of the circuit board, in such a manner that it sits flat on the board and the ovals match up with the LEDs. If you are looking at the circuit board with the switch at the bottom right, the two large holes on the spacer should be on the right side.
You're getting close! Next up are the most important parts of any blinky. The LEDs should be stuff into the front side of the board, through the ovals in the spacer.
Be careful when flipping the board that the LEDs don't slide out. Try to keep them from getting soldered in at an angle. The way to fix a crooked LED is to reheat both the pads at once while pushing the LED in with your other hand from the other side of the board. You will need to hold the board up to attempt this process.
You can clip the LEDs when they are all soldered in, or you can clip them as you go along to open up room to solder more easily. There are a couple of LEDs that are pretty hard to get to -- rotate your soldering iron around to get a good angle on the one that's in between the voltage regulator and the polarized capacitors.
There is one LED that is very close to the microSD card slot -- watch out to not bridge that connection.
STEP 5: THE BATTERY HOLDER
Last up is the battery holder. It goes in through the back. Make sure to get a good solder joint on it. We've made the pads bigger this year so it won't have the problems it had in previous years. You can still hot glue it when you're done though.
Stick in a battery, turn it on, and you should be blinking!