Assembly

by Tyler Cooper
If you have the assembled version, skip this step, it's done for you!
Prepare to assemble the kit by checking the parts list and verifying you have everything!

Next, heat up your soldering iron and clear off your desk.

Place the circuit board in a vise so that you can easily work on it.
Begin by soldering a small bump onto the negative pad of the battery: this will make better contact!

Place the two 2.2K resistors, and the ceramic capacitor. They are symmetric so no need to worry about direction. If you're planning on using with a Raspberry Pi (which has 3.3V logic and built in pull-ups, skip the 2.2K resistors!

Then place the crystal (also symmetric), the battery holder (goes on so that the battery can slip in the side) and the RTC chip.

The RTC chip must be placed so that the notch/dot on the end match the silkscreen. Look at the photo on the left, the notch is pointing down. Double check this before soldering in the chip because its quite hard to undo!
To keep the battery holder from falling out, you may want to 'tack' solder it from the top.

Then flip over the board and solder all the pins.
Clip the leads of the resistors, crystal and capacitor short.
If you'd like to use the header to plug the breakout board into something, place the header in a breadboard, long side down and place the board so that the short pins stick thru the pads.

Solder them in place.
Insert the battery so that the flat + side is UP. The battery will last for many years, 5 or more, so no need to ever remove or replace it.

You MUST have a coin cell installed for the RTC to work, if there is no coin cell, it will act strangly and possibly hang the Arduino so ALWAYS make SURE there's a battery installed, even if its a dead battery.
PARTS LIST WIRING IT UP
This guide was first published on Jan 29, 2013. It was last updated on Jan 29, 2013. This page (Assembly) was last updated on Aug 21, 2019.