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. |
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Begin by soldering a small bump onto the negative pad of the battery: this will make better contact! |
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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! |
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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. |
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Clip the leads of the resistors, crystal and capacitor short. |
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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. |
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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. |
Assembly
If you have the assembled version, skip this step, it's done for you!
This guide was first published on Jan 29, 2013. It was last updated on Jan 29, 2013.
This page (Assembly) was last updated on Jan 23, 2021.