Check the kit against the parts list to verify you have all the parts necessary.

Put the printed circuit board into a vise or board holder, heat up your soldering iron and make sure you're ready to go!

Repeat for all four legs. The solder points should be clean and shiny. See the tutorials for soldering help if you can't get it right.

Next is the 1.0 kilo ohm resistor R5. This is the brown-black-red striped part. This resistor sets the brightness of the little indicator LED. Resistors are symmetric, so it can go in either way.

Bend the legs so it looks like a staple and insert it into the R5 location as shown.

Then bend the legs out a bit so that when you turn the PCB over the part doesn't fall out.

Now it's time to place the small indicator LED LED5. LED's are not symmetric and must be placed correctly in order to work. You'll notice one leg of the LED is longer than the other. This is the positive leg. The positive leg goes into the hole with a + next to it. In the picture shown, its the left hole.

Insert the LED into the correct location, and bend the leads out to keep it from falling out when you turn the PCB over.

The next part is the ceramic capacitor C1. Ceramic capacitors are symmetric so it can go in either way.

Next, place 2 components. The ceramic oscillator and the 8-pin socket. The oscillator has 3 pins and is symmeteric. The oscillator is the timeclock for the microcontroller, making sure that it is performing its functions at the correct speed.

The socket is for protecting the chip and making it easy to insert and remove.

The socket has a little notch in one end. That notch should match the one in the picture silkscreened onto the circuit board. This will help you place the microcontroller in properly later.

Strip the ends of the wire off so that there's a short section without insulation.

Insert the wires into the PCB so that the red wire goes to the + hole and the black wire goes to the - hole.

Solder the wires, then clip them if they're too long.

Carefully insert the microcontroller into the socket. Make sure that the little dot (and triangle) are at the end with the notch in the socket. In this photo, the dot is on the upper left.

The microcontroller is the device that stores all the codes and turns the LEDs on and off according to a program.

Test the kit now by putting two good AA batteries into the holder. The green indicator light should blink to show that the microcontroller is functioning properly. If you don't get a blinking light check the batteries, make sure the indicator LED is in correctly,and that the chip is in the right way.

In older kits you would have to press the button to get the blinking to start.

Once you've verified it's working, remove the batteries.

Next place the 1.0K ohm resistors, R1. This is the base resistor for the PNP transistor.

Now place the single 2N2907 PNP transitor Q5.

Next are the four NPN (2N2222) transistors Q1 Q2 Q3 and Q4. These are the devices that turn on and off the high power IR LEDs. The microcontroller doesn't have the capability to provide a lot of power directly to the LEDs so these transistors assist it.

Transistors have three pins. Bend the middle pin back a little and insert it so that the rounded and flattened sides match up with the picture silkscreened onto the circuit board, as shown. The transistor won't be able to sit flat against the circuit board, so just make it poke up a few millimeters.

Insert all 4 transistors.

Next is the IR LEDs. Start with LED1, a clear IR led. Like the small indicator LED, it has polarity. Make sure the longer, positive lead is on the right, as shown.

Bend the LED over 90 degrees so it sticks out over the edge of the circuit board, see below

Now solder it to the top of the circuit board.

Then clip the leads.

You're done soldering! Now you may want to perform some tests to make sure it's working. Visit the Testing page for more info.

If you're in the EU, UK, Australia, place the remaining 10K resistor into R3. This will tell the micrcontroller to use the EU database.

If you're in Asia or North America do not place R3.