Build Instructions
Looking for shorter instructions? Look no further. We’ve prepared a shorter page with the suggested soldering order.
What about printable instructions? Here are the full build instructions all on one page.
Step 0: Gather Tools
To build the Video Game Shield, you will need a few common tools for soldering and electronics work. A soldering iron and solder are the most important tools. You can use any soldering iron, although a higher-quality, temperature-controlled adjustable iron will be easier to work with and give higher quality results. Any standard solder for small electronics will do just fine.
To bend the leads of the push button, you might need a pliers or similar tool. We used the pliers on a wire strippers. To trim the extra leads on the bottom of the pcb a diagonal pliers will work very well.
If you need some additional guidance and instruction on soldering, SparkFun, NASA, and Curious Inventor all have quality soldering tutorials.
Step 1: Part Identification
Open the bag of parts, and make sure you have all of the parts listed below. It might be easier to lay them out as shown in the picture. Click to enlarge.
- (1) Video Game Shield PCB
- (2) 1k Ohm resistors
- (3) 470 Ohm resistors
- (6) 10k Ohm resistors
- (1) 0.1 uF ceramic capacitor
- (1) Light Emitting Diode (LED)
- (1) Pushbutton switch
- (3) N-channel MOSFET transistors
- (1) 47 uF electrolytic capacitor
- (1) 4066 switch IC and Chip Socket
- (1) 3x RCA jack
- (1) Pin Headers
This kit is easy to solder, and shouldn’t take too long. We’ll start with the easiest parts, and work our way to the more complicated parts. The general plan is to solder in the shortest parts first, and the tallest parts last.
Some parts are polarized, and have to go in the board a certain way, but also some parts are not polarized. In the steps to follow, if a part is polarized, we will mention which way it must be installed. The PCB is also be marked to identify the polarization.
