FLASHING CHRISTMAS TREE KIT

8
10 7

11 6
R4

R3

C4
12 5
T4
R5
T3

R7

C3
4
13
C2

T2
3
OWNER’S
MANUAL
R1

14
R6

R8
T1

15 2

C1

R2
1

16

Cat. No.
277-8001

CUSTOM MANUFACTURED FOR TANDY CORPORATION LTD

ASSEMBLY NOTES
TOOLS
You will need the following tools to assemble your kit...

Soldering Iron Side Cutters

ASSEMBLY
Tandy kits feature our unique in-line assembly system; making them easy to follow. With our in-line as-
sembly system all of the components have been provided in a sealed plastic sleeve in the recommended
assembly order. Simply open each section in turn and install them on the circuit board to complete the
kit. Each component is clearly labelled for easy identification.

SOLDERING
Soldering is one of the most important operations you will perform while assembling your kit. A good
solder connection will form an electrical connection between the component and circuit board. A bad
solder connection could prevent an otherwise well-assembled kit from operating properly.

It is easy to make a good solder joint by following a few simple rules:

1. Use the right type of soldering iron. A 15 to 25watt standard soldering iron designed for elec-
tronics or a temperature controlled soldering station with a 2 to 3mm conical or pointed tip fitted
should be used.

2. Keep the soldering iron tip clean. Wipe it often on a wet sponge or cleaning pad; then apply solder
to the tip to give it a thin coating of solder. This process is called tinning, and will protect the tip
and enable you to make good connections.

3. Apply the iron to the component lead and circuit board pad at the same time and apply the solder
to the joint rather than the iron.

NOTE: Always use solder 60/40 rosin core or lead-free solder intended for electronics use. We recommend
a fine grade of 1.0mm for best results.

IMPORTANT
Due to the risks of injury when using a hot soldering iron it is
recommend that children are supervised when soldering.
PARTS LIST
Inspect the kit and check each part against this list. Do NOT remove the parts from the plastic sleeve at this
point as doing so would make the components more difficult to identify during construction.

1 100Ω Resistors (R1,R2,R3,R4)

2 100KΩ Resistors (R5,R6,R7,R8)
3 5mm Red LEDs
4 22 µF Electrolytic Capacitor (C1 & C2)
5 10 µF Electrolytic Capacitor (C3 & C4)
6 Transistors (T1,T2,T3,T4)
7 Switch
8 Battery Clip

STEP-BY-STEP ASSEMBLY
Remove the circuit board from the packet and identify the top side, the top has the part numbers printed
on it, all of the components will be placed on this side of the board and soldered on the underside.

RESISTORS
The first component to solder are the 100Ω resistors marked R1, R2, R3, and
R4 on the circuit board. Carefully bend the wires at 90 degrees from the body
of the resistor, parallel to each other so they will fit through the holes on the
circuit board. Resistors can be inserted either way round as they are not polarity
sensitive, however it does look neater and make identifying things easier if you
solder them all in the same direction.

Now follow the same procedure with the 100KΩ resistors to be soldered in to
the positions marked R5 through to R8.

LEDs
LEDs or Light Emitting Diodes must be soldered in the correct way-round or
they will not light up. There are two ways to identify which way-round an
LED should be used. The first is that the legs are different lengths, the shorter
one goes at the bottom. There is also a flat edge on the side of with the short
leg. You will see that the flat edge is printed on the circuit board to help with
positioning.
 CAPACITORS
The capacitors supplied in this kit are polarized Electrolytic Capacitors meaning
that it is important that they are installed the correct way-round. The negative
leg can be identified by a white stripe printed on the side of the capacitor.
Printed on the PCB is a + symbol to show where the positive leg should go.
The longer leg is the positive connection.

c b e TRANSISTORS
There are three connections on a transistor, the collector (c), the base (b), and
the emitter (e). To make it easy to identify how to fit the transistor it has a flat
side and the circuit board has an outline printed on it to show what direction
to install it. The legs of the transistor will need to be separated a bit in order
to fit in the holes, take care not to push the transistor in to far.

SWITCH
Solder the switch in place so that it points towards the base of the tree.

BATTERY CLIP
Pass the wires from the battery clip through the two holes on the circuit board
from the back to the front. The red wire is the positive terminal and should be
soldered to the point marked + on the PCB.

CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
The Christmas tree circuit consists of two astable oscillators. Astable means not stable meaning that
the circuit keeps changing state. The speed that the LEDs flash (known as frequency) is determined by
the value of the capacitor and the charging resistor.

The frequency is dependent on the amount of time it takes for the capacitor to charge, increasing the
value of the capacitors will slow down the flashing (reduce frequency) as they will take longer to charge.
SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM

LED4 LED6 LED3 LED5

LED2 LED8 LED1 LED7

LED16 LED10 LED15 LED9

9V battery
LED14 LED12 LED13 LED11

R2 R6 R8 R4 R1 R5 R7 R3
100R 100K 100K 100R 100R 100K 100K 100R

Switch
C1 22µF C2 22µF C3 10µF C4 10µF
c c c c
b b b b
TR1 TR2 TR3 TR4
e BC548 BC548 e e BC548 BC548 e