We had a lot of fun making this speed build video for the Paris Flyer CarouSol Kit by Solarbotics. If you aren't already familiar, Solarbotics makes a great line of DIY electronics kits made from laser cut materials. They range from quite simple to fairly complex. The Paris Flyer CarouSol kit takes about two hours to assemble and requires a few tools. Be sure to check out the video for a fast-paced look at what it takes to put everything together, plus some helpful tips we discovered along the way!
The Build
Tools Required
- Soldering Iron
- Solder
- White glue or wood glue
- Wire cutters
Tinkerer's Tips
Check out the video for all of the best tips that we have for this kit, here are the tips we think are most important for a good assembly experience.
Wire Stripping - The wire in this kit is ultra small and very difficult to strip the insulation off without damaging the wire. We found that it was much easier to melt back the solder a bit from the ends of the wire with the soldering iron. Normally we would not recommend doing this, but for this wire, it saves a lot of time and potential heartache.
Component Placement - Some of the electrical parts in the kit look a lot alike (nearly identical). They are distinguished from each other by having paper taped onto the legs when you get them out of the kit. Pay special attention to the placement of the transistor and trigger, and the two capacitors. Each of these components has a very similar looking counterpart, and putting them in the wrong place will keep your kit from working.
Installing the propellor - The directions indicate that the propeller should be installed on the motor right away so you can test your build. We found that the propeller must be removed again at the end of the assembly to route the wires properly, but we couldn't get it back off. Either test you build without the prop when you first assemble the electricals or push the prop on just a little so you can take it back off until the very last step. We had to desolder our motor and then resolder it in position in the model, which is pretty tricky!
More Great Kits
Did you love the Solarbotics Paris Flyer CarouSol Kit but just want more? Then check out the Solarbotics GraviTrack Marble Machine Kit, any other Solarbotics Kit!
