Are You Comparing Apples with Apples?

A UK company is selling a range of kits called Kitmaster. We sent off for a few of their kits, all of which appear to be built on what they call a 'TRIPAD PCB BUILD AS YOU SEE SYSTEM' (which in reality is just a variation on stripboard).

Having seen their kits we now know why they do not show pictures of them in either their magazine adverts or website. Is this deceit and deception? We put before you the evidence and let you decide for yourself! As they say, a picture paints a thousand words.

Please note that the kit supplied by QUASAR is on the RIGHT!! 

KITMASTER
KIT B75

One Transistor FM Transmitter (note only one transistor)

PRICE: £6.50

QUASAR ELECTRONICS
KIT 3007

Two transistor FM transmitter (yes that's two transistors not one!)

PRICE: £6.95

The Assembled Kit

An ugly rats nest of amateurish appearance. Would you show this to your friends?

The Assembled Kit

Compact, tidy and professional looking. We think it looks the business. Show it to your friends without fear of ridicule!

The PCB

The Front

The front of the board is shown above. As you can see, there is NO legend to show you the component positions. To be fair, the components were already in the board when it arrived (but where's the fun and learning in that?). This is also the solder side of the board (although we haven't actually done the soldering). There is NO solder resist and NO roller tinned finish to aid soldering. There is a much higher chance of dry (bad) joints with an untinned board like this unless you remove all of the components and clean oxidisation with wire wool before soldering. Now all you need to do is remember which holes the components go back into and what their orientation was.....

The back

This is the back of the Tripad stripboard. As you can see, there IS nothing to see apart from the holes.

Can you call this a 'PCB BUILD AS YOU SEE SYSTEM'?

Board Dimensions

87 x 100mm (so there is plenty of it!)

The PCB

All of our 3000 and 1000 series kits are supplied with high quality, custom made fibreglass PCBs. This is the PCB that is supplied with Quasar kit 3007.

Front

This is the front or component side of the PCB. It has a component legend that shows you exactly where to place the components.

Back

This is the back or solder side of the PCB. It has a solder resist mask and roller tinned finish to aid soldering. These greatly reduce the chance of soldering problems and greatly increase the chances that you kit will work first time round.

Maybe we can also give our kits a fancy name like 'PCB BUILD AS YOU SEE SYSTEM'. At least there is actually something to see on our boards. They even have outlines of the components to help you with the positioning! Are we making this too easy for our customers?

Board Dimensions

20 x 45mm (compact by comparison)

Plus points

Save yourself less than 50 pence on the kit. We paid a postage charge ?3 Postage. Quasar Electronics charge £2 postage.

Plus points

A compact, high quality PCB and better two transistor circuit. Easier to assemble and as a result far more likely to work first time.

A rather one-sided review you might say. Well, of course we have weighted the comments in our favour but then it is not hard to do in this case.

Ultimately, it is your money and the final verdict is yours. We like to think that although our kits may cost a little more, they really are about the best VALUE your money can buy.

If you have any comments or think any of the information presented here is inaccurate please email us at

Comparisons based on information and prices at 12th October 2000