Support

Some common problems which occur with kits often have a simple solution.  Before sending us an email, check our Troubleshooting Tips below.  If you are unable to locate a solution to your problem, let us know and we will try to help.

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Troubleshooting Tips

Kit: Active A002; 16 LED Light Chaser
Problem:  LEDs all stay on solid, regardless of the position of the switches.
Solution: The timing capacitor packaged with some of the kits turned out to be faulty, preventing oscillation from occurring at the correct frequency.

Kit: Active A003; 2000Watt color light organ
Problem:  Lights are not flashing except when the volume is very high.
Solution: Turn all controls on the kit to maximum.  Lights should flash even at a quarter volume.  Once the lights are flashing, slowly turn down the controls for each light until you have the desired effect.  The power (watts) of your audio source makes little difference so even your walkman should produce results.

If the above fails, try the modification here:  KIT-A003-MOD

Kit: Active A021; Stepper Motor Controller II
Problem:  Lost or corrupted controller software.
Solution: Download and extract A021.ZIP to a floppy disk.

Kit: Maxitronix 300-in-One Electronics Lab
Problem: Project #2, A Transistor Radio
When the circuit is powered on it fails to function, and wires connected to pins 31 through 35 get hot.
Solution: This is a positive ground circuit, which makes for some confusion if you are used to ground being negative or zero.  The wiring instruction G11-35-32-31-ground can easily be misinterpreted to mean "connect 31 to the negative power rail."  However this ground should be connected to Earth ground.  Good Earth grounds are cold water pipes (hot water pipes are no good as the water tank can isolate them from ground).  If you do not have an available Earth ground, then do not connect the ground wire.  The circuit will still work without Earth ground connected, but reception may be poorer.

Kit: Maxitronix 500-in-One Electronics Lab
Problem: Project #2, A Transistor Radio
Same issue as the Maxitronix 300-in-One lab, project #2 - see above.

Kit: Helium Neon Laser Kit
Problem: How is this kit assembled?
Solution: A wiring diagram can be found here:  Laser Hookup

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