A little over a year ago I started to get interested in Amateur Radio and the SoftRock  really peaked my interest. I ended up getting a few random kits to practice my soldering and electronics building skills. I was determined to be experienced by the time I built the SoftRock to ensure its success. Some of the interesting/random projects I touched on have already been posted about. Most consisted of through-hole-style soldering. Considering the SoftRock has a a far amount of Surface mount parts I ended up picking up a Digital Oscilloscopes from SeeedStudio  and slowly worked on it several months ago, and only recently got new motivation when receiving my Amateur Radio License. Over the course of the last couple weekend my JYE Tech Oscope finally got completed.

Oscope
     My initial checkout of the unit was a let down, I just couldn’t get the display to work. Luckily there was a great Google Group  dedicated to this unit that ended up being invaluable. I came across all sorts of great advice and found and excellent troubleshooting guide which helped me isolate and correct several minor errors. The screen continued to be a problem so I posted to the group  for advice. While finding a resolution was not immediate, the actual manufacture contacted me and continued to help. Thought just a few emails they accurately determined my LCD had an error and sent a free replacement. (Thanks again!)
     Working on this kit was a great experience, I feel more comfortable with Surface mount soldering, learned some troubleshooting techniques, got to try out my Bus Pirate  for the first time. (Well documented here , which was another huge help.) Also officially made my first RF cable to check it out. My unit is still running the original Firmware, but I’m hoping to update it soon when some some Max232 I ordered come in. Was unfortunately never able to get the Bus Pirate to update the firmware, just to monitor it while running, which was neat enough for me (and ultimately help narrow down the problem to the LCD.)

     I have to give this unit and the manufacture the highest credit on several accounts: low cost, good documentation and support, continual firmware updates (improving capability and bug fixes), and a nice compact design. Pics are of my finished product, tape measure for size reference. Clicking on the picture goes to the Flickr set which shows a side view.