CANADUINO MEGA2560 PLC 300-24 DIY Soldering Kit for Arduino MEGA 2560

EDIT: I discovered this kit as delivered has an issue detecting 3.3 V inputs. This is IMneverHO an EVIL type of error because they yellow LED illuminates with 3.3VDC(as if) but the Arduino can not actually detect anything. Too bad so sad, the game is not just illuminating the LEDs. My notes below listing substitutions indicate a 3.2kOhm Rpak was provided for R15 and R17. I have experimented and found a value of 2.5kOhm will make it work. If you add a 10kOhm resistor across a single resistor in the existing Rpak you can fix a single channel if desired. I did not research and calculate if the targets of this(IC6, IC7, IC9, and IC10) can tolerate the modification when supplied with a 24VDC input. You have been warned ;-) ---NO STARS SUBTRACTED---(yet) I'm treating it as an added adventure tangent because I am very familiar with and enjoy hardware troubleshooting. It's the nature of the beast in DIY! My unedited claim below to have actually calculated what should work is a bit of a stretch, please forgive my base indulgance. ;-) //END OF EDIT I'm a fan. I like building kits that do fun stuff and this PLC kit has huge potential. It's not a 'beginner' kit IMneverHO but it _is_ easy intermediate. It tolerated my rusty soldering skills while I dialed in tip temp. My kit included some undocumented part substitutions but it is/was possible to calculate that what is provided should probably work (IE: may not be an error). I just blundered on and so far so good. Substituton details: R2, R5 instructions call for B561 (560 Ohm) my kit had B331 (330 Ohm) R14, R21 instructions call for A272 (2.7 kOhm) my kit had B222 (2.2 kOhm) R15, R17 instructions call for A392 (3.9 kOhm) my kit had A322 (3.2 kOhm) Resistors is kinda like hand grenades, close often works just as well. Mine looks great, it powered right up with no suprises and appears fully functional. I attribute that to the kit and the instructions not necessarily my superb skills. For me it is/was a great choice. Great price! I already banked a lot of fun value out of it. I plan to use OpenPLC on it. I will probably enjoy navigating 'that' portion of this DIY adventure also! YMMV :-)

Purchased for a robotics project and everything is working well. Kit was easy to assemble, but maybe a bit much for a first time kit builder. The only improvement I would suggest is adding some high speed digital outputs (non relay) for driving things like stepper motors. Or at least screw terminals for the aux connector.

Here my own prototype.I enjoyed assembled it. It will be good add a top cover accessory.

I bought this controller for use with a program of mine. It perfect for what I needed, however some of the capacitors and resistor packs are cross referenced part number, so some parts are hard to identify. Along with that I found with my board the IO pinout labels printed on the PCB referencing the Arduino pins were not correct. The correct pinout was labeled on the schematics. There are other reviews that list this problem. Other than that I was satisfied!!!

Good product and support

I have purchased at least 7 of these over the last 2 years. Great documentation, well designed and made. A lot of soldering to do, you need to understand how resistor arrays work and make sure you put them in their correct spot. The instructions are well done and if you follow them carefully, you will have no problems. I have used these in several large pieces of equipment I designed, not one has failed.

Not a components were to spec so it didn’t pass the testing. Now I need to find the right parts to make the final voltages correct.