i've created life!

Today I decided to branch out a little bit and play with some electronics. I lack any and all relevant knowledge or experience so I started very small. I picked up a basic soldering toolkit and a kit to build a "Game of Life" made up of some LED's placed on a circuit board.

The game of life is a simple programming trick that let's you see how individual cells live and die depending upon their proximity to other live cells. The cells are represented by the 4x4 grid of LED's that are provided in the kit that I used. You can see them there lying on the desk.


The first step was to insert the resistors. There was 16 that came with the set. Every one had to bent like a staple and threaded through pairs of tiny holes.


I found it very efficient to insert them as a bundle, soldering the connections and trimming the extra all at one time.


The chip fixture was the hardest to do by far. I think there were at least 16 tiny pins that I needed to solder.


My weapon of choice.


Time to add the lights!


A little bit of juice...


And viola! I've created life.


The action in real-time.

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