Cordwood Puzzle Too

by Boldport

The second in the series of Boldport's Cordwood Puzzles, an old method of PCB assembly with through-hole components sandwiched between PCB layers. A little slice of history!

In the 1950s and 1960s inventive engineers saved space by using the 'cordwood' assembly, where components were sandwiched in between two circuit boards. This construction became less useful with reduced component sizes, PCB manufacturing advances, more compact integration, and surface mount technology, but is still a lovely piece of history. Combining both old and new, the Cordwood Puzzle Too is a tribute to this construction and to the engineers who came up with it.

The puzzle is to correctly assemble the circuit with the components at hand. Once completed, all of the LEDs light up when power is applied. When connected to a controller board each LED can be individually controlled.

Unfortunately(!), all the comprehensive assembly guides were mysteriously missing from the kits.

Note: requires through-hole soldering!

Click here for the kit contents and assembly guide

Cordwood Puzzle Too was project #13 of the Boldport Club.

3 customer reviews

2 years ago
I got this as a present fora father and son to spend a weekend together. Once they opened it, they were quite excited about it.
by Tayfun about Cordwood Puzzle Too via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
I bought the Cordwood puzzle as soldering practice for my daughter. I have already done of these and other Boldport kits with my family. This one is simple enough to solder for a kid, and you can light it in various ways with little additional effort (my daughter's micro:bit for instance, or just batteries).
by Ronan about Cordwood Puzzle Too via REVIEWS.io