Well thanks to one generous member (thank you again bisquit476) I was able to finish my original Aether 1's tonight. Not too bad of a build although my "cooking" didn't seem to go the best so I touched up everything with the iron. I also seemed to err on the side of not enough paste and some of the components looked a little light on the solder so I added more at the same time.
Couple of things I ran into. First, the diagnostic firmware in the wiki did not work. I think it was an earlier version. I finally found a version in a forum posting that worked. I would update it, but I can barely edit text in the wiki so I will leave that up to someone more qualified.
Also, it might be beneficial to note what the diagnostic firmware does. I had a hard time finding and understanding what it does and how to use it...especially when the one in the wiki didn't work. I didn't know if I needed to hook it up to the dongle, work in Vixen, etc. to make it work. BTW, it should cycle through all three colors continuously by itself with only power applied and does not have to be hooked up to a DMX signal.
Anyway, both of my Aethers had all 6 LED's cycle through red, green, and blue so I assume I am good to go. Nice bright lights.
-Keith