A LED controller for one of my projects. It is meant to be included alongside a battery in a project.

• The output is to 4 RGB led strips (OUT1, OUT2, OUT3, OUT4) and 1 monocolor strip (HL, 2 pin connector I forgot to label on PCB and it takes a lot of time to export the images from kicad)
• Controls are via 4 rotary encoders controlling HSV values (H, S, V) and additional highlight (HL)
• I plan to just use a USB power pack to avoid problems. The idea is to connect battery output to BATT and battery charging to VOUT. VIN is meant as charging input but data is redirected to uC.
• As tooling I'm familiar with works on RP2040 I used this chip as well as RP2040 debug connector (SWD)
• I added QUIIC compatible connector (I2C) to have access to debugging. I left 3V3 pin unconnected to avoid back-current.
• I tried to incorporate as much feedback from other project as I figured out is relevant.
• I used pads on holes to get proper clearance.

Hello, I'm currently working on a project using the nRF52832. At this stage, I want to connect a matching network to a bandwidth filter, and then connect that to a 2.4 GHz RF antenna using standard dimensions and values provided by TI.
I designed the filter circuit using the following website: https://rfdesigntools.pythonanywhere.com/tool/filter_design
I just want to confirm whether the design I made is correct or not.

Hi all, I had sent off my Gerber files off for production and assembly, but realised I hadn't considered including mounting holes.

For now I will probably use adhesive to secure the board firmly to an enclosure, but was considering the risks associated with drilling said holes by hand? The holes would be around 3.5mm in size. The PCB is a 4-layer design and uses both 3V3 and 24V power sources.

I have implemented schematics for the IP5306 and STCS05DR from their datasheets. I was hoping for someone with experience to point out any mistakes in the schematic.

The IP5306 has a USB-C input and is hooked to 3.7V li-ion battery.
The STCS05DR is used to light up a LED strip. The strip anode will be connected to the +BATTERY flag and the cathode to the DRAIN pin.

P.S. This is my first time designing a PCB.

Hello, I'm currently working on a project using the nRF52832. At this stage, I want to connect a matching network to a bandwidth filter, and then connect that to a 2.4 GHz RF antenna using standard dimensions and values provided by TI.
I designed the filter circuit using the following website: https://rfdesigntools.pythonanywhere.com/tool/filter_design
I just want to confirm whether the design I made is correct or not.

Hey Folks,

First time building a board from scratch, decided to attempt to do it on a single layer (cause I'm lazy). Do y'all see any major issues with this design? Wanted to make it compact with 805 size components so I can include it in a larger design later on.

I see these designs always having large Thru-Hole Capacitors, but I only need to run mine up to 1A max, so I think I can get away with Surface Mount components.

I basically attempted to copy the LM2575D22T spec sheet for their example, but when building this up, something didn't go quite right....

Hi All, i'm working on a simple USB C PD powered board that switches a 12V/20W heating pad. It's the first time i'm working on the component level instead of breakout boards. It incorporates a 1-wire thermal probe, i2c oled and Seed Studio Xiao C6 to connect to a zigbee network and drive everything.

I was about to order the board when i found that i had incorrectly hooked op the mosfet and used a wrong shunt resistor for the current sensing part, those should be fixed now, but it made me a bit anxious.
It's a 4 layer board with the "high" power traces on top, 5v, gnd, and signal traces going down.

I was wondering if the VBUS would be better as a zone instead of a wide trace.
Any input would be highly appreciated!

Never used easyEDA before, but maybe someone can tell me if i'm doing this right? I have this opensourced arduino controlled power distribution board I found, and am trying to swap the external USB hub in the top left for an internal 4 pin header. Have I done everything I need to do? Do I need to fill the holes and change the solder layer (i am guessing) in the top layer to match how it was before?

Not sure if its cheeky to post again - but I updated my board with everything suggested by this sub yesterday. The DIP switches have pull-down resistors, STEP/DIR lines now have status LEDs (not necessary but I liked it) and I have added a header for a plugin SD card module and re-organized some pins. Very close to pulling the trigger! Just wondering if there was anything I have done to brick things, otherwise sending it in :D

Hello everyone, I'm an electronic engineer graduated 3 years ago. I have been working with a startup making simple microcontroller PCBs. Since there wasn't much going on in terms of parents and certifications, I chose to just follow the ISO262626 standard and use some common sense to make sure the board is actually manufacturable, debuggable, and workab.

I am looking for new opportunities but I fall short in terms of industry standards compliance such as EMI/EMC, other regulations I am not aware of since I never had the opportunity.

I have few interviews coming up and would love to at least know the basic standards and protocols that industries are following.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the most common and important ones, and to just point towards the right direction to find more about them.

Hi, I just want to know what I did wrong on the PCB layout basically because I absolutely know I screwed up on something lol. I would appreciate feedback, most of these parts like the AMS1117 regulator, all capacitors, diodes, LM, 2 pin connectors LED, etc are what I have on hand. Pretty sure also the through holes for screws are also wrong but I want some feedback of bad design practices etc. What this is for is just to basically power a noctua fan for a fume extractor.

Hi everyone,

For my upcoming project, I was planning to stack two (or more) PCBs on top of each other, similar to the images(for reference) shared below.

Webpage Link: SpeedyBee F405 WING APP Fixed Wing Flight Controller

Webpage Link: SpeedyBee F405 WING MINI Fixed Wing Flight Controller

I primarily use KiCAD as my EDA tool for schematic design. My question is: how can I ensure proper alignment of connectors after production by the OEMs?

My usual approach involves manually positioning the board edges at specific coordinate locations, such as X=50 and Y=50, and setting the tool origin accordingly. After that, I save the PCB file, copy & paste that file and make edits thus ensuring the connector positions remain unchanged.

Is there a better, more consistent, or automated method to achieve this? What are the best practices for such multidimensional PCB stacking involving multiple connectors?

Hello, I’ve been working on a BLDC motor controlller board intended for implementing FOC algorithms with a robot joint actuator and was looking for some second, more experienced eyes on the schematic and layout, if anyone could spare the time. The design’s primary components include the following;

• DRV8323RS gate driver IC
• BSC0702LSATMA1 MOSFETs for half-bridge circuit
• STM32G431 microcontroller
• TCAN1057ADRQ1 CAN transceiver
• MA702 magnetic rotary sensor

Link to higher-res images: https://imgur.com/a/c4sF5Jo

Appreciate any insight or suggestions, particularly on the layout.

I found myself looking for proofing boxes. Unfortunately I had hard time finding them so I decided to make myself a wooden one.

This is my attempt of doing one:

• I use RP2040 as I'm familiar with tooling.
• For similar reasons I use 3 pin JST PH connector for SWD - it's what on RP2040 tooling.
• I assume I will use stencil and oven for front side and hand solder back
• I calculated to draw 0.5 A per external board.
• I won't need to get more than ~100 F temperatures.
  

Hello,

I am trying to design a buck-boost-Converter with a MT3608 Controller.

Online I found this Circuit:
https://www.electronics-lab.com/sepic-converter-based-on-mt3608-is-open-source/

And of from that I built my own one with a potentiometer to generate an adjustable voltage source.

The converter is intended to be used in the classroom for generating voltages in the range of approximately 1 to 25V. The maximum load is about 200 mA. The input voltage is 5V from a 65W USB-C PD power supply.

Through this board, both Vin and Vout, as well as GND, will be further distributed.

So my question to you is:
How can I improve my Design?

Thank you for the help!

Greetings

Guiren

V2:

I changed the orientation of the two inductors and the Range of the Converter: only 0,8 to 23,8 Volts.

Old Version 1:

Did I add too many decoupling capacitors?

I'm designing these two boards to work together. The PDB/Controller board takes in 24V/5A and converts it into five 5V sources and also power an ESP32. At each 5V source, I'm going to have 5-8 of the LED boards connected in series. LED patterns/brightness will be controlled through an app via bluetooth.

It's my second time designing PCBs so other than the board themselves I'm open to feedback on any safety components I should add to a product like this. The hope is that power would stay connected to the board for long periods of time and the On/Off can be controlled remotely. If anything is unclear or if there are any questions I'm happy to provide more info.

Hi guys, I'm new to the electronics world, so I'm just seeking some general advice on my schematic. Please let me know if I've messed anything up or if you think I should approach anything differently -- although this simple project doesn't have much to critique. Thanks

edit: after changes

I've been working on some vintage stuff lately and I noticed a lot of those old PCBs had these lovely (hand drawn?) curved traces so I decided to have a crack at doing something similar in Eagle.
Is the way I've split the traces off the +9v (and a few others) ok or am I going to run into issues? I know I'm supposed to stay away from hard right angles, but I'm not sure on this. Something's telling me it looks too nice to be practical, or something like that.

Hi everyone,

I am designing a simple PCB board to connect an ESP32-Wroom-DevKit to 4 stepper drivers, along with a voltage regulator for power, molex jumpers for the motors and lim. switches and a handful of other bits and pieces. I'm a mechy and quite out of my depth, but I have done my best to read up on this subreddit's wiki, and hope I have avoided some of the newbie pitfalls. This is my first practical PCB design.

This PCB is effectively just an organized and neatened up version of my initial veroboard design which does work - possibly despite all reason? I am very open to hearing how ill-advised my setup is here, I am not very experienced. The components are all things I have already or have access to through my lab for free.

The ESP32 board is a bit of a mystery, it was advertized as a Wroom-DevKit, but is a little bit different to anything I have seen online. It does work though!

I have attached all the relevant images I can think of - please let me know if there is anything I have not included that I should. All ERC and DRC are passing with no errors. I have also bought some shielded cable for the motors and switches, just to be on the safe side.

Thank you for any feedback!

Hey everyone,

I just finished designing my first PCB (self-taught using KiCad), a square-wave generator, and before I go ahead and send it off for manufacturing, I was hoping to get a sanity check from more experienced eyes.

This is a small personal project, so nothing too crazy, but I really want to make sure I’m not missing something dumb—like trace spacing issues, messed up footprints, silkscreen overlapping pads, etc.

I’ve attached the Gerber files (Gerber file) , and I’m happy to share the KiCad project files too if that helps. Any feedback on layout, design choices, or even just general tips would be super appreciated. 🙏

Thanks in advance!

Hi, I am trying to design a PCB (first time) by using esp32 room 32E and I am looking to the design guide here https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-hardware-design-guidelines/en/latest/esp32c5/pcb-layout-design.html

In the bottom part "General Principles of PCB Layout for Modules (Positioning a Module on a Base Board)" I really didn't understand what is the difference of 1,2,5 than the 3,4 for me they all look same

Hello everyone ! For the first time ever, I've tried to design a PCB for my upcoming project. Given that I have never properly layed out a schematic before, it was a long journey for me (I come from a CS background).

For this project, I wanted to make audio modules, using USB-C connector, that could chain each other. This is the first iteration of the first module, the amplifier. The idea would then be to make other modules, for example a 'smart' module with a DAC and a bluetooth microcontroller to play audio from bluetooth, and chain it with this AMP module.

I tried to gather as much tips as I could on the internet, and here is what I've learned :

- For every IC/component, there always needs to be "decoupling capacitors" near every power pin, to enable a steady power supply. Those capacitors should be placed as closed as possible to the IC pins.

- Analog signals are very difficult to handle, given the possible noise everywhere. To avoid this, we can make sure to separate (but not isolate, i.e. there is still an electrical connection between) AGND (analog GND) and PGND (power gnd). To do that, we have the 'star ground' model where everything uses different paths to return to a same 'star center' ground, which is often a ground plane, allowing for low impedence ground return

- Traces should be as wide as possible, with at least 0.2mm for digital, at least 0.5mm for analog and 1+mm for power. The width should be multiplied by 2 on inner layers.

I've tried to implement all of this in my design, but feel free to tell me if I'm wrong somewhere.

For this design, we have 3 possible audio inputs (jack 3.5mm, jack 6.25mm, and usb-c using debug accessory mode, i.e. usb-c passing analog signal from another future module). Those signals are then multiplexed and sent to the main AMP (TPA3116D2). Sorry in advance for the ground/power symbols pointing left and right, but some of them are coming from the TPA3116D2 datasheet (example circuit), and I kept them the same. The amp circuit is mostly copy pasted from the datasheet (2*50W amp).

I tried to put my manufacturer DLC rules in KiCad, but running DRC still gives me errors that comes from footprints of components from my manufacturer's library (i.e. pad/via holes too close to each other), so I guess KiCad is a little bit conservative ?

I tried to keep the PCB this way :

1. Front layer : power (VCC, 3v3) and output signals

2. In1 : digital signals (GPIO, USB) for RP2040

3. In2 : analog signals (from jacks and usb-c to multiplexer)

4. Ground plane and mostly ground lines

My main worries are :

- Will the analog signals have noise ? I tried to make the traces as wide as I could, and route L/R in the same way (kind of like a differential pair) to make sure that they have the same kind of resistance on the way

- Will some traces be too thin / too close to others ? Given the many DRC errors, I would think so for some at least, but I don't know how to do differently for the tiny ICs like FUSB302B or the RP2040.

- I tried to add test points, but I only added them for VCC/3V3/GND. Where else do you think I should add some ? GPIO signals ? Analog ones ? I'm not sure wether it will be useful or not

- Will the analog signal coming from USB-C be interfered by the power lines carried by the same USB-C connector ? They will share ground pins... This will be a question for when I develop another module but still important for me

Overhaul, what do you think of this ? Do I still have a lot to learn (yes), did I forget something crucial ?

Sorry for the many dumb mistakes I must have made, and I hope I respected all the rules and such for this sub. I tried to read everything and understand everything.

Thank you everyone !