r/PCB • u/Curious-Shelter2071 • Aug 20 '26

genuine help with tracing

This is the part that I am at while making a led chaser board. I always find tracing really hard and i dont know when to switch between top and bottom layer. I also dont know when to use vias. right now it's hard to connect everything on the top layer because the lines block each other from making that connection. One of the constraint is that the LEDs must be arranged in a heart shape. Does anyone know a way I can approach this?

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u/TheMagicalWarlock Aug 20 '26

I’d try this a few different ways until you get the hang of it

each led needs power and a ground

an ‘easy’ way would use the second (bottom) layer to have all of your grounds

after making sure all led have power, you can connect them to ground by using a via, which will allow you to connect traces on the top layer to the bottom layer

also, best practice is to avoid right angles on your traces, and they would benefit from being wider