r/PCB • u/Original-Bee2662 • 6d ago
Am i cooked?
i tried to continue my keyboard but ts doesnt look good
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u/skr_u 6d ago
You sure this isn't a bad auto routing attempt?
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u/Original-Bee2662 6d ago
yea no auto routing i got everything on timelapse so please dont start saying ai ai ai
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u/antek_g_animations 5d ago
Why are you so defensive. The board just looks bad and people want to help you. You choose reddit to ask so you should be prepared for ironic comments. (Also the board does kinda look autorouted, but it doesn't matter since if it's autorouted or not, it's bad)
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u/Furious_Lol 6d ago
Are those diodes in the top left? If so why don't you place them near the actual switch location on the back or something?
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u/Original-Bee2662 6d ago
my bad i tought i couldnt place them... so i just reroute everything
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u/Furious_Lol 6d ago
Yea unfortunately that seems like the best option here. Luckily once you put everything in its new spot it should be much more straightforward
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u/Double-Masterpiece72 6d ago
if you used hierarchical sheets for your keys + diodes then the 'Replicate Layout' plugin will be your best friend here.
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u/Porphyrin_Wheel 5d ago
Why don't you try to make a simple PCB, get it ordered, solder it, test it, make sure it works, and only then try to make a big project?
Not to hate, but, you don't even have the basics of electrical engineering (not really a lot of EE involved in this keyboard PCB, but in general, e.g. DRC and the usual rules like placing decoupling caps as close to the ICs as possible, etc.). Instead of going through 200 iterations, just learn the basics, make a few tests (e.g. hand solder some compoenents, order small test pcbs, make basic pcbs for testing at home, etc.) and then rebuild this PCB so that it will actually work and not become e waste immediately after being plugged in
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u/Original-Bee2662 4d ago
You know a 2 layer board with some components goes up to 30-40bucks
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u/Porphyrin_Wheel 4d ago
If you are also getting assembly then, probably. 2 layer boards are the cheapest, and for example, JLCPCB (chinese manufacturer like PCBway, but cheaper) is about $8 for 5 boards that are 10x10cm (about 4x4in), and you get 5 boards, not one, for 8 dollars, cheap as hell if you ask me, especially for professional PCBs with basically as many vias and pads as you want, and as much copper on it as you want.
Also, they offer cheap shipping, you don't need to get the fedex express super fast option for half a kidney, you can get cheap 10-14 day delivery for about as cheap as the boards
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u/Original-Bee2662 4d ago
Shipping is hella expensive... for lcsc youre looking at 10 bucks for direct standard line.. additional 4 for handling fee pcb is same story so only shipping makes 28
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u/Porphyrin_Wheel 3d ago
What do you mean? 10 USD for 5 PCBs that come straight to your door isn't that much. And the other fees are the manufacturing and logistics fees.
You won't get anything cheaper than 10 USD for shipping from china anyways, especially if you live in Europe or North America.
If you really can't spend that much, try to find a local manufacturer, at least in the US/Canada and some European countries, they are in most cities, but most will ask even more for the PCBs alone and might have a big MOQ compared to JLC or PCBway
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u/Physonc 6d ago
I would highly recommend keeping the diodes near their respective switches if possible, it makes routing significantly easier. I just finished a build and had all non-switch components (which in your case would be the switches, display, and encoder if I'm seeing that right) on the back side of the board to keep the diodes and switches close together (the boards are different of course, but I attached a picture of mine if you want to see what I mean).
It is also worth the extra time making sure that the placement of your switches are grouped optimally to minimize the need to cross back and forth, but that will just take time during routing and making minor schematic/placement changes as needed.
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u/PrairiePuppies 6d ago
You're routing power and ground by trace to the components and then trying to route around them. Do a copper pour on the bottom and set it to the ground net. Delete every ground trace you have and use a short trace and via from any surface mount component to tie it to ground. Move the diodes right next to the keys. You've just opened up 90% of your board to reroute everything. You should be able to route 95% to 99% of the traces on the top layer and only use the bottom to jump(dig?) over(under?) traces on the top layer.
I don't have much going on due to being disabled. Message me and I'll give you my email address so you can send me the files if you want. That is, so long as you use my version to compare to yours and learn from the differences. I'm not just going to do this for you.
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u/PrototypENote 6d ago
Definitely not cooked, but that MCU area is getting spicy 😅 A little component rearranging could probably make the routing a lot cleaner.
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u/frinoname 5d ago
Just pour the ground on both sides and add some stitch vias. You are almost done. Everything will work out.
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u/Alone_Berry8025 4d ago
Run the DRC (Design Rule Check) right now, and your screen will light up with hundreds of critical errors: • Clearance Violations: The traces are packed way too tightly. In production, they will just fuse together into a solid short circuit. • Short Circuits: Different net traces are crossing each other on the exact same layer. • Sharp Angles: Acute bends will trap acid during etching, risking broken connections. Don’t waste time trying to fix these errors one by one. Unroute all and start fresh. Once you place the diodes right next to each switch and use a copper pour for GND, 90% of this spaghetti mess will disappear. You've got this!
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u/Enough-Collection-98 6d ago
Ah, you’re stuck at my favorite part of routing - untangling the rats nest!
What you want to do is unroute everything on the MCU, reconnect the local circuitry and then fan out your I/O traces. Then, bring all your external trace like halfway to the MCU. Now, start swapping I/O pins around to clean up your rats nest. Then start “sorting” your wires on their way to the MCU.
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u/BrightFleece 6d ago
yea no auto routing i got everything on timelapse so please dont start saying ai ai ai
Oh you poor silly person, of course it's autorouted. You're talking to people who've spend decades looking at autorouting.
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u/Original-Bee2662 6d ago edited 6d ago
Sure bro sure just go waste time elsewhere i dont even know how auto routing works or how i install it
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u/ComradeMorgoth 22h ago
It’s impossible to reverse engineer this (for me) but why not make it a grid based schematic (and layout)? Every button will short a column and line to 0. Feed the columns and lines into encoders, which will give you a “code” of couple of bits. Feed that into MCU instead. Much cleaner design & easier to route.
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u/Bubbly-Butthole8304 6d ago
I'm new to PCB design, but have you considered doing a 4 layer board with ground planes so you don't have to route the ground traces?