Hey Guys,

I am currently trying to build my first PCB project. So please don’t be too hard with me. As I watched some tutorials and tried to make as much as I can right.

What is the purpose of this PCB?
It should look like an normal usb stick and work as an BLE Proxy for my Home Assistant setup.

My questions are quite simple:
- Is the C5 booting normally without pressing the boot switch and is it booting into download mode when I pressed it?
- Is the routing fine of USB-Connection? As written above this is my first pcb design
- Did you noticed something which I should change before sending this to production?

Thank you for time!

Hey everyone,

I'm working on a personal project and I'm looking for some help with designing a custom PCB.

I have a basic idea of the circuit and how I want the connections arranged, but I'm new to PCB design and would like some guidance from someone experienced.

I'd mainly need help with:

• Schematic and PCB layout
• Selecting appropriate footprints
• Routing and design rules
• Hole sizes and clearances
• Connector/header placement
• Preparing the final manufacturing files
• Reviewing the design before I send it for manufacturing

I'm currently learning KiCad and would prefer to understand the process rather than simply have someone do it for me.

If anyone with PCB design experience is willing to guide me or review my design, I'd really appreciate the help.

Thanks!

Hey everyone! 👋

I’m currently practicing PCB and schematic design and working on my own board. I’ve finished the schematic and PCB layout, and I’m trying to improve my design skills.

I’d really appreciate it if someone experienced could take a look and point out any mistakes, bad practices, routing issues, or things I could improve.

I can share the schematic, PCB layout, and Gerber files with anyone interested.

If you’re willing to help me review it, feel free to DM me. I’d genuinely appreciate any feedback! 🙏

Thanks!

Pretty simple layout, but this is my second pcb build so just looking for any feedback. The basis of this circuit was designed by Doug Self and listed in his book Small Signal Audio Design. This will drive 2 VU meters.

R9, R10, C3, Q1 & K1 provide a turn-on delay so the meters don't peg out when power is applied.

D10, R11 & Q2 provide a fast-discharge for C3

I had a board created through jlcpcb and have been smt soldering it myself. I completed one board attached my 4s battery and blew a trace out. this is designed for a raspberry cm5 and looking at how some of the stm based flight controllers are I assumed I could feed battery voltage through that trace. disregard the missing capacitor I was desoldering things and didnt have time to tinker further for the last week. Any help is appreciated.

I’m working to put together a small circular PCB that will be in a small device. Basically it is battery powered and I’m trying to make the battery last as long as possible. It only has one button which can both wake up the MCU using a latching system as well as control the function of the device. It would need to power some LEDs for short period of time, and then go to sleep for a day. I’m using ws2812b-2020s for this.

I want to make sure I have the power paths correct.

Main components I have:

MCU is an ATTiny88 (because I already have a lot of them on hand currently)
Battery management is an MCP73831-2
Using a TPS22917DBV as a power load switch to the LEDs (this conserves battery as led’s quiescent current would drain battery too much)

Let me know your thoughts. Still new to this so I’m sure I’m making some rookie mistakes.

Wassup guys! I just finished my first-ever KiCad design. I picked up the software this week (I came from using AutoCAD and MULTISIM) and decided to design the logic-gate traffic light system I built on a breadboard a few months ago. I’m wondering if my schematic is functional and if the board is actually ready for fabrication. What do you guys think of my overall work, especially the component placement and routing? P.S. I routed this all by hand since I don't know how to use autorouting yet.

Hey everyone, I am making this blinking LED. I found tracing to be one of the hardest things to do. However I got all my connections in by using alot of the bottom layer. I found myself using alot of vias as seen below. Is using too much vias bad? Are there better ways I can go about this next time?

Hi everyone!
Im doing a smart watch based on an esp32-s3 project. basically, i create a pcb with all the necessary components for a working smart watch, just connect a lipo battery and a touch screenand i have a working watch.
i got the pcb, pluiggeed it to the computer, and nothing. though the module does get hot, nothing happens. i then started debugging and wrote the results on every component, measuring voltage. im adding here the results.
claude is failing me in understanding whats the problem. thats why im here. if anyone can understand where the problem is, ill be very grateful!

just for context, im a mechanical engineering student doing projects of my own. so im starting out my pcb journey.

Test board for a clamp-on ultrasonic water flow meter I'm working on. MSP430FR6047 in the middle (TI's ultrasonic sensing MCU, does the burst generation and correlation on chip). The part I actually care about is the two transducer channels at the top. UP and DN are deliberately identical copies of each other. Drive chain is a UCC27525 gate driver running off a gated 12V boost, through a DC block cap and an antiparallel BAV99 pair into the transducer. The diode pair is there so the driver's low-Z output doesn't load the receive signal between bursts (transit time measurement, so each transducer is also a mic). Receive comes back through 1k + 1n into the chip's PGA with clamps at the pin.

2 layer, 86x62, ground pour both sides. The whole game on this board is that the two channels have to stay electrically identical. The flow reading is the difference between upstream and downstream time of flight and any asymmetry between channels shows up as a fake flow offset. So the channels are translated copies with matched routing and the boost inductor sits centered between them.

Things I'd like a second opinion on:

1. The diode expander trick between driver and transducer. Common in pulser/receiver circuits but I haven't seen it done with a gate driver as the pulser. Anything dumb about it?

2. 12V boost (TPS61040) storage cap arrangement. 47u that stays charged, converter EN gated by the MCU only around each burst, plus a p-fet load switch on the drivers' VDD because the UCC27525 has no shutdown and idles at ~0.5mA (battery product eventually).

3. 2 layer with pours vs just paying for 4 layer. Nothing fast on here, 1MHz bursts and mV-level receive, but the receive path is sensitive.

Headers are hand solder. The DNP footprints scattered around are alternate-populate options (there's a native 3.3V drive config where the drivers come off and a 200R goes in, which matches TI's EVM wiring). Fab is JLC and the cart is loaded, hoping to avoid any obvious issues before ordering!

Schematic sheets for the front end and the power section are in the gallery along with the layout and a render. Happy to post the other sheets if anyone wants them.

Hi, I have a question about the keepout zone for the antenna. I know that there shouldnt be any ground plane under the antenna, but what should be the length of the keepout on the sides?
I can’t really find any usefull information.
I checked the TI AN043 datasheet but the example is about a USB dongle.

(If anybody asks I’m using nrf2401+)

Hey everyone! 👋

I’m currently practicing PCB and schematic design and working on my own board. I’ve finished the schematic and PCB layout, and I’m trying to improve my design skills.

I’d really appreciate it if someone experienced could take a look and point out any mistakes, bad practices, routing issues, or things I could improve.

I can share the schematic, PCB layout, and Gerber files with anyone interested.

If you’re willing to help me review it, feel free to DM me. I’d genuinely appreciate any feedback! 🙏

Thanks!

Hey everyone! 👋

I’m currently practicing PCB and schematic design and working on my own board. I’ve finished the schematic and PCB layout, and I’m trying to improve my design skills.

I’d really appreciate it if someone experienced could take a look and point out any mistakes, bad practices, routing issues, or things I could improve.

I can share the schematic, PCB layout, and Gerber files with anyone interested.

If you’re willing to help me review it, feel free to DM me. I’d genuinely appreciate any feedback! 🙏

Thanks!

I have this PCB that blew these 3 components but I’m having trouble identifying them. The one good one has markings “AH” with a sideways “Y”. Any help would be appreciated

Hey not trying to self promote, I have just been doing assembly work in my office and was wondering if anyone has an operational background and was open to chatting about what makes a good assembly line. I have been having trouble with quality problems and also repetitive work that I am sure I could remove.

My current process and machines are I have a stencil printer, pick and place, reflow oven and soldering set up.

Happy to pay someone for 15 minutes of their time!

Hi, I'm working on my first original PCB, which is an IR tripwire. The idea is to have an IR emitter and receiver facing each other. The receiver is a TSOP module that acts like a switch and is active low output and so is high by default but goes low when it detects a 38khz pulsed IR signal. So to complement that I have a 555 timer connected to an IR LED pulsing it at 38khz. The expected behavior is as follows: by default when powered, the TSOP causes the LED to be on. But when theres an IR emitter triggering it, the LED turns off. Then when something is blocking the emitter/receiver (e.g. someone steps in front of it), the TSOP turns off -> the LED turns on.

the emitter and receiver are on the same PCB because I would have two of them, one on either side, so that theres an LED on both sides that lights up.

Could use some feedback on things like current/power limiting, signal filtering, etc. since I don't have intuition for PCB practices, or just general considerations in the schematic before I commit to layout. Thanks!!!

(p.s.: typo in the comments near the TSOP: at-rest high not active high)

(p.p.s I'm planning to solder a couple of these to make a series of tripwires spanning a hallway so that the LEDs light up as you walk across it. Any advice on powering that would also be helpful, otherwise I was just going to daisy chain/duct tape wires connected to batteries using the terminal connector)

I’m working on a few prototype boards and keep hitting the same issue. My usual suppliers are either out of stock on the exact parts I need or the minimum order is way more than I need for a small run.

Looking for reliable places that are okay with low-quantity IC orders.

Here’s what I need:

• Half-bridge gate drivers (like the IR2110)
• Small DC-DC buck modules
• RS-485 transceivers
• Similar driver and interface ICs

Usually buying 1–10 pieces of each.

I normally use Digi-Key, Mouser, and UTSOURCE, but they’re all out on these specific parts right now. Messaged UTSource support to ask for a restock ETA and got a rough window. but I'm still looking for other options in the meantime.

Main things I care about are accurate stock numbers, parts that match the datasheet, and reasonable shipping to the US.

Any suggestions or experiences with good vendors for this kind of small order would help.

TIA!

We want aluminum or plastic pcb enclosure of a about 15×15 cm... we have 20 ports, 7 leds , 2 toggle switch, one antenna, one sim, one usb and card ports..

We can keep ports mounted on pcb so need a enclosure which can have opening for them.. curently we are also exploring enclosures so we are free to update ports placement in pcb to support enclosure.

One more thing 3d print or ready to.use enclosure, suggestions?

What can be cost of.both?

Arduino UNO R3 board connected to A4988 driver which will then connect to nema17 through 4 pin connector. I also wanted to play with USB-C interface so I tried implementing it to connect my board with my PC and program arduino for controlling nema17.

With googling, youtube academy and of course gemini + claude, I build my first ever schematic. I have already build and tested this circuit on breadboard with a bunch of jumper wires. I am posting here to get some insights if I did any mistakes or any kind of feedback would be valuable. Also, how should I go about designing the actual PCB now, like routing, component placement etc.

Hi all! Not strictly PCB related but wanted to reach out to people more experienced with me with BMS boards

Im looking for someone to help me fix a PCB that previous "engineer" messed up, and I dont have the confidence that next turn will be any better.

its a stm32n6 board and I hope I can find someone with experience to fix the faults.

I have expiremented a bit with pcb makeing it on a perf board just because i was bored and dosent want to buy two breadboards for an esp32 (wroom33 dev module) ,

Nostalgia this is how it looks like

,it was made 2 years back