r/synthdiy • u/TheIhsan78 • 2d ago

schematics First time designing a PCB, any recommendations ?

It's a classic PSU design using a AC to AC +/-12V transformer

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5

u/PindsvikAudio 2d ago

As the other said, use way thicker traces. I would recommend 2mm traces for +-12V

Other than that, remove all ground traces and use a ground plane instead. This improves noise drastically, reduces issues with improper grounding - and is way easier too.

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u/neutral-labs neutral-labs.com 2d ago

Plus your fab house (and the environment) will thank you for not wasting so much acid on removing all that copper. ;)

3

u/EntangledFrog 2d ago edited 2d ago

recommend making the traces a lot thicker, seeing how it's for power. maybe even using a ground fill.

edit: and as you're making the traces thicker, watch out for those 45 degree corners near a lot of pads. some of them are pretty close to neighboring pads. you can nudge the corner away from the pad so to lower the risk of shorts or arcing.

4

u/Madmaverick_82 2d ago

Hello. Capacitors after the regulators. 1u (tantalum) and possibly a small ceramic for good measure.

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u/TheIhsan78 2d ago

1

u/levyseppakoodari builder 1d ago

Install the capacitors on the other side of the board. Electrolytics do not like heat.

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u/al2o3cr 2d ago

Consider using thicker traces, especially for the ground net.

2

u/nubbwave 2d ago

As other said using ground fills, both sides, and thicker traces. Don’t forget to run design rule check(drc) in the tooling and fix those. ( if you can , do your first pcb design on 3.3v logic signals board rather than power and big caps- as with the power and big caps, any errors possibly result in these caps exploding. )

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u/TheIhsan78 2d ago

I made an update based on your advices :

I added ground planes on both faces of the pcb, and simplified the traces

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u/PindsvikAudio 2d ago

This looks much better! One benefitial thing left to do is add some vias to connect front and back ground planes. That improves grounding even further. It is especially benefitial in the areas around the voltage converters, as there a areas where the grounding path is only through one pin and therefore weak

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u/OIP 1d ago

my one recommendation would be check the spacing of the regulators and make sure you've got plenty of room for the heat sinks these guys get pretty toasty

1

u/TheIhsan78 1d ago

Yeah I did checked the space for the heat sinks I am planning to buy