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Show HN: I built a synth for my daughter

(bitsnpieces.dev)
1278 points random_moonwalk | 2 comments | 12 Nov 25 14:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.456s | source
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Waterluvian ◴[17 Nov 25 14:03 UTC] No.45953627[source]▶
If I have zero experience designing PCBs but wanted to do a similarly (non)-complex one, how much of a tall order would that be? In my completely made-up mental model, I'm guessing I just take the parts I've already breadboarded, look them up in some sidebar, and drag and drop them around, snapping to nice clean spacing, and then connect all the various pins together and have it automatically organize things? We're not going for perfect here. Just "Baby's first PCB" that at least works.

And then when I have one designed, how much would it cost to get made and sent to me if I was okay if it took a month?

But most importantly: how do I build personal confidence that I'm not shipping a potato off to be printed? Is there a community I could ask for a review from?

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1. tmerr ◴[17 Nov 25 16:58 UTC] No.45955458[source]▶
For another data point: last week I ordered my first PCBs from JLCBCB. 2 fully assembled (parts already soldered) and 3 bare. $40 for the boards themselves, $40 for shipping, and $20 for US Tariffs, for total $100. Should take a week to arrive, shipping's cheaper if your willing to wait a month.

Re help: I asked for some help on libera ##electronics. I think there are larger communities on reddit that would also take a pass over designs.

My impression is that for straightforward circuits (not very high frequency or high power) you can get away with almost anything as far as layout goes. You punch in some generous setting for spacing of traces etc in the CAD software and it does some basic validation. (Are all the parts connected, not too close?).

I used KiCAD. It works well, though for assembly EasyEDA is probably lower friction. I had to dig around to find the right footprints for certain parts.

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2. brudgers ◴[17 Nov 25 18:04 UTC] No.45956145[source]▶
Curious if there are meaningful differences between JLBPCB and PCBway.