wassup Every Pony

it’s me again with another devblog

now the schematics is out the way, it’s time to move on to the actual PCB , this by far the longest process for me, you have take lots of things into consideration.

when you first open the PCB editor , the first thing you do is import the parts you place in your schematics (there’s a button for that) then you would wanna go back to Keyboard layout editor to download the JSON File of your layout , then go back to kicad and open the plugin manager then download keyboard layout placer. you then go back to the pcb editor and open the plugin , there you will be able to insert your JSON file then the plugin will do the placing for you how cool is that ? there also an option to add more parts to be auto place.

when you finish that you would need to draw out your pcb board edge with that we first select the edge cut layer then select whether the draw line tool or rectangles tool, left click and drag then voila you define your pcb borders.

FOR RGB LED and HOT SWAP sockets

you need to flip those to backside of the board for them to work.

you also need the 5v trace to be thicker, how thick ? there’s a tool for that (PCB Trace width calculator) , a standard usb 3.0 output 0.9amps at 5v while usb 2.0 outputs 0.5 amps at 5v, check your usb port before deciding.

now here comes the actual complicated part , routing it all together

in a basic pcb you have two layer the front and back , so you have two layers to work with, you route wire by pressing x , to switch to the backside press v

note

v is also use to place vias
vias are like channel that connect the front trace to back trace and it works the other way around. utilize them to the fullest extend .

placing ground plane

adding a ground plane is quick and easy
press the draw filled zones ,select which layers have the most or both, set the net as GND and draw.
a ground plane is like a filter of some sort, idk go google it. therefore adding one is good practice.

DRC

this is the most important thing you need to do everytime you finish making a change, the DRC checks for everything unconnected traces , shorted wires , parts clipping , silkscreen clipping. so i would advise you to run the drc everytime you finish a task, so you can fix the issue.

customizing your board

you can customize your board and add art using SVG and SIlkscreen. silkscreen is a non conductive layer use to add text and cool arts.

woah now that’s a long read

but there’s more

What i did this past few day

so this few days i just been doing CAD , the plate finish , i got the top case rough shape finish and i almost finish the bottom case just the usb-c port left. i went through three different design variations and eventually settle down for the design for the bottom case (in picture). i also model my own custom rotary encoder knob. i want to import a knurl design at first but then the model i import was too large and when i scale it down it won’t fit. either way we’re getting close to finishing the design phase.