Production is underway

Course 1 — Your First PCBs Editing

Based on Volume 1 of the book

You design and verify three simple two-layer boards, produce the files a factory needs to make them, and understand what you did. No prior PCB experience is assumed.

Sample lessons

What you will be able to do

• Take a board from a blank project to manufacturing files, start to finish
• Read a schematic symbol and a footprint as two halves of the same part
• Run the electrical rules check and the design rules check, and act on what they say
• Source a part you have never used before, and make the project self-contained
• Order a board from a fabricator and check the files before you pay

Modules

1. Start herecomplete
2. Your first board, start to finishcomplete
3. What just happenedcomplete
4. Partscomplete
5. Project 1: breadboard power supplycomplete
6. Project 2: tiny solar power supplycomplete
7. Getting it madecomplete
8. Recipesediting
9. Conclusionediting

Course 2 — Real Boards Recording

Based on Volume 2

You author your own symbol and your own footprint, set a board up properly, build a real capstone, and take it through the manufacturing ladder. This is where you stop depending on somebody else having drawn your part.

Sample lessons

What you will be able to do

• Author a symbol and a footprint from a manufacturer datasheet
• Set up a stackup, net classes and design rules that match the board you are building
• Pour and control copper zones, including thermal relief and priority overrides
• Build an LED matrix and a dual H-bridge motor driver from schematic to verified layout
• Export a bill of materials with variants, and run the design-for-manufacturing ladder
• Assemble the finished board, by reflow or by hand

Modules

1. Start hererecorded
2. Author a symbol
3. Author a footprint
4. Board setup that matters
5. Copper zones
6. Warm-up: LED matrix
7. Capstone: DRV8833 motor driver
8. Extension: four motors
9. The BOM and variants
10. Getting it made
11. Assembly, two ways
12. Recipes
13. Conclusion

Course 3 — Advanced Design and Extending KiCad pending

Based on Volume 3

You design a board that is too big to hold in your head: multiple sheets, four layers, under real version control, with the tool itself extended to do work for you.

Sample lessons

What you will be able to do

• Split a design across hierarchical sheets and keep it coherent
• Put a KiCad project under Git, and use branches to try a layout two ways
• Move from two layers to four, and understand what the planes buy you
• Simulate a circuit before you commit it to copper
• Write design rules as code, and extend KiCad with Python

The module list is published once Volume 3 is drafted. A course designed against a table of contents rather than a finished manuscript has to be rebuilt, so this one waits.

Course 4 — High-Speed PCB Design pending

Based on Volume 4

You design and verify a controlled-impedance four-layer board, and you order it with impedance control. This is the theory-led course, because you cannot route a transmission line by feel.

Sample lessons

What you will be able to do

• Recognise when a trace stops being a wire and starts being a transmission line
• Get from a stackup to an impedance number you can hand to a fabricator
• Budget a real interface, then route USB and HDMI pairs against that budget
• Tune length and skew, and verify the result before you order
• Order a board with impedance control and read the report that comes back

The module list is published once Volume 4 is drafted. This course will carry the most animation in the series, because impedance, reflections, return current and skew are all invisible on a screen recording.