Make a PCB

As I noted in a previous blog I followed a YouTube tutorial on how to create a PCB with KiCAD. Having got that far I decided to order the boards from DirtyPCBs. AU$14 for 10 boards including postage is hard to beat.

The boards arrived last Thursday and they are beautiful! And red! (I had expected green.)

So I figured that having come this far I might as well complete the exercise.

Being too lazy to shop around I decided to use DigiKey to fulfill the Bill of Materials (BOM). For 10 boards the total came to AU$52 (plus $16 for solder paste).

The whole point of the PCB design was to use SMD components so I've also ordered various tools to assist SMD soldering. On ebay I bought a pick and place tool, hot air gun and USB microscope.

I'm not sure whether a stencil is needed but I want to try this. For the size of the board in this instance and the size of the components I suspect squeezing the solder paste from the tube will be sufficient.

I've been contemplating a toaster oven converted to reflow oven but it doesn't make much sense at this stage.