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As the graphics are not on the silkscreen layer, but the areas have been exposed on the soldermask layer, I found an opportunity to combine artistic and technical peculiarities because it makes these excellent GND connections for crocodile clamps while debugging. | As the graphics are not on the silkscreen layer, but the areas have been exposed on the soldermask layer, I found an opportunity to combine artistic and technical peculiarities because it makes these excellent GND connections for crocodile clamps while debugging. | ||
[[File:crocodileDebug.jpg| | |||
[[File:crocodileDebug.jpg|800px]] | |||
A milestone on the way to a PCB is a hand-soldered prototype. As common switches come with a cover, the base plate already existed. But I did not start soldering right away. The first thing I did was a rough sketch of all components and their respective connections on a piece of paper. Only then I made my first attempts at this design in KiCAD. Since I did not want to spoil my option of revisiting capacitive touch gestures at a later stage, it was my personal challenge to realise everything on just one side of a PCB with no viases or through-hole components. Of course, this also meant that all elements had to be placed so that there is no intersection of a single trace, which has been hard before I got to know the practice of ground areas (across the entire PCB). Another major restriction was the form of the cover's connection clips. It was an eternal back and forth between different media (Paper, Fusion, KiCAD, soldering iron, and back again) before the hand-soldered prototype was finished. | A milestone on the way to a PCB is a hand-soldered prototype. As common switches come with a cover, the base plate already existed. But I did not start soldering right away. The first thing I did was a rough sketch of all components and their respective connections on a piece of paper. Only then I made my first attempts at this design in KiCAD. Since I did not want to spoil my option of revisiting capacitive touch gestures at a later stage, it was my personal challenge to realise everything on just one side of a PCB with no viases or through-hole components. Of course, this also meant that all elements had to be placed so that there is no intersection of a single trace, which has been hard before I got to know the practice of ground areas (across the entire PCB). Another major restriction was the form of the cover's connection clips. It was an eternal back and forth between different media (Paper, Fusion, KiCAD, soldering iron, and back again) before the hand-soldered prototype was finished. | ||
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The prototypes shown in the picture above are only some of those I did. To be honest, I ordered another six PCBs right after receiving the first batch because in the meantime I already improved my design slightly. Also, I actually wanted to have a black solder mask, which is not available at aisler and that is why I ordered a third batch (again with some minor improvements) at [https://jlcpcb.com J@LC]. Luckily I realised the design as one layer only, because there has been a special offer of aluminum PCBs and those do not support multi-layer designs. | The prototypes shown in the picture above are only some of those I did. To be honest, I ordered another six PCBs right after receiving the first batch because in the meantime I already improved my design slightly. Also, I actually wanted to have a black solder mask, which is not available at aisler and that is why I ordered a third batch (again with some minor improvements) at [https://jlcpcb.com J@LC]. Luckily I realised the design as one layer only, because there has been a special offer of aluminum PCBs and those do not support multi-layer designs. | ||
[[File:variantsABC.jpg| | [[File:variantsABC.jpg|800px]] | ||
Here are some more impressions of the final product: | Here are some more impressions of the final product: | ||