I’ve recently gotten really interested in PCB design and manufacturing and want to explore the business side of things. As a software engineer, I’ve got a good handle on how machines and computers work, and I know a bit about electronics. But I’m looking to go deeper—learning not just how things function but also understanding the full design and manufacturing process.
Since many of you have experience here, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the best and quickest way to get up to speed. What mistakes should I avoid? How do I go from design to actual implementation? Any tips or resources would be awesome!
This forum is more focused on how to use the software though these things do come up. EEVBLOG is probably a more comprehensive collection of all the different components needed BEFORE you get to the Kicad software. I spent a few months on the Arduino forum also.
If you’re interested in the manufacturing side you can find YouTube videos often made by the factories or tech bloggers where they show you the large scale operations they are. It’s near impossible to beat their prices. Lately I’ve been getting runs of 5 for 70¢ each delivered.
Most people here send their designs to such factories although a small number may have in-house production for small quantities where they make PCBs by photoresist or milling methods.
If you’d like to see how PCBs get manufactured (and other similar things), then take a look at the “Strange Parts” You Tube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@StrangeParts.
Back in the late 1990’s I also became really interested in the assembly process. All the big assemblers would never touch a small job and Mom and Pop shops could not spell “Database”. I wrote a huge hunk of code and bought a Pick and Place (MyData TP-12UFP)) and stencil printers. Wow what a learning curve. After doing some startups in Denver (See www.aapcb.com) I wrote code for managing part libraries and component packages. See: www.partsync.com
The key points I found:
Get the correct amount of paste in the right place. Not to much, not to little and it goes on the pads>
Place parts straight down don’t smear the paste.
Use a convection oven with at least 3 zones. Get the profile right. Stay on the hot side but don’t burn off the flux. RMA works best but is a mess to clean. Water soluble (type OA’s) work very well, clean easy, but have less life on a stencil. A hot place can be used to bring boards close to reflow temp with a hot air gun doing the reflow.
See www.partsync.com for the code, I am happy to answer questions.
