Hello, I just starting learning KiCAD and I decided to design a one sided pcb to implement a NRF24L01 to it instead of connecting the chip to a breadboard. But, as I mentioned I don’t have any previous knowledge on it. How would you connect or do the soldering? I was trying to look for YouTube tutorials but I couldn’t find anything.
Here is my pcb and I would like to know how would soldering or implementing be done. I only need help on how to do the soldering or connect this to my chip.
This looks like a through hole design? There are a ton of videos on soldering. You might consider using a header to plug the board into. Then you can remove it if you wish/have to. The ones like on the Arduino. Less chance of damaging the module during soldering too.
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Yes it is a thorough hole design.Also, when implementing this to a bigger circuit how would the PCB work ?
Unless you are etching or milling your own PCB, there is nothing to be gained by going single layer
Put a ground plane on the B side from J1 to the U1 connector
I agree with davidsrsb. I think that if you were to buy a million boards in Asia you might be able to get a better price with single sided plating on a phenolic substrate. But if you are not doing that, I think it makes more sense to get 2-sided on FR4. Also…through hole seems easier but I think that as long as you avoid tiny parts and tiny lead pitch, you may find that SMT is easier. You do need tweezers to work with SMT, but it is easier to replace a 0603 or larger chip resistor than a through hole one. My hands have never been so steady but I can solder 0603 chips (I use 0805 footprint for them) all day long…
What does your PCB do? Looks like you’re making a breakout board for a breakout board? Or are there other components on the board?
Do you have a schematic or did you go straight into pcbnew?
Is this project a ‘breadboard friendly’ version of the NRF24L01? If so, this looks a good start - but the connector pins are inside the board outline so it won’t plug in to a breadboard directly. Personally, I would think about having pins on both sides of the board - i.e change your 1x8 connector to two 1x4 connectors so that when plugged into the breadboard you have pins on both sides of the central gutter.
You would solder the NRF to the board from the bottom and the breakout connector from the top - is that what you are questioning? The through hole footprints are solderable from both sides.
Try looking at the 3d view of your board (Alt-3 or View >>3d Viewer) as this might give you an idea of what you have designed already and think about how your current design will work in practice.
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I found the photo of that module. If I would like to have it vertically at my PCB I would think of replacing the 8pin connector in module with 90° 8pin connector. You can remove such connector pin after pin.
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