Made schematic & footprints. Walk me through PCB & Gerbers

Layout
1

I’m learning KiCad to make a few small custom PCBs to test out some SMD LEDs. It’s great software. Fumbled my way to a schematic that seems okay. Pretty sure I’ve got all the footprints sorted out. But I’m at a point where I’d like to learn from someone who knows better than me to arrange the PCB and generate Gerbers.

Is this a good community to ask for that kind of help? If not, can you suggest any gig platforms where I’d find someone? I’d rather pay someone for their skill and constructively learn something than waste money on a garbage PCB fabrication run.

I’m based in SE Asia. Only saying that for time-zone matching but I’ll schedule odd hours if needed.

20250408-085906
20250408-0859062626×1371 196 KB

2

Have your walked yourself through the Getting Started document? See how you go. Post if you have questions about how to operate the PCB editor. A small run of PCBs is incredibly cheap anyway.

BTW your schematic is not ok. You have ERC errors in it and I think you have a short across a capacitor.

PS: There are also paid and free video tutorials on the Interwebs but make sure you don’t watch an obsolete tute or you’ll waste your time.

3

That is an odd looking Kicad schematic.

4

Page 15 of the TI datasheet has a couple of PCB layout examples. IMO those layout examples are not great because they use resistor and capacitor symbols in place of component footprints. I wish that all datasheet layout examples would include realistic (proportional) footprint sizes and representations and indicate those components.

But I highly recommend that you start out using those figures as a guide. I also recommend using SMT components exclusively (the inductor does not matter so much) although that is probably not mandatory. I encourage you to come back here for advice if you get stuck.

BTW if you just want to test some LEDs, all you need is a lab DC power supply, a series dropping resistor, and a way to connect everything (probably a small pcb.) But perhaps you really have more than that in mind.

5

Not too odd in my eyes.
The only thing is, that he should have used not just one GND symbol.
GND in top right should go bottom right and not point upwards.
Then, the horizontal connection in the top should go, C1 moved to J1 and C1 have its own GND symbol. And finally, GND symbol for U1 pin 2 close to U1. Thus the GND connection on the very bottom can go.
So the only oddity is not using the GND symbol as a replacement for GND connections.

So not too bad for a first time.

And well, the ERCs should be adressed before being able to call it “seems OK”.

6

Odd in so much as the text, the L & LEDs & U1 & C1 do not appear to be Kicad.

7

We are here to help with KiCad issues . . . there are other Fourm/website better suited to general electronics questions.

Try this link: Electronics Forums

1 Like
8

There has been ample time for the OP to respond to this not - Kicad related thread.
It is time for closure of this thread.

9
10

Yo! @jmk
I was writing a message of appreciation for every person that replied to my question and you closed the conversation with,

There has been ample time for the OP to respond to this not - Kicad related thread.
It is time for closure of this thread.

Ample time. It has only been 5 hours!

I know I’m new here and maybe I don’t understand how things work in this particular forum. But blocking the conversation after only 5 hours just doesn’t seem very reasonable. Especially when the forum docs say that threads get locked after 90 days of inactivity.

It would have been nice to have a chance to show my appreciation to the people that took their time to respond.

I’ll just put it here, I guess. Maybe they’ll see it.

Thanks so much for all the feedback! Yeah, first schematic. I have lots to learn.

How in the world did you see that short? Thanks.

Yes, I have poured over a couple of them. But it’s sometimes hard to identify the right tutorial (among hundreds) for the need at hand. Each takes a bit of time to watch. And they are quite generalized. I know that I can do it through tutorials,documentation, and making a lot of mistakes. But finding a tutor would be more efficient for learning.

These are great tips and descriptions. Thanks. Making the changes now.

Thanks for pointing out these examples on pg 15 to use as a guide. I had only made it as far as pg 10 to study their typical application schematic.

Oh! Yeah! Thanks! I can make this board simpler and take all the resistors off. That gives me more flexibility as well. But I don’t see a way to connect these SMD LED’s and Driver without a PCB. They’re so small.

I’ll try to integrate all these tips. Here’s my first draft after your suggestions.

20250408-195323
20250408-1953232007×1220 130 KB

EDIT:
Thanks @jmk for letting me add this last message. I intentionally chose to post in the Community theme thread. I get that it’s not directly KiCad related, but it seems like the right place to ask for general KiCad tutoring since that’s more of a community type of thing. Anyway, thanks everyone for your replies. Also, I intended for this to be a request for tutors to help me push this idea through KiCad as a direct learning exercise. I just put the schematic here so people could understand what the scope is. But I’m grateful for the design help none the less!

11

I think jmk has been too hasty in closing the topic.

Your schematic is much improved now as you seem to have taken the advice offered. However it’s still the case that this forum is not for discussing circuit design, so this topic may still get closed if it strays in that direction.

12

Whether it’s reading text or watching videos, the art of skimming is valuable. Form the question you want answered in your mind and be ruthless about stopping viewing or skipping bits that are not relevant to the question. You can also pose the questions here, provided they are about using KiCad, and not electronics design questions.

1 Like
13

If you urgently need a PCB designer, you can hire one from any of the popular freelancing platforms.

1 Like
14

I’ll add one more observation which is KiCad schematic related. KiCad matches symbol pin numbers with footprint pad numbers by string matching. Read the docs about this if you are unsure what this means.

This means that your connectors with pins like 1a, 1b, and so forth need to go with footprints that have pads named 1a, 1b, etc. You may or may not be able to find such footprints in the standard library. But no problem, you just edit either the symbol pins or the footprint pads. Which will lead you into creating your personal libraries for modified symbols and footprints. There’s a FAQ written by jmk no less that discusses this. Look for it.

1 Like
15

Thanks. I see three approaches.

  1. Fastest: Just hire someone on a freelancing platform
  2. Slowest: Figure it all out on my own (with help of videos and forums)
  3. Middle: Hire someone to walk me through the process.

I’m hoping to do option 3 because it’s much faster than doing it on my own but I actually learn something valuable where I might be able to do it on my own the next time.

This is also a great tip. I’ll find that FAQ by jmk

16

Admins, feel free to close the thread as needed. I’ve gotten unanticipated schematic help which was great and I had a chance to thank the contributors. I don’t want to clog the forum with stuff that’s not considered KiCad related.

I’ll start looking elsewhere for a KiCad tutor.

1 Like
17

I think there is a subforum at EEVBlog where people can advertise jobs.

1 Like
18

As you have seen, this is a community driven platform and there is disagreement over how much to allow that isn’t related to how to use the software. If you look at EEVblog you’ll see our dilemma. Sites like that already exist and we aren’t trying to compete with or fragment the community. We just try to keep this on Kicad specific stuff.