I may be better off then switching everything to the top side then, it’d be pretty difficult to have no interruptions considering the amount of parts I’m using, I can keep the LEDs centered but move everything else up top that way GND is not being cut by those traces. I still want to put the ESP-32 in one of the corners, so I guess I can extend out the board by a few mm so that its not so close to the mounting holes either.
GND planes can have small interruptions, such as (single) via holes or pads of an SMT part. But there should not be big interruptions such as a long track that cuts a GND plane into pieces. At he moment you have long tracks both on the top and on the bottom, and that means neither is a good GND plane.
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Okay, so I made a lot more adjustments this time, first I moved the ESP-32 to the right hand corner (one of the recommended spots from the PDF), re-did the LDO regulator layout per recommendation of the datasheet, moved everything but the USB and TVS diodes to the front with the back as the ground plane but I have a few questions.
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I couldn’t find a way to have the USB on the front considering the D+ and D- cross when on the same layer to the USB to serial converter chip. Is there a way to avoid switching layers?
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Considering RGB leds and their current capabilites, I may need to switch to a USB-C connector? (the data sheet for the leds I’m using says 12mA minimum but I want to have a higher current if needed)
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I didn’t want to cross from the front to back copper, but I couldn’t really find a way to avoid this, are the traces that are crossing a big deal?
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What should the front copper pour be? GND? 5V for the LEDs? Wasn’t quite sure what to put.
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Is there a way I can reduce board size? If I’m being honest I’m not too satisfied with my layout but at the same time am struggling to get everything to be neat and concise.
The routing isn’t fully finished depending on what I make the front copper be, as right now without it the signal traces and VBUS traces to power the LEDs would make everything messy.
Front.pdf (47.4 KB)
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