Want a brief Overview before you sign up?

Course Goal

Design and manufacture a functioning macro keyboard


Jesse's Warhammer	Mark's Brain

You cannot steal our ideas -- you have to be creative and come up with your own!

Course Instructors

Mark "Hard-way" Hughes, Research Director, Advanced Assembly
Jesse Robinson, Senior Electronics Engineer / Prototype Engineer

Course Requirements

All necessary content will be presented inside the course. This course is free, and the content will remain online for future engineers. We ask that you allow the content to become publicly available each week at aapcb.com/blog before sharing it elsewhere on the internet. (When the content leaves this password-protected area, it will be stolen and reposted without attribution all over the web, sometimes within an hour. That's just the way the internet works.)
Approximately 2-4 hours of work per week consists of reading course content or watching course videos.
Independent work at home will require 1-2 hours most weeks. The week we do layout will undoubtedly take many participants longer than 4-hours. We will offer pre-packaged resources where possible so participants are not overly consumed with work. If you fall out of the course, it should be possible to reenter at particular milestones.
PCB Design software (free versions are available)
Access to Soldering Iron, Solder

Course Level

This course is intended for upper-level (junior/senior) electrical engineering students and practicing engineers who understand how to create schematics but do not yet have the experience to layout a printed circuit board. This course is also appropriate for the advanced hobbyist or HAM.

All participants should maintain pace with the rest of the class. We will not pause the production of the PCBs because a participant has not completed their work in a timely fashion. For participants who struggle with personal commitments, we will provide files at several checkpoints that will allow you to rejoin the course with the rest of the participants. You always have the option of taking the information and independently purchasing your boards at a later date/time.

This course is right for you if you can read a schematic and get a small project to work on a solderless breadboard, prototype breadboard, or wire-wrap board but have been scared of making the jump to PCBs.

This course is free, and the content will remain online as a reference for future Royal Circuits / Advanced Assembly Customers. PCB manufacture and parts are available for at least 25 participants thanks to the generous support of our sponsors (Advanced Assembly, Digikey, Keysight, Royal Circuit Solutions, Wokwi, FixturFab)
Approximately 2-4 hours of work per week: reading/watching course content and participating in forums.
Independent work at home will require 1-2 hours most weeks. The week we do layout will undoubtedly take many participants longer than 4-hours and will likely spread over two or more weeks. We will offer pre-packaged resources where possible, so participants are not overwhelmed with work.
PCB Design software (free versions are available)

Course Objectives

This course aims to provide engineers and advanced hobbyists with the basic skills needed to layout a printed circuit board focusing on improving signal & power integrity and minimizing fabrication costs.

Process Overview

Understand the various parts of their EDA software, including:
- Pattern Library
  - Learn how to import and verify patterns from online resources
  - Learn how to create patterns from scratch
- Part Library
  - Learn how to import and verify symbols and 3D models from online resources
  - Learn how to create symbols from scratch
- Schematic Editor
  - Understand the various schematic symbols and the components they represent
  - Understand Hierarchical vs. Flat Schematics
  - Add parts from custom and managed libraries
  - Define and label nets using a logical structure
  - Use off-sheet connectors
- PCB Editor
  - Learn how to import custom PCB outlines
  - Learn how to arrange components on a PCB
  - Learn how to route traces, assign classes, create pad stacks, etc.
  - Learn best practices and layout techniques for 2-layer PCBs
  - Learn best practices and layout techniques for 4-layer PCBs

Project Overview

The block diagram for the course is relatively simple. A Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller will act as the interface between a computer and multiple input and output devices. Parts were chosen to demonstrate a variety of serial communication protocols. Participants will utilize key switches, an I2C light sensor, Neopixels, and RGB rotary encoders in their designs. The parts were chosen based on availability and the ability to expose participants to various serial communication protocols.

PCB Project Overview