
Guide on how to design keyboard PCBs - Adrock
https://github.com/ruiqimao/keyboard-pcb-guide
======
paddi91
Shameless plug: We just launched an affordable PCB prototyping service in
Europe with native KiCad support. The PCBs are manufactured in Germany with a
manufacturer usually working for the automotive and medical industry. See
[https://go.aisler.net](https://go.aisler.net) for details.

~~~
Eridrus
All these PCB manufacturers are super cool, but does anyone know any services
which come closer to making complete products for you based on design files?

I'm thinking about flashing microcontrollers, soldering components, inserting
PCBs I to cases, putting them into packaging?

Obviously the holy grail would be for them to do everything in small batch
runs and handle shipping for you too, but I'm also interested in services
which may do only parts of this.

~~~
mmosta
I've used macrofab.com with great success.

Their end-to-end webapp is phenomenal and a great break when you finish a
design for a client and the premium is just worth getting off your back.

------
Animats
Nice KiCAD tutorial.

"Once you receive your PCBs, you can simply use some solder paste and a hot
air rework station to put everything together!" Right. Soldering SMT parts is
not easy and takes practice. You need to practice on junk or practice boards
(there are $3 kits for this) to get the technique.

Here's somebody who's good at it doing it.[1]

I sometimes do this stuff, but the magnifier and tweezers thing is hard work.

The pros all use lead-free solder now, but most hobbyists are still using
leaded solder, which is much more tolerant of temperature variations.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z7nCAxS2Rg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z7nCAxS2Rg)

~~~
mmjaa
Honestly though, SMD is _not_ that difficult once you learn the technique. If
you can handle screen-printing a t-shirt, you can handle the hardest part of
doing SMD properly: using a mask/screen to deposit solder paste onto the PCB
is just as simple as a screen-print for t-shirts, and once that is done its
just a matter of having a patient hand for parts placement, stick it in the
oven, and off you go .. a _lot_ easier than you might think, at first.

~~~
Animats
If you have a stencil printer, yes. Simple SMT stencil printers for unframed
stencils are unreasonably expensive.[1][2]

I'd been using TechShop's SMT equipment, which is junk. It's getting better
since I got a Puhui T-962 oven with all the mods to make it sort of work. I've
gone lead-free, which makes it tougher. But I keep getting solder bridges
between pins.

[1] [http://www.stencilsunlimited.com/protoprint-e-manual-smt-
ste...](http://www.stencilsunlimited.com/protoprint-e-manual-smt-stencil-
printer-p-634.html) [2] [http://www.smtsolderpaste.com/product-list.php?SMT-
Stencil-P...](http://www.smtsolderpaste.com/product-list.php?SMT-Stencil-
Printers-pg1-cid4.html)

------
jimmyswimmy
Not sure about his paranoia over the crystal routing - it's an Atmega, the
crystal is 16 MHz. Anyway, I think this is more of a KiCAD tutorial than a
keyboard design tutorial (not something particularly high on my list of
designs I'd like to do).

I keep trying KiCAD but with a paid alternative (Altium Designer) through work
it doesn't compare. The key to electronics design is the library. There are a
few alternatives which are tied to vendors, like DigiKey's Schemeit. They have
decent libraries of parts. I would have figured that KiCAD would too, but the
last time I tried it was pretty bad. Hope that's changed.

~~~
wonko1
It's not really changed.

To be honest, I don't think it so much of an issue any more. I have a library
of parts I use regularly and just design footprints for new parts.

I'm my case, I doubt that Altium would have footprints for many of the parts I
want to use anyway (quite often cheap connectors, switches etc). I feel like
being comfortable with footprint design is an important part of the design
process.

That said, there are many features of Altium that look very attractive. For
example the push and shove routing.

~~~
bradfa
KiCad has push and shove routing, now, unless I'm misunderstanding what you
mean by that.

This is a nice overview of the KiCad router:
[https://youtu.be/CCG4daPvuVI](https://youtu.be/CCG4daPvuVI)

------
wonko1
This is a really nice tutorial, not just on keyboard PCB design but Kicad in
general.

I also recommend the excellent "getting to blinky" videos:

[https://contextualelectronics.com/learning/getting-to-
blinky...](https://contextualelectronics.com/learning/getting-to-blinky-4-0/)

Which teach the basics of Kicad too.

~~~
pawadu
Here are two more great ones that go from zero all the way to manufacturing:

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjETOA1pRgmQnav7lGc9g...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjETOA1pRgmQnav7lGc9gVwU0Ta2OKdXi)

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4BSO74u0VpY7FKJK5ul7...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4BSO74u0VpY7FKJK5ul7yfyLTPNbdYeT)

------
strgrd
Layout the keyboard here: [http://www.keyboard-layout-
editor.com/](http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/)

Convert to PCB here:
[http://kalerator.clueboard.co/](http://kalerator.clueboard.co/)

------
swegg
I don't understand the decap network: why not go something more classical 10n,
0.1u and 4.7u, i.e. just a cap for each frequency range?

~~~
pawadu
I think its to place them near each VCC to minimize effect of wire parasitics.
Dave probably explains it better:

[https://youtu.be/BcJ6UdDx1vg?t=5m58s](https://youtu.be/BcJ6UdDx1vg?t=5m58s)

