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Designing the PCB layout for my nRF24L01+ Radio Tower PCB
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Timeline:
00:00 Intro
01:04 Add some Net names
02:18 Convert to PCB
02:45 Set PCB attributes
03:50 Positioning components
07:12 Rip up and retry
08:18 Lots of rambling about routing
10:58 More fiddling about
13:25 Final routing adjustments
15:10 Working on the silk screen
17:56 Gerber upload
19:22 Collecting my $10 off coupon
20:25 The JLCPCB order page
21:10 A slight compromise
22:28 Back on the order page
24:16 Adding the BOM and CPL files
26:20 Selecting parts to be assembled
28:48 Saving the PCB to my cart

I've got this message: coupon is sent fantastic good morning, all continuing with my radio tower project. I want to build a pcb to replace the existing nrf24l01 plus sort of adapter board and my tower board, which fits with these right angle, pins into d13, 12, 11, 10 and 9.. Now the board is only going to have a voltage regulator on it. A 3.3 volt voltage regulator, which you can just about see there, four capacitors a resistor and an led, but it's also going to have this connector at the base here and also a compatible connector, it's 2x4 for the transceiver module.

So, let's get straight back on to easy eda on my pc and we'll do some video screen grab and create the pcb from the schematic that i've already started designing. So here's my schematic that i drew in the last video and really the first thing i want to do - is send that directly to be a pcb, so this thing here says: convert schematic to pcb. Let's do that immediately now it says there are some unfinished nets and i'm sure there are nets with no name and not connected to anything. I suppose we could put some extra names in actually uh.

Let's come out of that check the nets. What's this one h2-8, it's just saying that's not connected. Well, that's fine! Is there a sort of thing where you cannotify the program that you want it not connected? I don't know um one name i did want to put on was up here. This can have the label 3v3 3v3 because that's 3.3 volts after the regulator - and i guess i could put - i could actually do this with a 5 volt um.

I don't know what this is called. It's called a net flag, five volts. So, let's wire that onto the five volts and then that at least also has a name. Okay, i think that's good enough.

So now i'm going to hit the convert to schematic, convert pcb, not worried about the unfinished nets. Keep going! Oh, please save your file, fine! Connecting to server saved, successful, convert to pc, keep going and there's the pcb. Now i want to work in mills not too worried about the board size. Yet i think i will have two copper layers, although i'm not entirely sure whether i'm going to use those or not so let's apply that and then the other thing i tend to change is my snap size to 25.

So it's a really coarse snap so that you can see what's going on and i'll show you the advantage of that and then alt snap. If you hit the alt key, you can snap to a finer. So that's this is using the right mouse key to drag it scroll wheel to make it larger. So the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to take the board outline, which i don't know why there's a break in there, but there's always a break, and you can see that the coarse snap means i can absolutely get that exactly where i want It to fit my grid, and so that's not the finished size of the board, because this regulator takes up a fair amount of board space uh now.

The other thing i need to do is work out whether i'm going to go for, i think i'll work horizontally, because i've got limited space on here so, for example, h1. In that case, i think we need to do three rotates that will sit. Let's put it there and then actually i want my board to be quite small, so quite narrow, so i might go for that um. So there's my connector that sits in the arduino expansion board regulator.
Here are the capacitors uh the two pin connector for power. This is the connector now this one, i don't know what the rotation of this is. Yet, let's do it that way, but i will check it. I know it's going to be offset slightly to one side because it is on the nrf24l01 plus board um.

Really we want to get all these components up onto the board, so let's do that h3. I probably don't need to drag around that much so i can probably just drag them. Let's get them all up on the board. I'll make the board a bit longer and this thing can go a bit further up: let's try it there, but all this has to be checked whether the orientation is right and all that sort of stuff.

So what do i check on here that offset of this connector is quite far over? I don't know why they couldn't get that central um. This ruler has tenths on it. How wide is this board, because i really want to make my board the same width? Ah, okay, it's six tenths exactly right, so i'm going to make my board six tenths and then i've got to try and work out, that's quite close to the edge, isn't it um. I want to try and work out the positioning of that on my layout.

So, let's go back to the pcb right. I've noticed that my board is six tenths wide and that's a perfect fit for this five-way connector. So that's good um. This connector possibly might come a little bit near the edge, perhaps i'll just put it there.

This label needs to move, or i might get rid of it because h2 doesn't really tell you anything useful at all. I've got some more capacitors to bring up here and, of course, i need to route a lot of these signals here up to the respective points on this connector um. I've got two sides, so it should be relatively easy to do. That's essentially it uh power.

Connector can go, it could go there. I'll put it on the grid, said it um. That makes sense. I can't remember, which is pause and neg on this.

Actually, i think, pin one i made. Oh, it is ground because there's a thing that's come up and that one has that got a flag. Yes, that's plus five volts there. So that's good! Now i'm going to - and this won't be very interesting - i'm just going to sort of rearrange these things for a while until i get a layout which i think works, i'm not going to show the whole thing, because this video would be really long.

But i'll come back when it's looking like it's a bit more laid out how i want it now, something here looks all a bit wrong. The power when it comes out of the regulator needs to come over to pins one and two on the nrf connector. So it looks to me, like all of this power stuff really wants to shift to the other side of the board. So this is very much rip up and retry.
Let's take all these tracks out, i'm going to take them all out, because it's all a bit messy and i'm just going to move this entire section of stuff to the other side of the board. Oh computer's, a bit slow doing that! Oh it's darting around! All over the place, so i'm sort of thinking, there-ish and that might make the whole process a little bit easier, so power over on that side. I know that's not how it is on the existing board. Let's work with this for the moment, see how far we get and then if another rip up and retry is required.

Well, so be it okay. I've got the signals rooted from the connector on the left. Here, that's the bottom of the board to the a-way connector. Here, it's ugly routing that i can probably slightly sort out - i'm not too worried about the beauty of it at the moment, because i just want to see that i can work it now power.

I can probably root on the underside um, although of course, these regulator components are on the top side. So if i wanted to dart to the underside, i'd have to uh. I'd have to use a via. Actually this one doesn't need to go right up there.

Does it it can probably come through that gap and then pins one and two are free. I could root, pin two round there, but then it's on the wrong side, because it's actually here my ground, um i'll, do it in blue, although i might use a ground plane. Oh no, of course it's underside routing. Well, i could use a ground plane to link, pin one there ground to pin one there ground, but i'll just do it in track for the moment, because it's not going to connect to the surface mount stuff.

Is it so? Let's just read it like that: um and then topside routing, so back to top layer from there to there from that pad to that capacitor that capacitor, i think to that capacitor that capacitor does it go to there resistor? Yes, i think resistor is ground. Now these two are also ground. Aren't they so, let's link those and that's going to come i'll, just link it on to there for now, even though that's not ideal, uh there's a track here from the resistor to the led, the output, i can link these two goes to there. That goes to that and that crosses over now, which is a bit of a nuisance.

I can come round here. I'll have a think about that. There may be a way around that, but i'm nearly rooted yeah, not sure. If this is ideal, though ground comes into the regulator and does all this stuff and then goes out to the socket back from this point, not ideal but probably would work well, that's it fully rooted um.

Can i make this twice the size? Yes, that's better! Now we can see it um, it's just occurred to me that c2 and c4 could actually flip in y uh. Why isn't it? Let me do that? Let's just take these delete that well it's very slow. Why is it so slow, probably because i'm recording? Why can't maybe i have to rotate them? Okay, let's do that c4, rotate, rotate c2 rotate rotate, and now, if i delete that, i can run a track from this point out to here. I might have to move that a little bit and to there to there uh, i think, that's it uh.
Let me just fix that right, that's fixed it! Now, i'm just going to fatten up this track. This blue track uh on the underside, that's width! 10! Let's have it width 20, so it's nice and big. So we can see it because it's a power track, um and i'll just fix that, because that's a bit ugly. So that's on the underside goes from ground straight to ground.

On this other connector and then ground routes around here to these capacitors, but they're a little bit sort of set apart from the regulator and these capacitors, which are on the output, which is the tab which then feed this pin 2, which is vcc, i presume, also Feeds the led back through r1 to ground it's all there. It just needs smartening up and paying some attention to things like lengths of tracks, proximity of components to the regulator where exactly i want this connector. This could come more central to the board. I think so.

I will now spend what is normally an hour or two just twiddling things until it feels right and then i'll come back. So i've got to this now i quite like it. I've got my power connector, centralized i'm going to do something with these. I think if you triple click uh, yes, i'm trying to add another point in there.

I could run that like so i need another one. Oh what's that doing. Well, i suppose i could have jaunty angles on these. People will complain like that.

People will hate it, but it does space this lot down. I will need an extra one in there uh and put it there sort of thing. I quite like that that one's not quite right is it that one needs to come out. Oh, that's! A nice fan shape.

I really like that. I'm keeping that um i was thinking. I could bring this connector down a bit, bring the capacitors the regulator, the led and the resistor all down and shorten the board and not have it quite so long. It would be more compact, so i might work on that next, but i like this layout.

One thing is the input capacitors here have a little run round here to ground. This is, i suppose, my main incoming ground point there's a big fat track on the bottom. This blue track, if i've had to go to blue you'll, see it better running from pin one of one can of the power connector to pin one of the nrf connector, but all in all, i think that looks pretty good i'll. Do a little bit of um straightening things out and come back uh.

I just haven't saved this, so perhaps i better save that that saved now can you have if i go to the top silk layer text plastered all over topside tracks? I don't see why not so let's have this as radyo tower see if that fits. Oh, that's! Quite nice i'll put that there. I might add something to that, but i think that's essentially it so now it's six tenths wide. I suppose it is by 1.8 inches long, that's, okay! Some of my labels are in different orientations.
Actually, i suppose i can sort that out the u1 label. I could do a rotate. I won't put it under the device because then you won't see it uh. The r the lead 2 label - i don't know it's lead - 2.

It should be lead 1. Really that can go there and r1 can go there. So that's all those in the or same orientation um. But i'm just wondering if some other um markers on here, like d13 for that 12, 11, 10 and d9, for that might be useful um.

Putting the positive and negative on here might be useful. The nrf it's pretty self-explanatory. It's not going to come downwards into the board. It's going to go up off the board.

I put that as close to the edge as i can get it. If i turn the silk layer off, you can see how that track gets very close to the ground pad, but that's all right that acts as a a capacitor between vcc, 3 volt, 3v3 and ground. So i'm happy with that now it's just occurred to me that, because i'm not fitting these components, i don't really need these labels on here at all and you can turn them off. So if i take c1, for example, go into attributes and say uh, this display prefix no and update it.

The label just goes away and i think it might be neater with no labels at all, and then i can put some markings across here to make sure you get d13 and d9 in the right place here for pos and neg 5 volts uh. I think i might do that all the components right, i think that's essentially it i've got my labels on for ground vcc for when you're connecting the power connector, d13 and d9, so you can align that in the proper place on the arduino and the nrf24l01 plus On this connector, these components are going to be fitted by jlc pcb so i'll just save this, so they don't need to be marked. Okay, i think i'm ready to do the gerbers and get this off to jlc pcb. So, let's give that a try.

That's it uh. Would you like to do a design role check? Well, i will do one. I can't imagine there are going to be any errors, no errors and we're sent straight to the generate pcb fabrication and i'm going to be doing an order at jlc pcb. My pcb price is four dollars.

I only need five of these. I don't need ten i'll. Do blue actually black would be quite nice because the nrf board is black, isn't it hassle with lead i'll see if that black is possible, but what's this pcb? Oh, let me just make sure that you can see this i'll, just move that slightly. Yes, what's this um pcp plus smt assembly, ten dollars off get coupon? I think i'm going to get my coupon, oh where's, that sending me to here get coupon.

Well, i think, oh, i think i must have got a coupon. Ah right, i've got this message. Coupon is sent check it and order it jlc, pcb.com, okay, fantastic, so back here, i've set everything i want to set five 1.6 black hassle with lead. One ounce copper order at pcb.
Now i have checked the coupon and it has arrived. So that's good. Let's go into my jlc, oh order, data generated. Please click, ok, fine! Let's go to my jlc pcb order page and see what we've got right here.

We are my pcb is here it's showing it in green, but it's actually blue. That should be oh! No! It's black there. It is um, so yeah that looks good. I don't need an smt stencil because i'm going to do jlc pcb assembly, so i need to find out where that is in here and ah here we are smt assembly free smt assembly, for your pcb order, uh the pcb specs you've chosen not available for smt Assembly pc, please reset the pcb specs right.

I see the problem it's here. Minimum pcb dimension for smt assembly is 20 by 20 mil and i'm six tenths of an inch which i can't work out in my head, but that's probably less than 20 mil. So i'm just going to have to make the board wider, it's probably because it needs to be that wide fit into their assembly machine. So i will work on that and come straight back to this point.

So here's the issue um 0.8 times 25.4 is 20.32. So if i increase the width of my board to 0.8 uh, let's just drag that down a bit which means taking that out to there and that out to there. It has to be that wide or i can't have it assembled, which has spoiled the aesthetic a little bit, but i can work with this. It's got to be that wide i mean.

Actually i could once i receive it, carve the edges off. So maybe that's. Okay. Uh, i think i might just widen it and leave it actually.

So let's save that and go through the process again and i'll go back to the order page. So here we are back on the order. Page uh, here's my new slightly wider board and the rear view of it. Yes, that's the underside with my big fat ground, track from pin one to pin one that all looks good.

So what have we got? Two layers? Quantity? Five. The dimensions are 20 by 46. I hope they allow this different design is one single pcb: i'm not panelizing it thickness, 1.6 color black hassle with led one ounce, copper, blah blah blah smt assembly uh only accept single side placement. We recommend you choose the side which has more smd parts.

Well, that's this one! So that's what i want: smd quantity, uh, five or two, not sure what that is tooling holes added by jlc pcb. I agree to the terms and conditions. Well, i think that's! Okay! Now the boards are two dollars. The setup fee is seven.

The stencil is 150, but i presume they'll use the stencil internally uh that's 10.50 and then of course, there's a shipping charge. Yes, the estimated shipping charge. I don't want that is 16.80. So and of course i can use the coupon at this point.

So i guess this is all okay, assemble top side, just not sure what this smt quantity is five or two. I guess five, i'm having five boards so confirm that i understand that see what happens all right. Yes, i need to add the bom file and the cpl file, which is oh, yes, i've done this once before. I've got to try and remember how this works now, just say here tip with easy eda.
You can generate the bom cpl files with a single click. That should be easy. Then let's do it so switching back to easy eda. I can get rid of my order thing now.

What's this up here, this is bomb and that's picking place so bomb. Ah right. So it's saying assign my parts now, so maybe i didn't need specifically to set all that up in my schematic design. I could have picked generic parts and then assigned them here right so exporting the bom.

I mean all these components are the ones i chose, so they should be correct: uh, they're, lcsc parts but they're assigned to the jlc pcb assembly service, uh order parts check, stock, export bom, let's just export it, that's created a csv down the bottom. Okay. Well, let's assume that's right and close that what about the pick and place file mirror the coordinates of the components on the bottom side, some manufacturers may need it. Jlc pcb, doesn't okay, we'll just export and that's created a pick and place uh pcb csv file at the bottom.

So, let's see, if i can put those files in, i do want the ability to edit them because i did notice on the bomb. It's included. My three headers - and i don't want them - fitted they're, not surface mount parts anyway. So will there be a final chance to edit we'll find out so the two files that it downloaded the bom and the pick and place file i've brought in next? Let's see if there's an ability - oh yes, it does say, select parts.

So, ah right! Yes, that's good! So i don't want h2 or h1 or h3. I do want the 100n and the 1117 regulator. I do want 10n1k 10 microfarads and the led, which is a hubei kento, elec c2293. I suppose i could look that up and just make sure that is a red led, which is what i wanted so that all looks fine.

Please carefully check the packages of the selected parts before proceeding. Well, i think that's fine, so i'm going to proceed with this. Having switched off my three headers, let's say next, ah it's giving me a little all! That's nice! Um i've got red marks here there and everywhere. That's interesting.

Can i zoom in on that? It's got a red box over that connector and these two connectors i've got my regulator, got resistor led and my four capacitors, that's really all i want now. How has that affected the price? Uh total buys 1944. Now, because we've got setup fee, stencil, 150 components, 261 extended components fee. Yes, that's a fee because i didn't use all basic parts, but one of the capacitors i couldn't find a basic part.

Well i'll. Just have to swallow that here are all the parts listed here, so i can go through checking these once again, this led uh five times one quantity five times one course the quantities are five off because i'm having five boards. I still don't know the color of that led, which is remarkable, really light emitting diodes led 0805 go for it um. So i think we're good with that save to cart.
Let's save it right, that's saved to cart, so i've got my five boards two dollars. Of course, for five pcbs, uh five sets of components here they are and that's 1744 for those five sets of components. Now i'm going to go through the checkout, probably off camera for obvious reasons and place this order, but i think that's probably it for this video. If you want to get your smt plus assembly, 10 coupon, then it's available from today, which is the 14th of may.

I think it's available on an ongoing basis. I will check that um, but that's it for this video, so cheerio.

By Julian

Youtuber, shed dweller, solar charge controller aficionado

8 thoughts on “PCB Layout in EasyEDA – Arduino Radio Tower”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mr. Meeseeks says:

    Hello Julian. Thank you so much for the video. I am sorry if my question is stupid. But i am newbie in electronics. I wonder if that 4×2 connector on the right is two sided plated. I mean if the smd components are on top side and routed to that connector on top, can i still solder pins from bottom side? I mean does the holes work like via?

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars J H says:

    @22m22s: You could also siamese two board together, making pairs of boards to be separated later. I assume that they can score or router the boards to make bending them apart easier for you. Cheers !!

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars J H says:

    @14m30s: Me screaming at my screen that the blue trace now has a clear run on the other (red) layer: Around H3, down and then right, through the empty wide gap past C2, C4, and so on. SINGLE LAYER !!!

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Steve Perry says:

    Marking a pin as having no connection is done by putting an X on it, bottom row of Wiring Tools.
    Add top and bottom copper areas, top +3.3 volts, bottom ground, then you only have to route signals, the dotted copper area tool.

    The BOM file is easy to edit in Excel to get everything right.

    Panel the pcb by stamp hole to get around the size issue, add a border so that the order number gets put on it rather than on your board and DO NOT check any panel options on the order page !

    The low cost postage options are hidden, you need to "show more" to find them.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars andymouse123 says:

    Always nice to watch someone design a PCB ! I think you should use a ground plane on a board this simple, if not for electrical stability then for using less etchant, the big manufacturers are still a bit secretive about how they dispose of or reclaim saturated etchant, and this is a growing problem nowadays due to our ability to just pop a few components on a board and get it made for pence, the price is being paid somewhere, but Kudos to you ! very brave doing this live (sorta!)…cheers.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Lestronics UK says:

    When you had to widen the board to meet JLCPCB size requirements then you could've just dragged one side out, one cut then as opposed to two if you wish to pursue the cutting afterwards. Too late now I know ……

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars UpLateGeek says:

    I've been designing a "supercomputer" in the vein of the one BigClive made for his live stream channel, and it never occurred to me that I could just get them so solder all those tiny SMD resistors for me, which would save a lot of effort! I'd still have to solder the blinkin' LEDs, but that should be much easier than all those tiny resistors. Unfortunately I've been designing it in Kicad, which might make the process a lot more complex, since I'll need to figure out how to make the BOM and CPL files myself.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Andy Timmons says:

    To get round the size problem, double the design in one pcb and place a track down the length between the two boards. Then convert the track to a slot.

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