PCB Blogs

Ninja reflow: Part 2: Reverse engineering the PCB - mains powered

Fred27

So, after deciding that I would update a Ninja SP101 oven / air fryer to act as a reflow oven, the first step was to reverse engineer the PCB. I needed to know what pine I had to toggle to turn on the elements and what I had to read to get a temperat...
- 10 Apr 2026
Ninja reflow: Part 1: Reprogramming an air fryer for reflow soldering

Fred27

As was browsing EEVBlog a while ago... (I know. It's great here, but I sometimes like go look elsewhere too.) Anyway, I was browsing EEVBlog and came across an interesting post where someone had taken a Ninja SP101 domestic air fryer / pizza oven and...
- 29 Mar 2026
KiCad 10: Saving RAM! Pruning Libraries

shabaz

Table of Contents Introduction How are Libraries Stored? Pruning Strategy Source Code Using the Code Summary Introduction KiCad 10, the PCB design software, has finally been released, and I've started getting up to speed with it. One thing I...
- 25 Mar 2026
KiCad Quick Tutorial: Creating Component Footprints with the help of a Wizard

shabaz

Table of Contents Introduction Getting Started Create a Footprint Library and select 'Create Footprint' Footprint Generator Wizard Deleting Items Check Pads Numbering Direction Draw Silkscreen and Courtyard Outlines Keepout Rule Areas Footp...
- 30 Jun 2025
KiCad Quick Tutorial: Creating Component Symbols

shabaz

Table of Contents Getting Started Create a Symbol Library and New Symbol Create Pins, Slow method and Fast method Rearrange Pins Check your Work Drawing a Box and Symbol Properties Consider Symbol Usability Check my Work Video Summary Ever ...
- 28 Jun 2025
Raspberry Pi RP2350 based PCB design

embeddedguy

Sometimes back, I was designing a PCB based on RP2350 and now I received the finished PCB. So this post is about the experience that I would like to share about my PCB design. Firstly, the original plan of creating this PCB was to create RP2350 based...
- 19 Jun 2025
Creating a Flexible PCB!

shabaz

Recently, I've decided to give flexible PCBs a go, using the prototype service available from typical PCB manufacturers. I had my reasons, in particular, it's a great time-saver, because I don't enjoy creating custom cables for off-board...
- 17 May 2025
Flexible Electronics Soldering Challenges: Conductive Epoxy to The Rescue

abeltran

The recent years have witnessed a tremendous transformation in electronics, from rigid forms to flexible, soft, and stretchable forms. These technological advancements will allow future electronics to be light and adaptive to the human body. In the q...
- 6 Feb 2025
KiCAD 8: RX23E-B kit - LCD schematic (and using a bus)

Jan Cumps

I'm building a PCB for Renesas' RX23E-B microcontroller. In this post: the LCD pins. I'm also using a KiCAD bus for the first time since V4. It changed a lot. The crossed-out resistors are "do not populate". These LCD signals use the same pin a...
- 8 Nov 2024
KiCAD 8: RX23E-B kit - serial comms schematic

Jan Cumps

I'm building a PCB for Renesas' RX23E-B microcontroller. In this post: the UART / serial communications design I've taken over the design of the Renesas Solution Starter Kit for RX23E-B, without the FTDI serial-to-USB. I'm not sure...
- 2 Nov 2024
KiCAD 8: RX23E-B kit - clock, debug and reset schematic

Jan Cumps

I'm building a PCB for Renesas' RX23E-B microcontroller. In this post, I experiment with breaking the microcontroller schematic symbol into functional units. And I created some custom symbols and footprints. Schematics I'm interested to hear what yo...
- 28 Oct 2024
KiCAD 8: create symbol for Rohm complementary MOSFET pair US6M2

Jan Cumps

Rohm's US6M2 is an IC with 2 complementary MOSFETs on a single chip. With gate-source protection diodes. I'm using them in a design, but KiCAD doesn't have a symbol for this IC. It has a number of complementary MOSFET ...
- 14 Sep 2024
Flux for soldering Zinc or Aluminum wires

SweRavn

Hi all, I have been struggling hard to find reasonable and comprehensible information on how to solder aluminum or zinc wire to a PCB. There are many texts online but all of the just say something in line with "make sure to use a flux that is su...
- 5 Aug 2024
Repairing & Avoiding Electronic Faults with Thermal Paste

abeltran

Thermal grease, also known as thermal paste or thermal compound, is a substance used to improve the thermal conductivity between two surfaces, typically between a microprocessor and a heat sink. The purpose of thermal grease is to fill in the microsc...
- 14 Feb 2024
Preventing PCB Misprints with Optimized Stencil Cleaning Process

abeltran

The consumer demand for compact, miniaturized, and smart electronic devices is making electronics manufacturers use the smallest available packaging footprints. As a result, Printed Circuit Board Assemblies (PCBAs) have become denser and more sophist...
- 19 Dec 2023
Cleaning “No-Clean” Flux??

abeltran

No-clean flux is a type of soldering flux used in electronics assembly that leaves behind minimal-to-no residue after the soldering process. Flux is a material applied to surfaces before soldering to facilitate the formation of strong and reliable so...
- 8 Dec 2023
PCBA Cleaning Before Conformal Coating: Increase Reliability & Functional Life!

abeltran

In the electronic industry, the manufacture of printed circuit-board assemblies (PCBAs) has been greatly simplified by the adoption of “no-clean” fluxes during the soldering process. This “no-clean” solder paste intends to e...
- 15 Nov 2023
Experimentation with the UL 94V-0 designation of printed circuit boards

wolfgangfriedrich

Disclaimer: This post is rated VS (very sad); continue reading at your own risk. Extreme temperature testing is nothing a hobbyist is normally even thinking about. The 94V-0 flammability rating that is printed on most production PCBs basically states...
- 1 Oct 2023
Bad Soldering Practice: Why you need to remove solder flux from your PCB?

akshayvn

Do you work with Printed Circuit Boards? Do you often use Soldering tools for a rework on the PCB with SMD components? Are you wondering why the faulty part replacement, after a rework, did not work for you even after correct troubleshooting of failure? Then head on to this blog post to understand what went wrong when you did your part of rework.
- 16 Mar 2023
Compact USB-to-Banana Adapter -- my take on dougw's design

baldengineer

Previously, dougw shared a bench power supply video where he used an adapter he made. It had 4mm banana plugs and a USB port on it. The idea was that he could connect USB devices to a bench power supply. I loved the idea and he did a g...
- 28 Feb 2023
The SteamDeck is very hackable - but it could be better.

cstanton

I've picked up Valve Software's Steam Deck. This (Arch) Linux based, hand-held personal computer is set at a reasonable price, can act as though it's a portable games console (often compared with the Nintendo Switch) and yet also behave like a desk...
- 6 Feb 2023
DC switching board

neuromodulator

As owner of some DC test equipment and as a big fan of automated tests, I've needed more than once to be able to route the instrument channels to multiple paths. Doing this by hand is of course not convenient, so I looked for better ways to do it. On...
- 2 Feb 2023
Create a custom footprint in KiCad 7 - 2b: create the footprint for an SMA coax connector with the editor - copper pour, solder mask clearance, holes, pads

Jan Cumps

Part 2b of the exercise to create a custom footprint for the Amphenol / SV Microwave SF2921-61506-1S SMA coaxial connector. In the previous post created the initial footprint boundaries. Now: the rest. C...
- 21 Jan 2023
Create a custom footprint in KiCad 7 - 2a: create the footprint for an SMA coax connector with the editor - initial outline

Jan Cumps

Part 2 of the exercise to create a custom footprint for the Amphenol / SV Microwave SF2921-61506-1S SMA coaxial connector. The previous post checked the possible layout. In this one, I'm drawing it in the footprin...
- 21 Jan 2023
Create a custom footprint in KiCad 7 - 1: collect info and component details

Jan Cumps

I'm going to draw my first footprint in the KiCad 7 Footprint editor. I have experience with previous versions. To try out version 7, I'm going to make one for the Amphenol / SV Microwave SF2921-61506-1S SMA...
- 21 Jan 2023