Making a Custom RP2040 Project with KiCad, Part 1!

RE: Making a Custom RP2040 Project with KiCad, Part 1!

arvindsa — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 12:21:04 GMT

I came here from your Part 2 of this post. Looking at the PCB Layout of the original PCB, I see a lot of polygon on top layer for the 3.3V Net. Now before I say something more, I have to say that I believe that when executing an engineering project, one has to design for the robustness for the intended purpose of the project. Anything beyond that would be waste of resource, it could be time, material, money anything. Back to the 3.3V pours with intricate shape, I think it is unnecessary, it could have been thicker traces. and Rpi does not have huge instantaneous power requirement to justify a very short return path and etc. [mention:b0bc65b9ecdc4307bd967592f00e340a:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] do you think of any reason why there is these 3.3V copper fills?. One could have just made a rectangular fill instead.

RE: Making a Custom RP2040 Project with KiCad, Part 1!

DAB — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 20:17:03 GMT

Very good post.

RE: Making a Custom RP2040 Project with KiCad, Part 1!

shabaz — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 20:31:34 GMT

I wonder if the Raspberry Pi people every got one of these PCBs assembled.. they have traces not running through the center of pads. These are lightweight 0402 parts, they will rotate as the solder reflows. For instance, C12 in the screenshot below, would rotate clockwise:

Here's another unusual trace design, on C14. The left side of it has more copper traces attached to it, it may cause the component to slide leftward.

I'm going to try to clean these up, because it will get reflowed, I'm not going to hand-solder this.

For instance, here's a resistor that wasn't in the original circuit. I've brought out both of the traces more aligned, even though it is a longer path.

RE: Making a Custom RP2040 Project with KiCad, Part 1!

wolfgangfriedrich — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:53:27 GMT

Thanks for connecting the SPI flash and the crystal to the controller chip with wires and not only net labels on the schematic. This way it is much more well-arranged and understandable on first sight.

RE: Making a Custom RP2040 Project with KiCad, Part 1!

geralds — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:09:31 GMT

Hi Shabaz,

Great!

Thank you so much for the informative details.
I'm looking forward to part 2.
Similar, I've planned to create it with the Eagle.

Gerald
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