Introduction

In this tutorial, we will be taking a deep dive into Waterloo Rocketry’s Electrical Design Automation Software of choice, KiCad. We will be covering all the steps that you will need to go through to design a board from scratch, from drawing the electrical schematics to laying out the PCB design. There is a lot to cover, and I highly recommend that you get through this tutorial in multiple steps and take breaks in between to digest what you’ve learned. I’ve put a lot more information on here than the base knowledge that you would need to build a board in this program, such as background information about the PCB design process and helpful shortcuts, but I hope that the extra content will allow you to get up and going much more quickly. If you just want to get things done, I’ve written this tutorial in a way that is easily skimmable, with key words bolded throughout.

The board you will be creating in this tutorial is a simple programmable PCB powered by a PIC microcontroller. It is equipped with a buzzer, two LEDs, a switch, a potentiometer, and a programming header. Power will be supplied through a screw terminal. Additionally, the board is compact enough to be used as a keychain – a hole exists on the board just for that purpose. Here’s the reference board, created by our benevolent electrical overlord @Jack Christensen, that we will be using to help guide the creation process:

Open

By the end of the tutorial, you’ll end up with a board that looks something like this.

Head to the next section, and we’ll get started!