PCB layout 1/2 done

It felt like this was a very unproductive 6 hours, but the struggle genuinely paid off as the layout is essentially perfect right now.

The layout is CRUCIAL. Without a good layout for a compact and smart design, there is no difference between handwiring the components on a breadboard and using a PCB.

There are a few things I wanted to achieve in the PCB:

1. Understandable for anyone editing/fabricating this as it will be open source
2. Easy to edit - clean tracks
3. Compact (duh, for the altoids case)
4. “Mountable” on a 3D printed case/frame - so it looks cleaner

So far, goals 1,3,4 are done, and I have yet to draw the tracks because I’ve been so busy with making everything aligned in a grid (like the keyboard), and making sure everything was readable (literally had to handpick the silkscreen out of each component).

To make sure everything was fitting correctly, I drew some temporary silkscreen on top of everything to know exactly how big it would be.

Improvements I have made since the last one:

• Screen has been reconfigured to SPI instead of I2C by rewiring SDA to MOSI and SCK to CLK on the zero 2W.
• Added a switch for on-off; I’m currently struggling to find a good enough switch with enough current rating so it doesn’t melt and break.
• The diodes are placed under the buttons so that they can save space - this however, may lead to an uneven bottom, and the keyboard would need a good 3D modelled case. (At first, it was placed in the blank space above the keyboard as seen, but now, it can be made a lot more compact)

P.S. Tragedy struck during this session - 2 hours of work was lost because I didn’t save, and KiCAD crashed. Will never forget ctrl + s ever again.