I have been working on my first PCB using KiCad. It features a small water alarm that can be used in any place where water could flood, such as a sink. 

As of now, it uses a buzzer (BZ1), Transistor, specifically a Mosfet (Q1), two resistors (R1, R2), Capacitor (C1), main power input (J1), Sensor block (J2), and an LED (D2). 

Challenges: Using KiCad for the first time and learning what each tool does felt overwhelming at first. Some concepts and solutions for the water alarm weren’t covered in the tutorial which led to research and experimentation. For example, while running the design rules checker (DRC) on KiCad, I recieved 2 errors as I didn’t properly wire everything, so strictly following the tutorial wouldn’t always work. It also didn’t cover  what footprints I needed to assign to the LED and how, let alone what LED I needed to select.

Although a lot of time was spent on that, I gained the understanding of through hole technology (THT) and surface mount device (SMD) in LED’s as well as how to assign footprints in KiCad. 

btw I chose THT as they are durable and easy to solder.

So far, I have spent 14 hours on this project, including research and learning the basics of electrical engineering. I learned many concepts that could be tied together in this simple water alarm. Whether it was learning the function of each part, such as a resistor, or learning something as simple as a volt or an AC/DC current, it truly helped me get a basic understanding of electronics. knowing the symbols for each electronic component allowed me to know what they are and how they work.