Rudolph’s Sleigh On A North Pole PCB

Each Christmas, [Adam Anderson], [Daniel Quach], and [Johan Wheeler] (meanwhile going by ‘the Janky Jingle Crew’)—set themselves the challenge of outdoing their previous creations. Last…

PCB Motor Holds Fast, Even After 1.6 Billion Spins

If you aren’t up to date with [Carl Bugeja]’s work with tiny brushless PCB motors, his summary video of his latest design and all the challenges it involved is an excellent overview. Ba…

Even Apple Get Their Parts Wrong Sometimes

There can be few among those of us who produce printed circuit boards, who have not at some point placed a component the wrong way round, or with the wrong footprint. Usually this can be rectified …

Rapid Prototyping PCBs With The Circuit Graver

Walking around the alley at Hackaday Supercon 2024, we noticed an interesting project was getting quite a bit of attention, so we got nearer for a close-up. The ‘Circuit Graver’ by [Zac…

Making PCB Strip Filter Design Easy To Understand

We’ve always been fascinated by things that perform complex electronic functions merely by virtue of their shapes. Waveguides come to mind, but so do active elements like filters made from no…

A Brand-New Additive PCB Fab Technique?

Usually when we present a project on these pages, it’s pretty cut and dried — here’s what was done, these are the technologies used, this was the result. But sometimes we run acro…

Hacker Tactic: Building Blocks

The software and hardware worlds have overlaps, and it’s worth looking over the fence to see if there’s anything you missed. You might’ve already noticed that we hackers use PCB m…

Give Your SMD Components A Lift

When you are troubleshooting, it is sometimes useful to disconnect a part of your circuit to see what happens. If your new PCB isn’t perfect, you might also need to add some extra wires or co…

Your Battery Holder Is Also Your Power Switch With ToggleSlot

We really like PCB-level hacks, especially ones that show ingenuity in solving a real problem while being super cheap to implement. Hackaday.IO user [Steph] wanted a cheap way to switch a wearable …

Towards Solderless PCB Prototyping

When we think of assembling a PCB, we’re almost always thinking about solder. Whether in paste form or on the spool, hand-iron or reflow, some molten metal is usually in the cards. [Stephen Hawes] …

V-Cut Vias Test Your Whole Panel At Once

We might consider PCB panels as simply an intermediate step towards getting your PCBs manufactured on the scale of hundreds. This is due to, typically, an inability to run traces beyond your board …

3D Print A Stenciling Frame For Your PCB

For many a hacker, stenciling a board for the first time is a game-changing experience – the solder joints you get, sure do give your PCB the aura of a mass-manufactured device. Now, you migh…

Supercon 2023: Thea Flowers Renders KiCad Projects On The Web

Last year’s Supercon, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting Thea [Stargirl] Flowers, who told us about her KiCanvas project, with its trials, its tribulations, and its triumphs. KiCanvas br…

Where Do You Connect The Shield?

When it comes to polarizing and confusing questions in electronics, wiring up shields is on the top-10 list when sorted by popularity. It’s a question most of us need to figure out at some po…

Simple PCB Agitator Gets The Job Done

These days, PCB fab houses are just about everywhere, and you can’t go buy a taco without walking past eight of them. Still, some out there still like to etch their PCBs at home. If that soun…

SWD Interface Simplifies Debugging

The proliferation of microcontrollers has made it easier than ever to add some smarts to a project, but sometimes there just isn’t enough space for headers on a board, or you feel a little si…

A Simple Guide To RF PCB Design

[Hans Rosenberg] knows a thing or two about RF PCB design and has provided a three-part video demonstration of some solid rules of thumb. We will cover the first part here, and leave the other two …

Hacker Tactic: Multi-Design Panels

Last time, we talked about single-PCB-design panels, all the cool aspects of it, including some cost savings and handling convenience. Naturally, you might wonder, and many did – can you put …

2024 Business Card Challenge: CardTunes Bluetooth Speaker

A business card form factor can be quite limiting, but that didn’t stop [Schwimmflugel] from creating CardTunes, an ESP32-based Bluetooth audio speaker that tried something innovative to deli…

Five Ways To Repair Broken PCB Traces

When everything used wires, it was easy to splice them or replace them. Not so much with PC boards, but everyone has their favorite method for repairing a broken trace. [Mr. SolderFix] has his five…