This page contains some step-by-step guides on making homemade PCBs.
The guides are designed to be used by graduate students at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), but can also be useful for readers with:
The guides are divided into 3 sections:
Guides to help you get started with microcontrollers, breadboarding, bootloading, and understanding electricity
Prototype
A slide show going through the basics of electronics theory, and other relavent information for when designing and making PCBs.
Prototype
Learn what all the components on an Arduino Uno PCB are doing, why they are needed, and what the bare minimum is to make a DIY Arduino.
Prototype
Learn about what happens when a microcontroller is programmed, how to program a brand new chip, and using the Arduino bootloader.
Prototype
The ATtiny85 is a small microcontroller, popular because it can be used similar to an ATmega328 (from Arduino Uno), and because it is SMALL.
This guide will describe how to get a brand new ATtiny85 able to run your Arduino code.
Prototype
Many SMD parts are just too small for us to assemble. This guide shows some specialty SMD parts that are big enough to solder, and they also have open source designs online to use as a starting point.
Guides on setting up Eagle, and using it to design our schematics and board layouts
Design
This guide goes through Eagle download, install, and configuration with the Homemade Hardware repository.
Design
Part 1 of Eagle Schematic Editor.
This guide describes how get use the Eagle schematic designer to add ports from libraries, and connect them together to make your circuit.
Design
Part 1 of Eagle Board Design Editor.
This guide begins with a short overview of Eagle board design, and then ends of the guide describes board design commands in more detail.
Design
Part 2 of Eagle Schematic Editor.
This guide shows how to simplify schematic drawings with names, labels, and frames.
Design
Part 2 of Eagle Board Design Editor.
This guide on more advanced Eagle board design tools and techniques.
Design
This guide an example of how to start your design from one or multiple open source Eagle files online, and redesign to make it easier to fabricate
Design
Create a new library of parts in Eagle, draw symbols and footprints, or reuse designs from other libraries.
Design
The final steps you can take in your Eagle design, once you move away form DIY board to professionally manufactured PCBs.
Guides on tools and fabrication techniques when making DIY PCBs, with a Bantam milling machine and SMD parts
Fabricate
This guide describes how get the Bantam milling machine setup and ready to mill a PCB.
Fabricate
This guide describes how to mill a PCB, starting from an Eagle board file, all the way to milling a complete PCB on the Bantam milling machine.
Fabricate
This guide is part 2 of making PCBs with the Bantam milling machine. We will be focusing on making double-sided boards, and milling SVG files.
Fabricate
This guide is an overview of how to acid etch a PCB, using muriatic acid and hydrogen peroxide.
Fabricate
This guide describes how to do SMD soldering, using tweezers, solder paste, and a heat gun.
Fabricate
This guide describes how to use an Eagle file, transparency film, and a Bantam milling machine to make a solder stencil, and then use it to add solder paste to an entire PCB.
Fabricate
This guide shows how to connect a PCB's top and bottom copper layers, by filling it's via holes with conductive material.
Fabricate
This guide describes how to add protective coating to your circuit, for protecting the copper against oxidation, and the entire finished PCB from environments.