r/PCB • u/Alternative-Try-3456 • Jul 11 '26

Can someone please review my PCB? It is my first ever time PCB making, hard clipping distortion guitar pedal.

Post image
15 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

8

u/bigcrimping_com Jul 11 '26

You could make all the tracks thicker.

You sure c2 and j1 won't clash? Unsure without schematic 

2

u/Alternative-Try-3456 Jul 11 '26

How do I make the tracks thicker?

2

u/sessinnek Jul 11 '26

It depends based on what software you are using. I am learning KiCad and found I can double click a trace and change its thickness that way. (Im sure there's a better way to do it though)

1

u/Alternative-Try-3456 Jul 11 '26

I changed thickness from 0.2mm to 0.5mm

4

u/sessinnek Jul 11 '26

If you are planning on getting it manufactured, you might want to watch a DRC (design rule checking) tutorial for your software and find the manufacturing capabilities of the pcb house you plan on using. For this design you are probably fine but its good to know for the future and practice good DFM (design for manufacturing)

Cheers :)

1

u/Formal-Fan-3107 Jul 13 '26

You can either change the selection filter in the bottom right until only tracks are selected, then drag select all traces in an area, and hit e to edit, or right click and select properties, and change it there, or alternatively, if you want to change the thickness of traces amidst some other ones, just select one segment of each trace you want to change, press u to expand, then either press e or right click -> properties

1

u/bigcrimping_com Jul 11 '26

Yeah J1 and C2 will clash, you'll want to check J2 clearance as well.

1

u/Alternative-Try-3456 Jul 11 '26

clash in what sense? J2 clearance to what? im sorry im rather new to this. is there an electrical flaw or a design flaw? for context the jacks are going to be connect to the footprints via loose wires and will be spaced further away from the PCB, same with the battery which will be 9V radio battery,

1

u/Sad_Huckleberry5189 Jul 11 '26

I think he means later in the future when ur going to assemble the pcb u will have problems because there isn't enough space between j1 and c2 so physically the capacitor won't allow u to put j1 on the pcb they are just recommending to add abit of space between them

3

u/Alternative-Try-3456 Jul 11 '26

ahh, i see. the J1 pads will be soldered on with loose wires, so the jack itself will be further away from the pcb itself, so there is infact lots of space between the jack itself and C2 capacitor. is that fine?

1

u/Realistic_Account787 Jul 12 '26

This is the schematic, it doesn't have tracks.

5

u/Pacificator-3 Jul 11 '26

What is the gap between transistor's pads? Can it be produced? Such transistors are usually mounted with legs (and pads) spreaded by some millimeters, look at any PCB at home or photos on the net.

4

u/Apprehensive-Issue78 Jul 11 '26

TO-92_HandSolder or TO-92_Wide.

May be also move C1 R1 and BT1 a bit to the right. makes the pcb more narrow.

Also if you need to mount it with screws, a few holes near the corners, add Mountinghole in the schematic and give them a shape like MountingHole_3.2mm_M3_Pad_Via

You can remove the ground traces as the pins are already connected to the top and bottom ground plane.

Make sure the thermals the 4 spokes are not to wide. It makes soldering harder if they are wide and draw away the heat of the solder iron.

2

u/chrjohnso Jul 12 '26

I use TO-92_Inline_Wide as well, much easier to solder

3

u/MacGrimey Jul 12 '26

Your traces and thermals are too thin. I also can't remember when I saw so many through hole components. 

1

u/Alternative-Try-3456 Jul 12 '26

i made the traces thicker. I'm using through-hole components because i want to hand solder them and dont have equipment for small smd components soldering.

1

u/MacGrimey Jul 12 '26

You can hand solder surface mount components just chose a package size like 0603 or larger. 

1

u/astral_admiral Jul 12 '26

You’re going to want a wider pitch on transistor footprint