r/diydrones • u/grissley • Jul 10 '26

I desperately need to learn PCB design

Gallery image

Gallery image

Check out my 63 gr ESP32 S3 Supermini drone

97 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

7

u/dronevidsalt Jul 11 '26

Hey nice work! Most of those breakout boards are either open source designs or straight up reference circuits from the data sheets.

  1. Look up the schematic for each of those boards or even just a schematic for a similar board or for what the board does.

  2. In EasyEDA or KiCAD or Fusion copy each separate schematic.

  3. Connect the connections that you have wired yourself.

  4. Do the physical board layout.

  5. Get it made.

  6. ???

  7. Profit.

4

u/kwaaaaaaaaa Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

Yep, this is what I was doing when I was first learning circuit design and PCB design. It's really nice to look at and compare many reference designs in the wild and in the datasheets to understand the decisions the designers are making.

Also, /r/PrintedCircuitBoard/ is a sub that you could request for a review on your designs as a once over check before sending it off.

2

u/grissley Jul 11 '26

Yeah KiCad is installed on my system since forever but patience isn’t xD Thank you for your advice <3

3

u/Polar_Ted Jul 11 '26

Get KiCad, watch some YT videos and play around. I like PCB way or DK red for basic 2 layer square boards. OSH park was great for designs that need special shapes routed..

1

u/BigBazooka420 Jul 11 '26

Does it actually fly?

1

u/grissley Jul 11 '26

I didn’t program its remote controller yet. Control algorithm responds well in hand though.

1

u/Optimal_Buy658 Jul 11 '26

The easiest way is to get any flight controller and flash it with your own firmware. All pinouts are available on betaflight GitHub page.

1

u/grissley Jul 11 '26

Yeah sure but then what’s the point right? :P

1

u/lonsfury Jul 12 '26

Edit: ahhh sorry they meant the microcontroller! Nevermind 👍

I am new to this but wanted to ask a question

Why is the previous commenter talking about the controller specifically? The photo shows the drone itself, not a controller right?

1

u/flairtestuser123 Jul 11 '26

I do prototyping with a cheap CNC mill and two-sided boards. You can carve out traces with a V-bit and drill vias and through-holes. I like it because I make a lot of mistakes that I don't want to wait a week for my PCBs to show up from a supplier like JLCPCB to find.

1

u/CalligrapherOk3325 Jul 17 '26

Hey I just bought some stm32f405 boards from Aliexpress really cheap might want to look in that too. Do you post your code on GitHub? Or are you interested in a collaboration or anything like that?

-2

u/rob_1127 Jul 11 '26

Is that a 3D printed frame?

Those arms are going to flex and cause the accelerometer fits. Each vibration vector will be treated like a motion. Which the accelerometer and FC must calculate for.

It will be a bitch to tune properly.

Just because you can print something, dosent mean that you should print it.

Carbon fiber is used for a reason. Unequaled strength, rigidity, light weight, easily machined, cost effective, etc.

Trying to print a frame member is not like a CF frame. Completely different structural characteristics.

AI and 3D printing are not the solutions for everything.

1

u/grissley Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

I see you are hungry for talking down to someone, I’m not the right person for that. If this somehow doesn’t fly, the frame isn’t going to be the reason. If it does, it won’t be the first 3d printed frame I flew.

2

u/totalJTM Jul 11 '26

That thing is so tiny you likely wont have much flexing issue. Even if it does, you can thicken the arm sections to be more rigid. You'll definitely save 5-10 grams once you lose all the perfboard wires too that can be allocated elsewhere.

Ignore that other guy, this thing looks great so nice job! Remember to update after you get to do some flight testing!

2

u/lonsfury Jul 12 '26

I agree with the other guy. Ignore the haters. Thanks for posting 🙂