KiCad, schematic capture, PCB layout, design rule checks, and generating Gerber files for manufacturing. The complete hands-on path from idea to a board you can order from JLCPCB or PCBWay.
This is a text-first course that links out to the best supporting material on the internet instead of trying to replace it. The goal is to make this the best course on pcb design you can find — even without producing a single minute of custom video.
This course is built by engineers who ship pcb design systems for a living. It reflects how these tools actually behave in production — not how the documentation describes them.
Every day includes working code examples you can copy, run, and modify right now. The goal is understanding through doing, not passive reading.
Instead of re-explaining existing documentation, this course links to the definitive open-source implementations and the best reference material on pcb design available.
Each day is designed to finish in about an hour of focused reading plus hands-on work. Do the whole course over a week of lunch breaks. No calendar commitment, no live classes.
Each day stands alone. Read them in order for the full picture, or jump straight to the day that answers the question you have today.
Component libraries, symbols, placing parts, drawing nets, power flags, and ERC. The schematic is the source of truth — learn to read and write one correctly from the start.
Board outline, component placement strategy, trace routing, clearance rules, ground planes, and why placement before routing determines 80% of board quality.
Impedance-controlled traces, decoupling capacitors, power plane splits, current capacity calculations, and the mistakes that kill first-spin hardware.
Design rule checks, 3D viewer inspection, silkscreen and courtyard layers, generating the Gerber/drill files manufacturers need, and reading a DFM report.
JLCPCB vs PCBWay vs OSHPark cost comparison, PCB stackup selection, ordering assembled boards with JLCPCB SMT, testing your first board with a multimeter and oscilloscope.
Instead of shooting our own videos, we link to the best deep-dives already on YouTube. Watch them alongside the course. All external, all free, all from builders who ship this stuff.
Complete walkthroughs of KiCad schematic capture, PCB layout, and Gerber export from the community and official KiCad team.
Hardware engineers walk through component placement strategy, trace routing rules, and the common layout mistakes that cause hardware failures.
Why ground planes matter, how to split them correctly for mixed-signal boards, and how to route return currents.
Step-by-step walkthroughs of uploading Gerbers, selecting stackup, adding SMT assembly, and reviewing the cost breakdown on JLCPCB.
Where to place bypass caps, via placement, and the physical reasons why placement distance matters for high-frequency noise.
The best way to deepen understanding is to read the canonical open-source implementations. Clone them, trace the code, understand how the concepts in this course get applied in production.
The open-source EDA tool used throughout this course. The /demos directory has reference schematics and layouts you can open and study.
Community-maintained KiCad project templates with standard footprints and schematic symbols for common component families.
Curated list of KiCad plugins, libraries, and resources — includes footprint libraries, 3D model collections, and automation scripts.
Community PCB design review checklist covering schematic, layout, DFM, and manufacturing readiness review items.
You can write firmware but you've never designed the board it runs on. This course gives you the PCB skills to build complete hardware products.
You've done Arduino projects on breadboards. This course gets you to a real manufactured PCB — soldered components, proper layout, orderable from a fab.
IoT, robotics, and embedded systems all require PCB skills. This course is the fastest path to designing boards you're not embarrassed to share.
The 2-day in-person Precision AI Academy bootcamp covers hardware and PCB engineering in depth — hands-on, with practitioners who build AI systems for a living. 5 U.S. cities. $1,490. 40 seats max. June–October 2026 (Thu–Fri).
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