First PCB Board Question

Projects Discussion and Showcase Product Design
1

I am interested in making a pcb board project. I think this would be a good tutorial for others as well. As interesting as Jeremy Blums Blinky Board Tutorial is, I want my first project to be a shield that I can use with my arudino projects.

I want to do this, rather than the blinky board, that way I can play with it after it comes in. The blinky board is interesting, but after you get it and power it up and see it blinks, there isn't a lot that you can do with it.

So I was thinking an Led shield that basically just has an led with resistors already built in for each pin of the arduino would be neat. This way I will be able to use it for other applications, and won't have to use a breadboard and find an led and the needed resistors each time I want to do something with an led.

Another possibility instead of the led shield, I was thinking about making a HM-10 shield. I have an HC-06 module, but you really have to use a bread board to connect it to an arduino. With a shield, it would be an application that I could use on other projects, of course if I just wanted a bluetooth shield there are probably cheaper options, but I am more interested in learning how to make a PCB board and really like to learn by doing things that have useful applications that I find interesting and useful.

I have already download KiCad, and believe it will be more useful as I saw a few reviews for Eagle that arduino size boards on Eagle cost an arm and leg.

So my questions are:

  1. Which of the two projects mentioned would be ideal for a beginner?
  2. Is there a library or a schematic already made for a blank arduino shield that is the size that it needs to be, has the pins already there that connect to the arduino?
  3. If I do the led shield, would I be able to use it if I use it with a sd card shield or Ethernet shield later on or will the led mess with the functionality of the sd card or Ethernet shield because it will power the led when the pins are active?
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  1. It is up to you.
  2. No. I don't know about any. However you can use any of existing shields or boards and modify it. Look at this for example: https://www.arduino.cc/en/uploads/Main/arduino_ProtoShield_Rev3.zip. The prototyping board.
  3. Shields are stackable.This is the main idea, I think. However, the designer have to care about the cross use of ports, e.g. frequently discussed problem is with the shields which use the ports 0,1. The ports are used also for USB/serial communication with the board and it stop working with the shield connected to the board.
    In any case, you can discuss your design here step-by-step to avoid problems after fabrication. Also, you can create your prototype on the board like in #2 to tune the HW and to design final board after. This case sound better for me.
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  1. The example you provided was a zip drive that contained files that had the extension brd, and sch. My computer doesn't know what app to use to open them. PDF would be a better format choice if the attachments are just pictures. I was able to find the shield on the arduino site here and It does look nice.

The purpose of wanting to create a shield was to learn how to use kicad, how to put the schematics together in the form that you can pass on to a manufacture, and to learn how to contact the manufacture and learn the process using a simple design.

For example, if I use a HM-10 or a HC-05 and make it work using the ProtoShield, how to I make that into gerber files, where do I find the library for the HM-10 or do I have to make that myself if I want a board produced. Will all the manufactures use the same chip that I list, or will they substitute the chips for alternatives? I saw on some reviews that it isn't uncommon for them to use different resistors than the ones you listed on the schematics.

I already know how to breadboard prototypes, which is very fun, but I want to learn the next step regarding how to get a product made and manufactured.

I do see the board list its schematics for eagle, can these be converted into KiCad?