Designing the HDD Synth has been a journey of learning and discovery which I've really enjoyed. Having a growth mindset is such an integral part of getting the most out of life, by continuing to expand your capabilities and embrace new opportunities

This project has the first time I'd used KiCad which once I'd got over the initial hump, I found it fairly straightforward to run with.

After I designed my board I think needed to manufacture it. My first thought my PCBWay, as I've certainly seen their sponsorship of my of the YouTubers I like to watch. However I thought it would be sensible to do some research and look into other options, including getting the boards manufactured in the UK. 

Long story short, my research pointed to PCBWay being the most competitive in terms of cost and quality. So here's what happened when I used them for the HDD Synth prototype MKII

January 7th: PCB design uploaded

With my KiCad design completed the first step is to get it uploaded to the PCBWay website. Thankfully there's a handy plugin you can install for KiCad that makes uploading your design as easy as clicking a button in KiCad

Once uploaded the designs are reviewed by PCBWay engineers to ensure that everything looks good. This is a really useful step, as it means experts are able to validate that your design will be manufactured successfully and to tweak it if you've perhaps made some minor mistake

January 8th: Engineering questions

As the HDD Synth is an ISA card that means it has an edge connector. When you upload your design to PCBWay there is an option to indicate this.

Because of this design the two questions I recieved from the PCBWay engineers were:

1. My order asked for a 30° angle on the edge connector on a 1.6mm thick board. The PCBWay engineer wanted to leave a 0.5mm flat edge at the tip and pull the copper back by 1.05mm so it doesn't get exposed during the cutting process

2. There is currently a tiny strip of green "paint" (soldermask bridge) between the gold fingers of the edge connector. On connectors like this, that paint often peels off when you plug the board in, which can cause debris or soldering issues. They provided the option to remove the bridges entirely so there is one large open window for all the gold fingers. This is much cleaner for parts that get plugged in

In both cases these were sensible suggestions that I gladly accepted

After that we were off to the races! By that I mean, it was all over to PCBWay to manufacture the boards. One of the great things about PCBWay is that they give you very granular progress during the whole manufacturing process, so that you're able to log into the website and see exactly what stage they are at.

They've even got little explainer videos to show you exactly what is being done at each stage and why

11th January: Package with DHL

Only a few short days after placing my order all the boards had been created and they were with DHL for delivery. I opted for this delivery option as I wanted my boards quickly, however if you want to save money you can go for a slower option.

With the fast DHL option I paid about as much for delivery as I did for the manufacturing of the boards. Which I think really shows the good value PCBWay provide.

A nice surprise was that my DHL delivery came much earlier than I expected...

12th January: PCBs arrive

Less than a week after I placed the order, I had the finished boards in my hands. Pretty incredible really! 

I decided to go for black PCBs this time and I must say they really do look premium in the flesh. All of the boards are very uniform and cleanly produced with the silk screen very sharp and defined

So would I use PCBWay again? Definitely!

The whole experience was very slick, well communicated and professional. 

They also offer a component mounting service which I plan to make use of with the final HDD Synth design so that I can have the surface mounted components soldering at during manufacturing. That'll save me fiddling around with my soldering iron!