u/shrinivas_96

Hallo Leute,

Ich suche dringend eine Fahrradladen emphelung in der Nähe von Wertachbrücke (gebrochene Kette), aber ich nehme gerne Empfehlungen in anderen Stadtteilen auch an. Kette und Kurbel haben wegen Urlaub momentan zu, und ich kann leider nicht bis Donnerstag für Bike Kitchen warten. Ich weiß, dass es in der Donauwörther Straße Zweirad Pfanz gibt. Aber ich versuche da nicht zu gehen, wenn es noch weitere Optionen gibt.

Cool wären Ladenempfehlungen, die nette Kollegen haben, und nicht nur Geld verlangen versuchen.

Gleichzeitig kann dieser Thread auch als eine Fahrradladen sammlung Liste funktionieren? In welchen Laden geht ihr gerne?

Danke :)

A bit of context: I previously worked on some academic control systems theory, where efficient software was not really the goal, and this is my first real job (ca. 10 months now). I work here as a bit an of everything engineer in directions of higher level software development, embedded software, and recently, PCB design. Though I have a bachelors in electronics engineering, and have learned the basics of electronics and micro-controller/processor, this is the first time I work with controllers like STM32, and it has been its own learning journey. After a colleague quit, the PCB design of the board landed on my lap, and I had to continue with the schematic and then eventually the PCB design (KiCad). I am also the only person in this company who works on all topics PCB design/embedded systems, so there is no one to ask, and no one to set the standards.

Side note: Based on your POV, this has benefits and disadvantages. I see it as getting to work on a real product, and literally having no other choice teaches you a lot more than what a hobby project with unlimited time/no consequences might have. (A nod to so many posts in this sub asking on how to get started, i luckily could get over that hurdle in a different way, because I do not work so well yet without constraints).

For learning KiCad and PCB Design, my main sources of learning were YouTube with Phil's Lab, Altium Academy's, and some other creators.

While I am certain that I will learn the subtleties of the trade over time, my question is more around all the logistics of PCB design. I am wondering how are people who learn this expressly or have been working in this area for years do it?

1. I use git but as I painfully learned the lesson, things like merging branches do not work simply, even if you work on a different part of the schematic. So now I only use git to simply keep track of progress+backup. How do big teams where multiple people work on the same board design do it? What if you want to test out an idea, and branch and then get back to the main branch?
2. My biggest pain point is choosing a footprint and finding a part number for each of the 300-something components. Of course many of them repeat, I can reuse the 10k resistors or the 1uF capcitors, ... It still seems to take forever time and energy. I am sure some teams are making way more complex and denser PCB's. Luckily, once you decide on an IC/amplifier/transciever, the datasheet's application example gives you a good basis to begin. At present, where applicable, I just follow the value of the capacitors/resistors exactly mentioned in the datasheet, and if you're lucky the datasheet also mentions the recommended size. Datasheets that do not list this information, I try to consolidate BOM, ask Claude and just get by. Because Phil's Lab was my very first introduction to any of this, he suggests using an 0402 resistor/capacitor is generally fine (depends on the use case too ofc), when unsure.

In the first version of the board I picked every part from Mouser, only to realise I need to order from JLC, which required me to pick an LCSC number, where many of the previously selected components did not even exist. The second version of the board, I chose a part from Mouser (to keep my options open) and LCSC at the same time (a mistake meant that I had to start the part selection and PCB design pretty much from scratch). On top of it, I discovered late, the world of JLC's basic and promotional extended parts. One thing I also learned now is to choose a part first and then the associated footprint.

How are professionals doing it? When do you start picking the components other than the main IC's? I made the experience that some components (ferrite beads, isolated amplifiers, phoenix contact connectors) went out of stock in LCSC between me choosing them and finally getting to the point of ordering. Some were easier to replace, some not, but this you of course cannot do anything about. I tried to use Eurocircuits's online tool to check out the price, and their BOM tool misidentified so many components, which needed both, manually entering the manufacturer part number again, and some components were also not available in their library. Also are companies using JLC all around? The price difference seems to be two to three times to European manufacturers. Of course, also depends on the company's budget and the type of design.

This whole component selection+ordering process is the only part of the whole PCB design process that feels like the death of me. Other than this I love this new field that I get to slowly learn, but without the this last step there is no real PCB.

I guess this post ended up as more ranty than I had planned for. But I could not explain the advice I needed without discussing these points. If you have been doing this professionally, please feel free to share insights.

Cheers.