There's a moment every electronics hobbyist remembers: opening a padded envelope and holding a board you designed. Getting there is cheaper and easier than most beginners expect — a small batch of professionally made two-layer boards often costs less than a coffee, plus shipping. Here's the whole path, start to finish.
1. Lay out the board
You don't need a full EDA suite for a first board. In Protoboard Designer (it runs in the browser, free to start) the flow is direct:
- Create a board at a modest size — 50 × 50 mm is a comfortable first canvas.
- Place footprints from the built-in library, or import the ones you already use from KiCad.
- Route copper pad to pad with the Track tool. What you draw is exactly what gets etched — no netlist in between.
- Pour a ground plane with AutoGround if your circuit wants one.
If you've never done this before, the five-step guide walks through each of these with more detail.
2. Run DRC before anything else
A fab will happily manufacture your mistakes. The Design Rule Check catches the classics before you pay for them: traces that almost touch, pads left unconnected, copper too close to the board edge. Run it, fix every warning, run it again. Thirty seconds here saves a two-week round trip.
3. Export Gerber files
Gerber is the universal language of PCB manufacturing — every fab on earth accepts it. Export your Gerber set from the Export tool and you'll get a .zip archive. Don't unzip it; fabs want the archive as-is. (Details in the Gerber export guide.)
4. Pick a manufacturer
For a simple two-layer hobby board there is genuinely no wrong choice:
| Fab | Why pick it |
|---|---|
| JLCPCB | Cheapest small batches, very fast turnaround — the default first order. |
| PCBWay | Wide options and strong support; very hobby-friendly. |
| OSH Park | US-based, premium purple boards, per-square-inch pricing. |
5. Upload and check the preview
Create a free account, start a new PCB order, and upload your Gerber zip. The site renders an online preview of your layers — this is your last chance to catch problems. Confirm three things:
- Your traces are all there and look right.
- The silkscreen labels render where you expect.
- The board outline and size match what you designed.
6. Choose the order options
The order form looks intimidating; it isn't. Safe beginner defaults:
| Option | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Layers | 2 | Matches a standard two-layer design |
| Quantity | 5 | Most fabs' minimum — often the same price as one |
| Thickness | 1.6 mm | The sturdy industry default |
| Copper weight | 1 oz | What standard trace-width guidance assumes |
| Soldermask | Green | Cheapest and fastest; colors cost a little more |
| Surface finish | HASL | Cheapest, fine for hand soldering |
Anything you don't recognize: leave it at the default. The defaults exist for exactly this situation.
7. Pay, wait, solder
Pick the slow shipping (a hobby board is never urgent, and express shipping often costs more than the boards). Typical turnaround is a few days of manufacturing plus transit. Then: envelope, boards, soldering iron, joy.
Design yours today
Protoboard Designer runs in your browser — free to start, no credit card, no EDA experience needed.
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