The breadboard era is ending. After weeks of jumper wires, borrowed breakout boards, and firmware running on a Pico W, it's time to design a real PCB — a single board that holds everything the Dilder needs. And in the process, we swapped the entire MCU.
Today the Dilder schematic got its biggest overhaul yet. The RP2040 is officially gone, replaced by the ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8 module with every net wired and validated.
With the Dilder PCB design taking shape, it was time to figure out where to actually get it made. I spent a session researching five different PCB fabrication and assembly houses, comparing pricing for our specific board (45x80mm, 4-layer, 27 components, SMT assembly).
The Dilder PCB design hit a milestone: v0.4 is fully placed and routed. 30 components on a 30x70mm 4-layer board, 34 nets, 125 pad connections. The board is ready for design rule checks and Gerber export.