Hand-Routed Joystick Breakout PCB — First Board From Scratch¶

Designed my first PCB from scratch in KiCad 10 — a hand-routed joystick breakout board for the Dilder's K1-1506SN-01 5-way navigation switch. No autorouter this time, just manual trace placement, silkscreen labels, and a ground plane. The board fits the 20x20mm pocket already milled into the Rev 2 top cover.

Why a new board?¶

The previous joystick breakout (Rev 2.0) used the Alps SKRHABE010 switch and was autorouted via Freerouting. This board is a fresh design for the Korean Hroparts K1-1506SN-01 — a different 5-way switch sourced from JLCPCB (LCSC C145910). The goal was to learn the full KiCad workflow by hand: symbol import, schematic wiring, footprint assignment, manual routing, silkscreen labeling, and gerber export.

The component¶

The K1-1506SN-01 is a 6-pin 5-way navigation switch (up/down/left/right/center press) with a common ground pin. Symbol and footprint were pulled from JLCPCB/LCSC using easyeda2kicad and imported as a project-local library.

Full KiCad workspace¶

All three editors open side-by-side: PCB layout, schematic, and 3D viewer.

Full KiCad workspace

PCB layout¶

The board is 19.6x19.6mm (0.2mm clearance per side in the 20mm pocket). The 5-way switch sits centered with a 6-pin solder-wire header along the bottom edge. Each pad is silkscreen-labeled: Com, L, D, UP, R, C (common/ground, left, down, up, right, center).

PCB layout editor

Schematic¶

Simple 2-component schematic: the K1-1506SN-01 switch wired to a 6-pin connector header. Pin 1 (COM) goes to ground, pins 2-6 carry direction signals to the Pico W's GPIOs via internal pull-ups.

Schematic editor

3D preview¶

The 3D model imported from LCSC shows the joystick knob sitting on the green PCB with the labeled solder pads along the bottom. Title block reads "dilder joystick board" — and yes, "this is my first board dont judge me."

3D viewer

What's next¶

Export gerbers and order from JLCPCB (BOM already generated with LCSC part number C145910)
Solder the header wires to the Pico W's GPIO pins
Test all 5 directions with the existing joystick input firmware