Homemade Hardware

Homemade Hardware (link to class website) is a graduate course tought at NYU’s ITP program starting in 2015. There, student learn to design and fabricate DIY PCBs, all without leaving the school.

To make a working PCB for a physical computing project, a variety of new skills must be learned relatively quickly in a semester. From electronics basics, to CAD design, and milling machines.

Designing and fabricating PCBs rapidly can be difficult, but there are some great advantages for students at ITP. These include quickly iterating designs while learning this new medium (no long lead-times), and exploring the aesthetic of DIY electronics.

Topics Covered

• Building blocks of modern digital circuitry
• Schematic and PCB design in Eagle CAD
• Integrated PCB + enclosure design
• Milling and acid-etching PCBs
• Soldermask and protective coating
• Component placement (by hand and assisted) and reflow
• Testing and debugging electronics
• Ordering prototype PCBs and PCBAs