--- title: Designing and assembling my first PCB | daily.dev description: A software developer with minimal hardware experience documents their first PCB design and assembly project from start to finish. Starting with an Arduino Nano... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/designing-and-assembling-my-first-pcb-whkdji57r twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Designing and assembling my first PCB | daily.dev og:description: A software developer with minimal hardware experience documents their first PCB design and assembly project from start to finish. Starting with an Arduino Nano... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/designing-and-assembling-my-first-pcb-whkdji57r og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/whKdji57R.png og:image:alt: Designing and assembling my first PCB og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Designing and assembling my first PCB **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 10 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A software developer with minimal hardware experience documents their first PCB design and assembly project from start to finish. Starting with an Arduino Nano ESP32 and breakout boards, they decided to recreate a BME280 temperature/humidity sensor module as a learning exercise. The post covers schematic design in KiCad, choosing SMD vs THT component footprints, sourcing parts from DigiKey and ordering bare PCBs from JLCPCB for under $10, and hand-assembling using a Hakko soldering iron and Quick 861DW hot air station. Despite giving it 50/50 odds, the custom board worked plug-and-play on the first attempt, successfully communicating over I2C without any firmware changes. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I built a cheap ESP32 weather station to automate my Home Assistant server](https://daily.dev/posts/i-built-a-cheap-esp32-weather-station-to-automate-my-home-assistant-server-vjfkl9qcz) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [My first ESP32 sensor solved a real problem, and now I'm building new projects every week](https://daily.dev/posts/my-first-esp32-sensor-solved-a-real-problem-and-now-i-m-building-new-projects-every-week-xg2qcsehh) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [DIY ESP32-P4 weather station & air quality monitor connects to LoRa and ESP-NOW sensors, various weather APIs](https://daily.dev/posts/diy-esp32-p4-weather-station-air-quality-monitor-connects-to-lora-and-esp-now-sensors-various-wea-fyniccq3k) · CNX Software · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Seven Sensors And Breakout Boards To Avoid In A Product](https://daily.dev/posts/the-seven-sensors-and-breakout-boards-to-avoid-in-a-product-arolfgaz9) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#iot](https://daily.dev/tags/iot), [#embedded](https://daily.dev/tags/embedded) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/designing-and-assembling-my-first-pcb-whkdji57r) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Designing and assembling my first PCB","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/designing-and-assembling-my-first-pcb-whkdji57r","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/designing-and-assembling-my-first-pcb-whkdji57r"},"datePublished":"2026-07-13T03:17:50.754Z","dateModified":"2026-07-13T03:18:11.973Z","description":"A software developer with minimal hardware experience documents their first PCB design and assembly project from start to finish. 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