STM32 PCB Design - Complete Walkthrough - Altium Designer & JLCPCB - Phil's Lab #41

Mixed-signal hardware design course: phils-lab-shop.fedevel.education
Entire step-by-step PCB design process going through the schematic, layout, and routing of a 'barebones' STM32F4-based PCB including USB, a sensor, GPIO header, and small power supply circuitry in Altium Designer. All the way from schematic creation, through to four-layer PCB layout and routing, as well as sending it off for manufacture and assembly via JLCPCB.
[SUPPORT]
Free trial of Altium Designer: www.altium.com/yt/philslab
PCBA from $0 (Free Setup, Free Stencil): jlcpcb.com/RHS
Patreon: / phils94
[LINKS]
Git: github.com/pms67
KiCad Version: • KiCad STM32 + USB + Bu...
Altium Symbol and Footprint Creation: • Symbol and Footprint C...
[TIMESTAMPS]
00:00 Introduction
01:12 JLCPCB
01:35 Altium Designer Free Trial
01:55 Part Selection
(SCHEMATIC)
05:47 Project Creation, Schematic Creation, Libraries
09:41 STM32 Circuitry (STM32F411)
29:36 Sensor Circuitry (MPU-6050)
40:49 USB and Power Supply Circuitry
52:33 STM32 Pinout with STM32CubeIDE
1:05:31 SWD Circuitry
1:10:23 Annotating Schematic
1:11:30 Cleaning Up Schematic
1:15:03 Electrical Rules Check (ERC)
(PCB)
1:16:17 PCB Creation
1:17:10 Design Rules and Manufacturer Capabilities
1:20:00 Layer Stackup and Controlled Impedance Traces
1:24:25 Rough Layout and Component Placement
1:25:36 STM32 Layout
1:41:25 Sensor Layout
1:45:05 USB and Power Supply Layout
1:49:25 Mounting Holes
1:51:20 Board Outline
1:53:41 Refining Component Layout
1:55:19 Routing
2:16:39 Internal Layers (Ground Planes)
2:19:20 Ground Vias
2:21:15 Power Routing (+3V3)
2:30:39 Design Rule Check (DRC)
2:33:36 Silkscreen (Text and Logo)
2:35:49 Tooling Holes
(Production)
2:36:40 Gerber Files
2:41:40 Footprint Position (Pick and Place) File
2:42:59 Bill of Materials (BOM) File
2:44:50 Ordering at JLCPCB
ID: QIBvbJtYjWuHiTG0uCoK

[@garysmith8089]

Good on You Sir! This STM32 Tutorial is a Doctorate Course on ENGINEERING of the real-life PCB DESIGN process and should be awarded as such! I have spent literally 100s of Hours doing a re-spin up of my past 30 years as a PCB Design Consultant. One can experience a wide range of competence on KZbin! Yours is at a Level FEW of your peers provide. Again, Good on You and Keep up the Great work Professor Phil!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much for your kind words, Gary! Glad to hear that!

[@MY-ElectricalTips]

please software link

[@brianxavier8873]

please bring more of these long tutorials on pcb and microcontroller design. they are very helpful, and it would be wonderful to see them more frequently

[@MovieMationStudios]

@@alejandroperez5368 He says in the first 30 seconds of the video he did a similar tutorial in Kicad... Also, if you're a student you can get a temporary Altium license for free.

[@Semtex777]

Please support him on patreon

[@damny0utoobe]

Oh yeah. You're hitting the sweet spot with these Altium tutorials

[@PhilsLab]

Haha thanks :)

[@timknapen]

The details and small practical tips in this video are really great! Not only for STM32 but anyone starting to work with microcontrollers.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Tim!

[@slagmaker6780]

Enjoy the process being shown in a clear but detailed set of steps. Thanks!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for watching!

[@user-ww2lc1yo9c]

@@PhilsLab you specified the Dk value but not Df value, is Df not important?

[@andymouse]

As a massive Kicad fanboy I must admit there are some lovely features here. I could watch long design walkthroughs all day ....cheers.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Andy! Yeah, there are some very nice bits to Altium. Looks like KiCad 6.0 has just been released - so will have to give that a try..

[@jestho3503]

Again, a really good video Phil! Thank you. I´ve been using Altium for 11 years and I always get useful tips watching your work. One thing that came in to my mind when using small resistors and capacitors like 0402. Keep the connected copper to them as unified as you can. We have had problems in the solder oven with components standing up towards the side with the largest copper connection. Several times I have had to decrease the conductor width towards groundplanes to avoid this.

[@wesleybecker834]

Yes, tombstoning is the name of the phenomenon. Thermal relief on the pads becomes very necessary for these small passives.

[@user-ww2lc1yo9c]

@@wesleybecker834 is there a video that describes this topic in detail?

[@Hammad5113189]

Was waiting for the whole STM32 Altium schematic walkthrough :) Thanks Phil!

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching!

[@Davidlahall]

Wow... This is your best video in my opinion this far... You explain everything.. I really appreciate that.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much!

[@TheEuzikial]

This is great intro to Altium. Thank you so much for your effort

[@JLCPCB]

Amazing video Phil! Nealty explained to smallest details. Component viewer problem is going to be fixed. 🙂

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much! Love your services! :)

[@rick_er2481]

Amazing! Just staring out with Altium!love to see the whole design flow

[@PhilsLab]

Great to hear that, thank you, Rick!

[@rick_er2481]

@@PhilsLab at 3:20 you are talking about choosing the right microcontroller, are you considering this as a video subject? Would be awesome to het some insight in this. PS do you have a PayPal so I can support you?

[@Brego666]

Yessss, thats exactly what I was hoping to see from you. Thank you so much for your effort!

[@PhilsLab]

Awesome, thank you for watching :)

[@jestho3503]

I sent the link to this video to my contacts at Altium. They have the main responsibility for sales in Sweden and Europe. They like it and will tell new users about it.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Jes!

[@jestho3503]

@@PhilsLab No worries Phil. Glad I can help. Your videos are awesome! /Jesper (From Sweden)

[@johnstephenson4428]

Great video, thanks so much for time and effort! I am just starting with Altium and this is a good reference!

[@PhilsLab]

Awesome, thank you for watching, John!

[@harleylara6447]

Incredible work as always. I hope someday in the near future the PCB design course :-)

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! I'm currently working on the PCB design course, fingers crossed it can be completed in the near future :)

[@qwer.ty.]

You're such a nice teacher! Thank you so much for this king of video! 💞

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much for watching!

[@CAN_MIKE]

Muy buen video, hace tiempo que quería ver todo el desarrollo de una placa con stm32!

[@canozcifci1892]

Yo Phil, thank you for your video. Means a lot. Keep doing what you doing mate.

[@yamanseyravan4387]

That's exactly what I asked for the last couple of videos !, Thanks a lot!

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching!

[@volkanozdemir44]

great video i discovered 2 days ago and i watch many video most useful engineering youtube channel in youtube i hope cont keep continue !

[@oreovios306]

thank you Phil , you're a blessing

[@aatifshah8476]

Thanks for keeping it free

[@PhilsLab]

You're very welcome :)

[@muzairafzal1529]

Wow! What a walkaround...... Keep up the good work brother........ All the best wishes for you....

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much!

[@escott6509]

Thanks for your videos Phil

[@AhmadAsmndr]

thank you Phil your videos are very helpful

[@bobdole27]

Just what i needed, just got Altium

[@PhilsLab]

Awesome! :)

[@microtechbdsystem-automati8689]

I am grateful to you dear phil...I learned a lot from you..

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, very glad to hear that!

[@LOGICOMA]

Absolutely awesome! So helpful!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Mick!

[@turneroq9888]

Thank you for sharing such amazing content. Have followed recently and already got a lot of useful information!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for watching, glad to hear the videos have been helpful!

[@emyemy7504]

God bless you Phil. This is amazing

[@tashmarkify]

amazing content. well explained. couldnt ask for more.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you!

[@Bill-qo2jb]

Great job Phil ! I think the culprit for Altium not allowing to paste the part number is the space character at the end of the part number. Obviously it's a bug

[@DiegoColl44]

excellent tutorial ... !! Thank you!!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for watching!

[@gerrardcottrell14]

I have been using Altium from 99SE through all the versions and currently using 21.8.1. This is a fantastic tutorial and thank you. Maybe a few tutorials on some of the Altium features might be useful for some of the newer Altium users. (Library management, component creation (PCB and Schematic), DRC rules.

[@user-ww2lc1yo9c]

Please checkout the videos from Robert Feranec as well.

[@stefanofioravanti709]

Amazing. Software tutorials and programming would be also very helpful.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Stefano - software and programming tutorials are already on my channel :)

[@Bianchi77]

Nice video, well done, thanks for sharing :)

[@ChrisElisonElectronics]

Great video! I want to learn how to properly do PCB layout and routing, I'm currently still learning EasyEDA and KiCad, but would like to try out Altium too!

[@obregr]

interesting,how easy it is from you,and understending,but in my opinion wrey difiicult,tnx for all inserstanding tutotrials

[@AndyDoz]

Outstanding. Thanks.

[@zoltanmeksz7625]

Excellent video.

[@michaelj1846]

great video, can you please upload the libraries u used in this video on ur repo, it would be very helpful.

[@mattcarberry1913]

Thanks so much for making all these tutorial videos that shows entire process from start to finish with the rationale for the decisions made. I have a couple questions about impedance controlled traces between your designs in the videos and in the GitHub repositories. In the video you set up the USB trace widths for the JLC7628 stackup (0.26mm), but the gerbers in the GitHub appear to show them at 0.1532mm. Did you end up changing to producing this in the JLC3313 stackup after the video was finished? I'd like to get some boards produced and just wanted to make sure I have this correct. I see a similar-ish thing with the previous LIttleBrain board, where in the GitHub history the USB trace widths were originally 0.2611 mm, but when you did a revision to remove the USBLC6-2SC6, the trace widths went to 0.2mm. Was that just a simplification and this level of detail doesn't matter at such short trace lengths? Thanks again for all the fantastic videos.

[@noealves8400]

Amazing video! and so forth :-)

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks! :)

[@ndmath]

Fantastic walkthrough! Where can I find the schematic and footprints symbol library?

[@rollyce06]

excellent work. nice guide

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching!

[@NelsonSantander]

Excellent !!! Thanks a Lot

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Nelson!

[@KevinStoriesTV]

For your personal projects, do you create your own symbol/footprint before starting the schematic design or settle on what the manufacturer part search offers?

[@nks324]

Phil is awesome engineer and kick as_ guitar free solo :)

[@leeslevin7602]

Brilliant 👏, thank you.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Lee!

[@frankdearr2772]

Great topic,, thanks 👍

[@boonkerz]

Love to see an usbc :) and an schematic with seperate usb voltage and external for a bit more current :)

[@pablogonzalezrobles4429]

Nice video. I hope You can design a esp32 board and give some design tips like in this video

[@mwanikmurray537]

If someone is wondering why sometimes you can't copy and paste MPN (Manufacturer Part Number) from JLCPCB altium, it because of the while spaces at the beginning of the MPN. You need to remove the white/blank spaces first. I am not sure this is clear but yeah, you need to remove the white space at the beginning.

[@maxm169]

Legend.

[@martinchristiansson658]

Really great videos from you, already learnt to design myself and order from JLCPCB. Looking forward to next video. Are you planning the last part of Kalman filter? Best regards Martin

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Martin! Yes, EKF video is coming this month :)

[@btimabader2866]

awesome video! I think you forgot to put your altium symbol and footprint library in the description. Can you please add them to one of your repos?

[@sinamokhtari9859]

Thanks for great video. Where can I find the altium footprint library you used in this tutorial?

[@badarjahangirkayani6196]

Can you post a link to your library as you mentioned in the video. Thanks. Great video btw, better than anything else that is out there.

[@behnammadadnia3410]

That was a great tutorial, thank you very much. (I wanted to use the Altium lib that you uploaded on Git, it seems it does have all the footprints (just a limited numbers), but it has many more schematic symbols. So, maybe, would you please upload it again?)

[@JSGregg]

Thanks Phil! One question - if you have two or more crystals on your PCB of different frequencies, do you need to keep them far apart?

[@abderrahimabdelhamid4750]

very helpful , thank you so muck

[@PhilsLab]

Very glad to hear that, thank you!

[@TheNeukyhm]

Hi Phil, at 24:12, the first result is an oscillator, which correct me if I'm wrong but it needs just power and you have the clock output. Wouldn't be that more desirable than a crystal?

[@grndplane]

Great video, one comment, keep GND names turned on. Sometimes when circuits are copied these names can change to something else, like GND1 or whatever the software decides to name them. If they are turned off you will not know that they have changed and may not be connected.

[@dhruslab9563]

Sir please upload EKF video . We all are waiting for that!! Thanks!

[@PhilsLab]

EKF video is coming this month :)

[@htfttf]

Very Nice

[@siddharthkothari]

Have you released the course you mentioned about a few videos back, I have been searching can't find a link :)

[@nicoladellino8124]

Very very nice video, TNX

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Nicola.

[@sudheerkumar5966]

Very very good

[@colinm6672]

Hi Phil - Excellent video. Can youb please remember to provide a pointer to altium footprint library. thanks

[@javie.3152]

Thanks for this great tutorial! Really useful! Are your custom libraries already upladed? I cannot find them

[@quangphamvinh4006]

thanks, helpful video

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching!

[@KevinStoriesTV]

After placing stitching vias, do you need to repour your L2 L3 GND copper polygon?

[@sanjikaneki6226]

great video also i was wandering the programing will be done via USB , right but cant it be also done with that header too ?

[@mannyamaro]

Could someone help? I can't seem to find the Schematic and Footprint library he mentioned in his Github? I would love to follow along.

[@seanludmil904]

Great video Phil! I didn't really understand where can this PCB design be used in. Can someone explain it to me? Thanks

[@KevinStoriesTV]

great video

[@PhilsLab]

thank you!

[@LuigiLombardi]

What about GND plane under the crystal oscillator? Great video by the way!

[@ayushbanerjee1187]

This was a great video, but I just had one question to clear up. The USB connector was not necessary and was just an accessory. From what I understood, we can just get +3.3 V power from the SWD header. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

[@Luke_Ainsworth]

Great walk through mate. Any chance you could do some tutorials on writing code and uploading it to the controller?

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Luke - I actually have some programming tutorials on my channel.

[@slamazingworld]

Wonderful

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks!

[@penglvl6948]

thank y so much!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for watching :)

[@erent.7210]

that is an amazing video to practice, thx to philip. I can't find the library. Can you help me to find it?

[@glenngaviola2745]

Thank you sir

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching, Glenn!

[@MisterAmiofficial]

very useful gadget

[@waelbouraoui5970]

Hey Phil! Can you please share with us the libraries u r using. I'll be grateful. Thanks.

[@tradegrabber4854]

2:23:10 What do you mean by "board warp", and why filling the whole top signal layer with let's say GND polygon is bad? I've always thought it's good for EMI protection.

[@user-fj9lp7ot7v]

Hi Phil, please show how to design low power PCBs for the STM32 chip. I feel many people don't know what considerations should be made designing one.

[@hemanthdevaraj1991]

Hello, good content and easy explanation, here you have provision of 4 layers, yet you used only top and bottom layer, you could have gone for just two layers

[@mateusraitz1803]

Thanks for the time you put in your content Phill. I started using Altium since It has a free license for college students. I am trying to get used to the library management because I am comfortable with how KiCad libraries work. I just wanted to ask you why did you created a library with generic components (caps, resistors,etc) instead of just using any of the package size that you want from the Manufacturer Part Seach and just replace the value? And would you be able to share your library of generic components?

[@user-ww2lc1yo9c]

I am looking for answer to the same question. Did you find answer to this?

[@user-ww2lc1yo9c]

Talking about ferrite bead, isn't it that this component shall create large sharp peaks in the PDN impedance and thus is bad?

[@valentingomez4546]

Phil just a quick question, at the time of flashing code to the MCU, does it have to be done via an STlink or can it be done via the USB connector on the board?

[@doronlola1763]

Thankyou!

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching!

[@persupersulast2506]

is double sided pcb where bottom is digital and top is analog good idea? 4 layers, top 12v, bottom 5v and 3.3v and middle layers both ground?

[@ikrammohammad7192]

Where are the library files available? I can't seem to find it in the github repos.

[@khmersharekh]

so good show, new friend

[@robertmotion]

Great video. Question. I'm replacing my ebike motor pcb. My original pcb has 5V GND SP H1 H2 and H3 components that's I'm familiar with and know how to connect. My replacement pcb has these connections PLUS a "K" (relay?) and "-" beside it. What is relay used for? Does K mean relay? And, since "K" is not a component on my original pcb does that mean this pcb will not work unless connected to some type relay? Tried looking online/Google. No luck. Need some help. Hope u can. /bklyn 👑

[@jayalesmana6190]

Thank you for this amazing tutorial sir, it really helped me a lot. Can I have your altium footprint sir?

[@FelPromedio]

Me: **Breathes** KZbin: Hey, do you want to watch a video of making a STM32 PCB? Me: why not?

[@user-ou8lg4sk2g]

thank you a lot from Russia!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for watching!

[@yohanesstefanus2597]

can you provide some link to recommended library?