New book release: Design an RP2040 board with KiCad
As affordable as Raspberry Pi Pico is, there are plenty of reasons to want to make your own board based on the chip that powers it, RP2040. We’re releasing a new book today that helps you do just that: Design an RP2040 board with KiCad (by Jo Hinchliffe and Ben Everard). KiCad is an amazing piece of free and open-source software that allows anyone, with some time and effort, to make high-quality PCB designs. Couple this amazing software with numerous PCB fabrication companies and even PCBA services (companies that will make and assemble your PCB designs), and you can go from idea to finished board more quickly than ever.
This book provides a gentle introduction to PCB design using the RP2040 microcontroller chip (the same chip that’s at the heart of Raspberry Pi Pico). You’ll learn the basics of creating schematics and PCB designs in KiCad and learn how to work with component footprints that you create yourself (or get from another source). You’ll find out how to get a PCB design manufactured — and populated with surface-mount components. Before long, you’ll be holding your own board in your hands.
After you use KiCad to design your RP2040 board, this book will show you how to send it off to be manufactured and assembled. You’ll find out about the various materials (or substrates) you can choose for your board, and learn how to pick the right manufacturer. Once you have your board in hand, you’ll also learn what you can do (and make!) with it. Our new book also includes information on designing specialised boards, such as motor drivers and game controllers.
Design an RP2040 board with KiCad is available now from the Raspberry Pi Press store, and will be on sale from various print and electronic bookstores in the coming weeks.
Pay what you want for a bundle of books
What’s more, between now and Saturday, 5 October, 2024 (at 11 AM Pacific), you can get this and other fantastic books as part of our latest Humble Bundle. Pay what you want for 14 books from Raspberry Pi Press and learn about Raspberry Pi, retro gaming, and Python.
26 comments
Dirk Gently
This book is about the RP2040 not the latest RP2350. Any particular reason for this?
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker
These books are a while in the making and work started on this one before RP2350 was even a glimmer in the Press team’s eye
Ardencaple
The footprint and pin out of the rp2350A are slightly different, but the principles are the same. There’s also the hardware design guide PDF, and a downloadable minimal design Kicad project.
Tom
Awesome, can we buy a electronic version of the book somewhere?
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker
Yes! It’s available now on Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play Books as well as library apps and some other ebook stores.
Richard
Wow. I tried so many times to use KiCad and failed. I think I just may have to give this book a try. I always get stuck trying to find / pick the right foot print for a component.
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker
GO FOR IT Richard
Ardencaple
Yes .. just bought a copy from the Raspberry Pi shop for similar reasons. The problem is that just reading a manual doesn’t tell you what best practices are, and the order in which to carry out tasks. This book should help. I found Kicad 5 almost unusable, but 7 onwards are much better.
Max
That seems like a cool book. I’m not into hardware design (at least yet), but I will definitely buy the Humble Bundle with the books. I already own a physical copy of most of them, but having them as a DRM free copy for my ebook reader is nice, too.
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker
The Humble Bundle is an *amazing* deal.
Almost too good to be true: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/raspberry-pi-and-retro-gaming-by-raspberry-pi-press-books
(But it is true, honest)
Christoff
So Code the classics 2 is already released!? With no fanfare. We find out via this bundle? Or did I miss a blog post?
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker
Hold please…
Raspberry Pi Staff Ashley Whittaker
Ta daaaaaa: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/code-the-classics-volume-ii-from-raspberry-pi-press/
Alan
Lol – “here’s one I prepared earlier” 😜
Totally agree re the Humble Bundle – a total steal, have already purchased. Glad you’re letting people know about it here too.
Nick Hebdon
I’ve bought a copy anyway as a tiny vote of thanks. However, in the mean time my questions are, “is there any information in the book about the regulations that need to be passed if you give away or sell your pcb?” And “might there be a threshold for production before which the regulations if they apply are less strict?”
Brian Jepson — post author
Thanks, Nick. We don’t get into regulatory and compliance details, as that is quite a complex topic, and varies depending on region, as well as the intended application for a device. This book is focussed on the core concepts (using the software to design a board, and getting the board made), but there are many books and resources out there on EMC design and test.
Arav Jain
Is there any ETA on a similar book for the RP235X series of microcontrollers? I really need to design a board based on that, and a proper guide would be really helpful, especially since I’ve never used KiCad before (only EasyEDA and Flux).
Brian Jepson — post author
Hi Arav, we don’t have immediate plans for that, but the concepts in this book will apply broadly. This book, combined with the Hardware Design with RP2350 PDF (https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/rp2350/hardware-design-with-rp2350.pdf) should help you out.
Arav Jain
Awesome, thanks for the advice, Brian!
G Forty
Sincere apologies!
I posted a comment a few days ago that was completely wrong. My misrepresentation stems from the fact that chapter 5 is missing from my copy of the book. Please accept my apologies.
Brian Jepson — post author
Hi G Forty, thanks for following up. Which version of the book do you have that’s missing a chapter? I checked the print version, as well as the electronic versions available via Humble Bundle, Kindle, etc. and it wasn’t missing from those. Apologies if you received a damaged or defective version, and please let me know whether you were able to get it resolved.
Arav Jain
Hi Brian,
I was really keen on getting the Humble Bundle, but unfortunately, my area experienced a prolonged and substantial complete network outage. Consequently, I was unable to make the purchase due to this technical issue. I was wondering if there’s any way I could still obtain the bundle at the discounted price of $15.
Thanks,
Arav Jain
Brian Jepson — post author
Hi Arav,
I’m sorry to hear about your area’s network outage. Unfortunately, the Humble Bundle store is not operated by us, and at the moment, we don’t operate an ecommerce platform for digital assets. Our books are available on a variety of ebook platforms, including Kindle, Google Play Books, and Apple Books. I realise it’s not the same as a PDF, but we are hoping to find a way to sell DRM-free PDFs and ePubs in future.
Arav Jain
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the response and clarification. I’ll reach out to Humble Bundle to see if they can assist me with this. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll consider purchasing through Apple Books. However, if there’s any ETA on when you might start selling DRM-free PDFs and ePubs, I’d be happy to wait for that option.
Best regards,
Arav Jain
Arav Jain
Just a quick follow up: any ETA/info on the PDFs purchasable from RPi directly?
Brian Jepson — post author
Thanks, Arav. Unfortunately, we do not have an ETA on us selling PDFs directly.
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