Guitar PCB with DipTrace

Using DIPTrace we've got an SMT version of our guitar PCB already drawn out, etched and the components laid out ready for soldering







We made the pads on the crystal far too large for the SMT crystals we're using. But other than that, the extra sized pads look to be just right for hand-soldering







And about half an hour later (including time taken to tin plate the entire board) here is the same board, all soldered up







The miniature USB socket was a surface mount version, so had to be soldered onto a tiny breakout board to enable us to connect to the 0.025" pitch multi-core cable.







All that's left to do now is program the PIC and check everything works as it should. For the guitar neck, we'll need another (double-sided) PCB but for testing, we can touch the ends of the exposed multi-core wire to simulate how it will behave when wired up to the fretboard PCB.