Designing Your Own PCBs
Turn your breadboard sketches into professional, custom circuit boards. Learn how to draw schematics, route traces, and prepare clean manufacturing files for the factory.
Like Duolingo, but for Designing Your Own PCBs. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through From Idea to Layout and Routing and Fabrication. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Designing Your Own PCBs
- A schematic shows only logical electrical connections, not physical placement or board geometry
- Components can be arranged anywhere on the physical PCB layout regardless of where their symbols sit on the schematic page
- Every circuit part needs a schematic symbol to define its electrical pins
- Every part needs a footprint with copper pads that match its physical solder pins on the board
- A symbol cannot be placed directly onto a physical board layout without an assigned footprint
- Net labels allow separate wire segments sharing the exact same name to connect invisibly across the sheet
- Using net labels eliminates cluttered 'wire spaghetti' across complex diagrams
- PCB software treats any two pins tagged with the same net label as electrically joined
- Reference designators use a letter-number code (like R1, C1, U1) to distinguish identical parts from each other
- Values like '10k' or '0.1uF' describe electrical specs, but cannot uniquely identify which physical part goes where on the board
- Every single physical part on the board needs its own unique reference designator
- Dedicated power and ground symbols (like +5V or GND) create global nets that connect everywhere they appear
- Using net labels to keep dense schematics clean without drawing crisscrossing wires
- Any pin attached to a matching power or ground symbol joins that shared power rail across the entire board
- Global power symbols keep diagrams readable by removing long return-path wires
- Parts that interact with the physical outside world—like edge connectors, mounting holes, and user LEDs—have fixed locations dictated by the enclosure
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Designing Your Own PCBs the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
If you place two resistors side-by-side on your schematic sheet, where can they go on the physical PCB layout?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
How to learn Designing Your Own PCBs, step by step
Go in order. 12 short levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes in all, five minutes a day.
- 1
From Idea to Layout
- Mapping Circuits with Schematics
- Placing Physical Components
- 2
Routing and Fabrication
- Routing Copper Traces
- Preparing for the Factory
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Questions about Designing Your Own PCBs
How do I learn Designing Your Own PCBs?
Go in order: start with From Idea to Layout, then Routing and Fabrication. On Tomo that's 12 short levels, about 24 minutes in all, played five minutes a day. Start free and play the first level in under a minute.
Is there a Duolingo-style app for Designing Your Own PCBs?
Yes. Tomo works like Duolingo: short daily lessons, streaks and quick quizzes. Designing Your Own PCBs is one of its free courses, and you can type any other topic to get a course of your own.
Is the Designing Your Own PCBs course free?
Yes. Designing Your Own PCBs is playable on Tomo's free plan, which doesn't expire. No credit card, no waitlist. Download the app and start your first lesson.
How long does it take to learn Designing Your Own PCBs?
12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes of play in total. It's built for five minutes a day, so you finish it a little at a time instead of all at once.
Do I need any background to start Designing Your Own PCBs?
No. It's pitched at a beginner level, so it starts where you are and builds up. If you can tap a phone, you can start.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Designing Your Own PCBs is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
More Technology on Tomo
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Start Designing Your Own PCBs today.
Download Tomo, search Designing Your Own PCBs, and play your first lesson in under a minute.