Revision 2 of the PCB has arrived from PCBWay and is looking good!

This time, just in case I might want to produce a small series of PicoPews later and be too lazy to solder them all by myself, I wanted to try a PCB manufacturer that also offers assembly services. Based on these reviews, I went with PCBWay.

I will save final judgement until I have assembled one, but at the first glance, the result looks pretty good. Silkscreen quality is much better than on the r1 boards from OSH Park. They are cut out without any leftover tabs or mouse bites, only a small bump in one corner, which saves me some work. Via drills are dead center. Some traces look marginally thinner, but it’s hard to judge without a microscope.

Revision 2 has some minor tweaks to the layout, in particular the outer holes for the matrix are moved further out. As expected, this requires more force to bend the pins, but it’s still possible to get the matrix to sit flush. In addition, there is a JST connector footprint for those who want to connect a battery that way – I won’t, because there’s no space for it in the small package I’m after.