My First PCB: A Wireless Christmas Bell Choir
This project was an excuse to finally learn KiCad and get a real PCB manufactured. Syncing up a set of vintage “Ye Merrie Minstrel Caroling Christmas Bells” to play in unison was a fun application, but the real goal was going through the full cycle: design a board, send it to a fab, solder it up, and see if it works. It did. Here’s the result: The Application The bell units take a ROM cartridge that contains the song data. The idea was to replace the cartridge with a custom PCB that receives wireless note data, so any number of units can play the same notes at the same time, turning soloists into a choir. ...