Project 1 - Pico LED Dice

Our first PCB project: a hands-on introduction to schematics, layout, manufacturing, and firmware using the Raspberry Pi Pico.

🎯 Project Goal #

This project is your first complete PCB build in the course.

You will design, assemble, and program a custom LED dice PCB powered by the Raspberry Pi Pico.
By completing this project, you will experience the entire PCB workflow:

Idea → Schematic → PCB layout → Manufacturing → Assembly → Firmware

🧠 What You’ll Learn #

In this project, you will learn:

• How to plan a PCB project before designing
• How to arrange LEDs to match a physical pattern
• How to connect push buttons to a microcontroller
• How the Raspberry Pi Pico is used on a custom PCB
• How firmware and hardware design influence each other
• How to prepare a PCB for real-world manufacturing

This project is intentionally simple but complete.
Future projects will build on these ideas.

🎲 Project Overview: Pico LED Dice #

The Pico LED Dice uses:

• 14 LEDs (two dice, 7 LEDs each)
• 3 push buttons
  • Left button: roll left die
  • Middle button: roll both dice
  • Right button: roll right die

Each group of 7 LEDs is arranged to mimic the face patterns of a standard die.

🧩 Components & Tools #

Components #

Tools & Equipment #

🧪 Prototype First (Important!) #

Before designing the PCB, this project was tested using:

• A breadboard
• Individual WS2812B LEDs
• External push buttons

Prototyping first:

• Reduces PCB mistakes
• Saves manufacturing cost
• Makes debugging easier later

🖥 PCB Design Workflow #

Schematic Design #

Once the prototype was confirmed working, the schematic was created in EasyEDA.

PCB Layout #

The PCB layout focuses on:

• Clear LED placement
• Short signal paths
• Logical button positioning

🏭 Manufacturing #

The PCB for this project was manufactured using JLCPCB.

Disclosure: JLCPCB supports the NerdCave YouTube channel.
All designs and opinions in this course are based on real classroom and project experience.

💻 Firmware #

The firmware is written in MicroPython and consists of two files:

• neopixel.py – WS2812B LED driver
• main.py – Dice logic, button handling, and animations

🧊 Enclosure #

The enclosure was designed in Fusion 360.

✅ Project Complete #

You have completed your first full PCB project and are now ready to move on to more advanced designs.