Source: https://mokxi.com/teachers/plans/pcb-basics Updated: 2026-11-11 Lesson plan # Breadboard to PCB lesson plan Take three working circuits from the breadboard to a finished board: the schematic, footprints, placement, routing, design rules, and what a board house needs. 3 chapters, 6 lessons, about 3 hours, no board. Every lesson runs in the browser, with nothing to install. Start a class from this course The unit ## Objectives and materials ### By the end, students can - Read the schematic, and see each part become its footprint. - Place the parts, route the copper, and pass the design rules. - What Gerbers and a BOM are, read off a finished board. ### Materials for the whole unit - Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo - Capacitor x 2 - Full-size breadboard - Half breadboard - LED - NE555 timer - Resistor x 4 - Slide switch - USB power - Voltage regulator Every part is already on the simulator’s bench, so there is nothing to buy or hand out. The counts are the most any one lesson uses, if you build it on real breadboards too. Chapter 1. About 1 h 5 min ## From circuit to board Read the schematic, and see each part become its footprint. Lesson | Time | What students do The schematic Before any board, the circuit as a drawing: symbols instead of parts, nets instead of wires, and a 7805 supply read from its schematic, dropout included. | 35 min - It works on the breadboard first - Symbols, not parts - Wires become nets - Read the dropout off the drawing - The datasheet circuit Footprints Every part becomes copper pads and holes of the right size and spacing: read the four footprints of a USB to 3.3 V board, their drills, and where a footprint and the real part disagree. | 30 min - Run it - Open the PCB view - Pads and drills - When the footprint is not the part ### Materials - Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo - Capacitor x 2 - Half breadboard - LED - Resistor - USB power - Voltage regulator ### Check for understanding Each student finishes "Footprints" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go. Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "When the footprint is not the part". Chapter 2. About 1 h 35 min ## Lay it out Place the parts, route the copper, and pass the design rules. Lesson | Time | What students do Placement Where the parts go decides how hard the routing is: the ratsnest of a 555 blinker, the placement rules that keep it short, and parts dragged and turned by hand. | 30 min - Run it - The ratsnest, and the order to place in - Why timing parts sit close - Place it yourself Routing Turn the ratsnest into copper: a power track drawn by hand, two layers and a via, the autorouter for the rest, and why a power track is twice as wide. | 35 min - Run it - Draw a track by hand, on two layers - Let the autorouter finish - How much current a track carries - Why power tracks are wider Design rules What a board house can make: track width, spacing, drill, annular ring and edge clearance, the DRC that checks them, and rules broken on purpose to see what it says. | 30 min - Run it fast - What a board house can make - What the DRC cannot see - Route it, then break a rule ### Materials - Battery: AA, coin cell, LiPo - Capacitor x 2 - Full-size breadboard - Half breadboard - LED - NE555 timer - Resistor x 4 - Slide switch - Voltage regulator ### Check for understanding Each student finishes "Design rules" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go. Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Route it, then break a rule". Chapter 3. About 30 min ## Ready to make What Gerbers and a BOM are, read off a finished board. Lesson | Time | What students do Gerbers and the BOM What a board house actually receives: the Gerber layers, the drill file and the bill of materials, read off a finished USB to 3.3 V board by looking at it as made. | 30 min - Run it - What Gerbers are, and the board as made - Ratings for the BOM - Write the BOM ### Materials - Half breadboard - LED - Resistor - USB power - Voltage regulator ### Check for understanding Each student finishes "Gerbers and the BOM" on their own, without opening the hints. The simulator checks 4 of its 4 steps as they go. Then ask each one to explain, in a sentence or two, the last thing it asked of them: "Write the BOM". Your class ## Teach this unit as a class Start a class from this course and its 6 lessons are assigned in one go, in order. Students join with a six-character code or printed login cards, and each one’s work comes back to you. The class tools are free for 30 days for one class of up to 20 students, with no card. The lessons themselves are free either way. Start a class from this course See the demo class More units ## Other lesson plans Electronics basics 20 lessons, about 10 h. Embedded on the Arduino Uno 16 lessons, about 12 h. Embedded on the ESP32-C3 13 lessons, about 11 h. Embedded on the Raspberry Pi Pico 7 lessons, about 6 h. Build your own fight stick 5 lessons, about 4 h. Embedded on the STM32F411 6 lessons, about 6 h. C++ on a board 13 lessons, about 10 h. Digital logic and memory 4 lessons, about 4 h. Interactive devices on the Uno 9 lessons, about 8 h. From gates to a computer 23 lessons, about 16 h. Build a claw machine 8 lessons, about 6 h. 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