PCB Design and Placement

H

htt2594

Fresh-place the entire Pico Macro Keyboard PCB from scratch on a 100 mm × 100 mm rounded-rectangle 4-layer board.
Top side priority:
Keep the top side clean and user-facing.
Place the mechanical key switches in a regular macro-keypad grid with consistent row/column spacing and aligned orientation.
Keep the RGB LEDs visually associated with their corresponding switches and avoid crowding the key grid.
Place rotary encoders and any user-facing controls on the top side in ergonomic positions near the key grid.
Place mounting holes near the board corners and keep them clear of switches and encoders.
Bottom side priority:
Place the Raspberry Pi Pico / MCU module and the majority of supporting electronics on the bottom side.
Group the MCU, flash, crystal/oscillator, regulator/power parts, reset/boot circuitry, USB/support passives, and decoupling capacitors by function.
Keep decoupling capacitors close to their associated IC power pins, crystal/load caps close to the MCU oscillator pins, and power components clustered together.
Minimize estimated routing distance between the bottom-side MCU and the top-side switches, LEDs, and encoders.
Prefer moving support passives on the bottom side rather than contaminating the top-side visual layout.
Placement quality goals:
Resolve overlaps, keep all components inside the board outline, preserve routing channels between the key grid and MCU area, and maintain clean edge/corner clearance.
Use both layers intentionally: top for human-interface components, bottom for dense electronics.
After placement, run DRC/review and report any remaining overlap, off-board, or layer-assignment issues

flux

I’ll fresh-place the PCB on the requested 100 mm × 100 mm rounded 4-layer board. I’ll first verify layout/schematic prerequisites, set the board outline/stackup, then run a two-sided placement with top-side human-interface priority and bottom-side electronics grouping, followed by DRC/review.

flux

I set the board to the requested 100 mm × 100 mm rounded rectangle with a 4-layer stackup, then ran a full fresh placement.
Placement completed successfully:
  • Top side: switches, RGB LEDs, rotary/user controls, and mounting holes were placed for a clean user-facing layout.
  • Bottom side: MCU, flash, crystal, USB/power/regulator parts, programming/reset circuitry, and passives were grouped by function.
  • ✅ No overlap or out-of-bounds placement issues were reported by the placement pass.
Remaining work:
  • I was not able to run the final post-placement review because execution credits ran out.
  • The placement pass reported remaining quality notes around net grouping and two orientation-consistency items, so the next step is to run review and inspect/fix those if needed.
  • Routing has not been started; per workflow, the placement should be reviewed/approved before routing.
Run placement review
Fix orientations
Inspect layer grouping
Check routing channels
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Files

Schematic

Layout

3D View

Pico Macro Keyboard AI Placement [Example] jLYs