Hello all hoping for some guidance here. I have an idea that involves recording and playing sounds in a device. I would love to create this from scratch. How can i start designing pcb and adding components with limited knowledge. Is it possible?

 

Probable not.
It does depend on your level of "Limited knowledge".
For a start, you need to show us what your design attempt is. And explain the application. There is a good chance an off the shelf product already exists.
More details PLEASE!!!

 

We use these at work. They are not too difficult to get them up and running. There is an assembled demo board toward the bottom of the page to get you started fast.

https://www.digikey.com/product-det...n-of-america/ISD1620BSY/ISD1620BSY-ND/1232816

 

Probably you know this, otherwise..

1. Learn about breadboarding, using online TinkerCAD Circuits as online simulator.
2. Build it on a real PCB, order components from digikey or similair.
3. Download & install KiCAD, learn the basics.
4. Build your TinkerCAD project in KiCAD, export PCB to gerber-file.
5. Order PCB from JLCPCB, wait 4 weeks to arrive.

On complete, goto 1.

<SNIP>

Moderators note : removed youtube channel promotion.

 

Welcome to AAC!

I have an idea that involves recording and playing sounds in a device. I would love to create this from scratch. How can i start designing pcb and adding components with limited knowledge.

It depends on how limited your knowledge is.

The first step is to build a working prototype. Doing that will generally require a block diagram, then a schematic. Once you have a schematic, you can proceed to PCB layout.

 

Hello all hoping for some guidance here. I have an idea that involves recording and playing sounds in a device. I would love to create this from scratch. How can i start designing pcb and adding components with limited knowledge. Is it possible?

Before line one of a design you need to develop a description of just what the thing will do. Then you need to decide how well it will do it, and what functions will be involved.
These basic steps apply to any design of almost anything, We used them for creating custom industrial machines, but they will work just as well for an electronic sound recording and playing device.
You will also need to choose how much it will cost, how big it will be, what will power it, and how long the batteries will last. so you see that you will need to spend a few hours coming up with that very detailed description. But it will be worth the effort because that same description will help with the marketing of the thing.
And now a less encouraging word, which is that there are already quite a few devices that fit that description on the market, ranging from really cheap kid's toys up to several hundred dollars toys for grown ups.

 

Hello all hoping for some guidance here. I have an idea that involves recording and playing sounds in a device. I would love to create this from scratch. How can i start designing pcb and adding components with limited knowledge. Is it possible?

Here are some general steps:

1. Determine problem are you trying to solve.
2. Come up with a solution.
3. Determine the requirements, packaging, etc..
4. Create a block diagram consisting of functional blocks.
5. Create a schematic for each functional block.
6. Merge the schematics into one large schematic (optional).
7. Simulate the circuit until it provides the desired results (optional, but I wouldn't skip this).
8. Breadboard the circuits and test until you have a working prototype.
9. Determine the packaging (what type of form factor, enclosure type, etc.)
10. Do schematic capture
11. Do board layout using constraints from #9.
12. Design rule check PCB
13. Produce manufacturing plots (Gerber) for PCB fabrication house.
14. Verify gerber plots with Gerber Viewer.
15. Send Gerber plots to Fab house.
16. Wait for PCB
16. Wait for PCB
16. Wait for PCB
17. Assemble PCB
18. Test
19. Make circuit changes if necessary.
20. If changes go back to #10.
21. else done.

Hope that helps...

eT

 

Here's a few others... https://www.amazon.com/s?k=recording+chip&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

 

Here's a few others... https://www.amazon.com/s?k=recording+chip&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

And, in addition to those shown on Amazon, there is always that recording carrot as shown in that cartoon movie. My grandson had one of those, it really did work.
So given the number of devices available, you need to consider what would make the device you imagine stand out and be chosen over the others.
But possibly your application is unique, in which case I wish you success. But it seems like you may need some assistance.

 

Here are some general steps:

1. Determine problem are you trying to solve.
2. Come up with a solution.
3. Determine the requirements, packaging, etc..
4. Create a block diagram consisting of functional blocks.
5. Create a schematic for each functional block.
6. Merge the schematics into one large schematic (optional).
7. Simulate the circuit until it provides the desired results (optional, but I wouldn't skip this).
8. Breadboard the circuits and test until you have a working prototype.
9. Determine the packaging (what type of form factor, enclosure type, etc.)
10. Do schematic capture
11. Do board layout using constraints from #9.
12. Design rule check PCB
13. Produce manufacturing plots (Gerber) for PCB fabrication house.
14. Verify gerber plots with Gerber Viewer.
15. Send Gerber plots to Fab house.
16. Wait for PCB
16. Wait for PCB
16. Wait for PCB
17. Assemble PCB
18. Test
19. Make circuit changes if necessary.
20. If changes go back to #10.
21. else done.

Hope that helps...

eT

eet has certainly condensed my list into the first three steps, which are not really tghat simple. Knowing what all the requirements are can avoid having to go back and do it over. My design team generally did that back at the rough sketch on plain paper stage, where it is much cheaper and a whole lot less delay.

 

However I didnt cached a rationale - such device, and damn good device is mounted in every single mob phone on the planet, being able to record even the weeks long midi sequences untils the memoory is full and play it back as much one may want. Only case when it may have rational is about infrasound or ultrasound recording.

 

Hello all hoping for some guidance here. I have an idea that involves recording and playing sounds in a device. I would love to create this from scratch. How can i start designing pcb and adding components with limited knowledge. Is it possible?

Anything is possible these days, especially with help from google and message forums like this one. First make a working prototype on a breadboard, then make your PCB. The prototype will help you figure out what works and what doesn't, and which parts you need. Define what you want it to do, on paper, then start shopping for parts. There are a lot of development board, sometimes called breakout boards, where they put a chip and other supporting parts on a little circuit board to make it easy to wire to something like an arduino. These are great for testing ideas. Once you get something like that working, then use those circuit boards to help you figure out what parts you'll need on your own board and take it from there.

 

A good tutorial about building prototypes.

 

If going with KiCad, here is some utube videos to get started.
https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/useful-links-for-learning-kicad.164953/

One more.

Max.

 

However I didnt cached a rationale - such device, and damn good device is mounted in every single mob phone on the planet, being able to record even the weeks long midi sequences untils the memoory is full and play it back as much one may want. Only case when it may have rational is about infrasound or ultrasound recording.

EVERY phone that can record is an expensive device with a lot of functions and features that certainly make it a lot more complex to use. AND every one of those phones costs quite a few hundreds of dollars, and each one of them holds a lot of personal information about the owner/user. In addition, each of those phones have what I consider a very unfortunate form factor, certainly not optimized for video recording and playback. Thus the modern phone would be a very poor alternative to a better device design.
So from that reality, some new concept may be a great idea.

 

Hello all hoping for some guidance here. I have an idea that involves recording and playing sounds in a device. I would love to create this from scratch. How can i start designing pcb and adding components with limited knowledge. Is it possible?

You are asking for some serious assistance, but what is entirely missing is a description of what your limited knowledge is. How much do you understand electronics? What is your ability as far as circuit design? And especially logic circuit creation? WE are given no real statement of where your skill level stands in any category.
And some of those collections of what is needed may be vastly simplifying some of the major steps.
Creating a totally new design of a system requires a lot of different skills in many different areas. I certainly wish you success, please let us know where you are starting from.
There are companies that claim to be able to deliver working prototypes based on concept ideas. I know nothing about them except that they advertise in what I think are reputable publications.

 

You are asking for some serious assistance, but what is entirely missing is a description of what your limited knowledge is. How much do you understand electronics? What is your ability as far as circuit design? And especially logic circuit creation? WE are given no real statement of where your skill level stands in any category.
And some of those collections of what is needed may be vastly simplifying some of the major steps.
Creating a totally new design of a system requires a lot of different skills in many different areas. I certainly wish you success, please let us know where you are starting from.
There are companies that claim to be able to deliver working prototypes based on concept ideas. I know nothing about them except that they advertise in what I think are reputable publications.

You guys lost him when you couldnt read his mind and design the circuit for him. Shame

 

You guys lost him when you couldnt read his mind and design the circuit for him. Shame

Who said anything about asking someone to design it? Keyboard warrior.

Thanks for all the positive responses. Definately lots to learn.

 

Probably you know this, otherwise..

1. Learn about breadboarding, using online TinkerCAD Circuits as online simulator.
2. Build it on a real PCB, order components from digikey or similair.
3. Download & install KiCAD, learn the basics.
4. Build your TinkerCAD project in KiCAD, export PCB to gerber-file.
5. Order PCB from JLCPCB, wait 4 weeks to arrive.

On complete, goto 1.

<SNIP>

Moderators note : removed youtube channel promotion.

Kicad is free and very complete software for schematic, making PCBs, 3D vision of the created map, and more

 

You guys lost him when you couldnt read his mind and design the circuit for him. Shame

I have repeatedly stated that my mind reading skills are non-existant, although not on this thread. The TS did ask for advice, which I did provide, based on the question of "HOW". The steps given were the same as we used at a successful company creating a variety of industrial test systems for many different, and repeat, customers. So those steps work.
I asked about how limited the TS skill set/ knowledge base actually was, because we had no clue about how much understanding of electronics the TS had.
In this forum we have had treads started by folks who did not even have an understanding of basic circuits, as well as those who obviously have huge amounts of insight but lack uinformation in some very narrow field. THUS it is good to understand where the TS is. I was not presuming that we were asked to create a design, but rather how to get started on creating a design. Quite a big difference there.