PCB Friday: Lessons Learned Fulfilling a Successful Crowdfunded Project

The keyboard/mouse combo has generally worked well to control our computers for the last few decades. But, for tasks like video editing, CAD, and simply turning the volume up to 11, I wanted something better. Something with a knob and specialized buttons — i.e. a custom macropad.

This journey started for me in 2017 with a simple computer volume knob, which morphed into the JC Pro Macro 2 (JCPM2) crowdfunding project in 2021. I subsequently sold it as a product on Tindie. Including the Kickstarter, I've sold somewhere around 200 of these devices. While sales have slowed down since the initial rush, I recently had to assemble two of them, giving me time to reflect on my PCB assembly setup.

So, without further ado, here are a few things to consider when fulfilling your PCB-based crowdfunding project.

Organization and subassemblies

When doing a complicated assembly, you'll want to divide the process into steps. This is important if you're doing the assembly yourself, and even more so if you're using employees or sending out kits. In my case, I bought a number of labeled pick bins, and put the smaller parts together into pre-packaged baggies.

These bags can be sent out to customers with the larger PCB, Arduino, and base components, or easily picked up by me when it's time to journey out to the garage for soldering and assembly. While I'm happy to send out unassembled kits, doing things myself serves as a nice spot-check to ensure that the kits are in order. It also keeps me familiar with the process.

Batch assemblies

After the initial kickstarter for this project, I had to assemble, and assemble... and assemble JCPM2s. Which got tedious. At the same time, it allowed me to get into a good rhythm, with few distractions, set up with all the needed parts and tools in the right place. Long story short, make things in multiples to save a ton of time and effort.

Examples and documentation

When I recently put together two JCPM2s, I wasn't quite sure where everything went off the top of my head. Fortunately, I had a working example (that I use every day) next to my keyboard. All I had to do was unplug it and take it to my assembly area.

I also have extensive written documentation available that I could refer back to, and could even use the above video if needed. While potentially helpful for me, I imagine it's even more useful for those who bought a to-be-assembled kit.

Jigs

Jigs are custom tools that you perform a specific task. While it can take a lot of time to develop a good jig setup, when done right, and when producing a sufficient volume of finished goods, this can save a lot of time and effort in the long run. Will Smith even had a song about it.

Pictured below is my 3D-printed Pro Micro soldering jig, along with a more complicated JCPM2 assembly jig in the second slide.

These were extremely valuable as I fulfilled orders. Be sure to keep your jigs, examples, and documentation around until you're certain you're done with your project. Actually, leave the documentation up as long as possible. You never know when it will be needed!

Of course, sometimes you don't have to design custom tools to improve your workflow. You may just have to buy them!

Tools, magnification, and lighting

When assembling a PCB project, tools matter. A good soldering iron, snippers, helping hands, and fume extractor are the most obvious things to have at the ready. While good tools might be expensive, if they last a long time and save you even a tiny bit of time (over and over and over) they are well worth it.

Also, be sure you have the proper magnification and lighting for your work. I don't typically wear glasses, but I use these "cheater lenses" for close-up soldering work. I also use this lamp/magnifying glass at my desk, and have been quite happy with it, though I don't solder there.

Design for manufacturing, know when to start over

One annoying thing about my PCB design is that it's fairly easy to mistake which side to put the Microcontroller socket on. Perhaps I should have put a note like "no Arduino here" on one side of the PCB to make manufacturing easier. While such a mistake can be corrected, it is very tedious, and at a price of a few dollars per board, it's not generally worth it.

So if you make a bad enough mistake, just toss the board and start over. Also, recognize when to call something good enough. How this plays out depends on the context, but don't drive yourself crazy pursuing "defects" that don't actually matter and that no one else will notice.

Get someone else to make it

If your process is sufficiently documented and organized, and your thing can be made in batches, you may be able to get your device assembled by a contract manufacturer. While I haven't pursued this beyond surface-mount components and basic viability testing by the board/assembly house, it's something to consider.

The board/assembly house likely could have also soldered on my through-hole components on for a price. Better yet, if I had designed things so that I needed fewer through-hole soldered components (e.g. built Pro Micro functionality into the main board instead of using a dev board on a socket), that would have been less work for me... A fact that I was reminded of while recently soldering JCPM2s together.

Is crowdfunding/selling PCB products worth it?

Between Kickstarter and Tindie, I've directly grossed somewhere around $20,000 from this project. While that might sound like a lot of money, the project has taken a lot of time to develop, fulfill, and maintain, and that doesn't even account for material costs. While I did make a profit, I would be scared to know my actual hourly wage.

On the other hand, I love using my macropad, and couldn't have gotten exactly what I wanted without going through the design process. And that dollar amount doesn't account for the variety of articles and other content that I've been able to produce and get paid for based on the experience and what I've learned from it.

Should you design, manufacture, and sell your idea/device? Like many things in engineering and business, it depends. Hopefully this article has given you some small insight into what's involved. For this project, between sales, content, learning opportunities, reputation gains, and simply the fact that I enjoyed doing it, I'm glad I took it on.

Finally, know when to retire a product, or maybe even pass it on to someone else. I've had JCPM2 parts setup taking up space in my closet for years now. It might be time to take that area back. For other shop organization ideas, check out my PCB Friday: Organization for Hackers, Engineers, and Electronics Aficionados post!

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for reading my biweekly PCB Friday column! I'm looking forward to sharing more PCB-related knowledge and insights here, and I hope you'll follow along for the journey. You can also find me on YouTube @jeremycook, read my semi-technical musings at TechAdjacent.io, or email me at hi@jeremyscook.com if you have any comments or suggestions!

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