Hardware Design, Faster
Reusable KiCad design blocks, free electronics calculators, and expert hardware design services.
What Circuit Issues is
Circuit Issues is run by hardware engineers who design, build and ship embedded boards, and publish what they learn along the way, failures included.
The tools and blocks come out of our own projects, such as an ESPHome air-conditioner controller, a solar greenhouse controller and an EV charger build, and the build logs show how each one went.
Free engineering calculators
They run in your browser, need no account, and keep your data on your machine.
Battery life & current calculator
Build the power budget of a multi-state device from its rails, regulators and loads, and see the average current and battery life, with optional solar charging.
Open the calculatorVoltage divider calculator
Pick E-series resistors for a target output, then check divider current, resistor dissipation and the worst-case tolerance window.
Open the calculatorPCB panel utilization estimator
See how many boards fit on a JLCPCB, PCBWay or Eurocircuits panel and how a few millimetres off the outline changes the count.
Open the calculatorAll tools, including the web serial monitor and the ATSAMD21 pin configurator →
KiCad 10 design blocks from real boards
Schematic and layout you drop into your own project, with the design notes and BOM that go with it.
#0140ESP32-S3 Core (WROOM-2)
Free KiCad 10 design block: ESP32-S3-WROOM-2 (16 MB flash, 8 MB PSRAM) with native USB-C, ESD protection, BOOT/RESET buttons and 22 GPIOs on labels.
#0101TPS562203 Buck 2 A
KiCad 10 design block: TI TPS562203 synchronous buck, 4.5–17 V in, 3.3 V / 2 A out (4.93 V option), with optional reverse-polarity diode.
#0120BQ24650 MPPT Solar Charger
KiCad 10 design block: TI BQ24650 MPPT charger for a 12 V lead-acid battery (14.1 V) from a solar panel up to 28 V; status and PV-voltage outputs.
Flossa AI Controller
A battery-powered ESP32-S3-WROOM-2 audio controller for flossa.ai, built from 10 Circuit Issues template blocks plus one custom LED/touch sheet.
“We went from idea to an assembled controller remarkably fast. Because the board was built from proven blocks, everything worked from the first power-on: audio, charging, storage and LEDs, with no rework on the first revision.”
A second pair of eyes before you order
Many respins come from small things: a connector with the wrong pitch, swapped TX and RX, a strap pin left floating. The Clinic catches them before the boards are made. Prices are fixed and shown up front.
See the Clinic servicesPre-fab check
€690Returns an annotated PDF and an issue list.
Turnaround: 72 hours
Full design review
€1,890Adds the layout, manufacturability and an EMC risk register.
Turnaround: 5 working days
PCB Composer: a routed board from our blocks
Pick the tiles, map the rails and buses between them, and get one routed board with Gerbers, BOM and assembly files. Join the waitlist to hear when it opens.