PROPCB

landing page
authentication
gerber file view
auto detection of values
billing

Inspiration

It can be frustrating trying to place an order for PCBs online when all you have are Gerber files (binary design files of PCBs). Unfortunately, this often means that you have to fill out all the fields yourself and you might not be able to find other data about the PCB design. This has happened to us on other platforms as well.

What it does

We tried to develop a customer portal where they can upload Gerber files and the binary code will be decoded. This will create an image of the PCB, and other fields in the form will be automatically filled out. If the customer wants to edit any details, the price will be automatically changed.

How we built it

We chose React for our frontend framework and Node.js for the backend because they are easy to integrate. SQL is our database of choice because it is fast and easy to use for transactions. AWS S3 is where we store gerber files uploaded by customers.

Challenges we ran into

One of our primary challenges was converting binary zipped Gerber files into images that could be viewed layer by layer. Another challenge we faced was automatically detecting the dimensions of the PCB from the Gerber files.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our portal has been successful in extracting data from Gerber files and creating a visual of the PCB from the uploaded Gerber file. This portal has also been integrated with a payment gateway, shipping agregator, and an admin panel.

What's next for PROPCB

We're trying to scale up our business and we're using Kubernates to create pods for each service. This will allow us to serve more customers at the same time.