Final outcome!
For this project, I really wanted to experiment with the idea of "playfulness" in hardware. Usually, when people see a circuit board, they immediately think of something cold, complicated, or purely functional—just a green square full of confusing lines. I wanted to challenge that feeling and make something that felt more like a character than a component.
I decided on a side-profile view of a duck. The design intent was pretty simple: by placing the red LED right at the mouth, the flashing light stops being just a status indicator and becomes an action—like the duck is quacking, shouting, or maybe even breathing fire.
I created the board outline using Adobe Illustrator to get the curve just right before importing it into the PCB software. The fabrication process taught me a lot, specifically about where not to put things.
Design in Kitcad
When I set up the milling file, I placed one of the "attach points" (the tabs that hold the board down inside the CNC machine) right near the mouth/beak area. That was a mistake. Because the beak has small, detailed curves, sanding off the leftover tab material without ruining the shape was actually really difficult. If I did this again, I would definitely place those tabs on the back or bottom of the duck.
Overall, though, I’m happy with how it turned out. It was a great experience to go through the whole process from the digital schematic layout all the way to physical soldering. It definitely made the concept of PCB fabrication feel less abstract and more like a creative medium I can use.