Send it out: boards from a fab, parts from distributors.
Ordering is mostly a handful of choices and a lot of double-checking. There are two carts to fill, your boards at PCBWay, your parts at DigiKey, and a few traps that cost you a week if you miss them.
Hands on PCBWay: upload the zip, set three options, order a few spares.
A few options turn your Gerbers into physical boards.
Upload the zip to PCBWay and pick the options: a 4-layer board (this board needs the two inner ground planes, so it costs a little more than a 2-layer), a thickness (1.6 mm is standard), and a surface finish: (cheap, slightly lumpy) or (flat gold, better for the WROOM's fine-pitch pads). Order a few spares; the extra board is nearly free, and the shipping isn't.
The whole board order is one page: drop the zip, set three options, pick a quantity.
HASLfine-pitch fails
One pad floats over the gap, so no joint forms.
ENIGfine-pitch ok
The module sits level, so every pad meets its joint.
Check yourself
Your board has the fine-pitch WROOM module pads. HASL or ENIG?
Bare copper pads tarnish, so the fab coats them. (hot-air solder leveling) dips the board in molten solder and blows the excess off with hot air: cheap and very solderable, but it leaves the pads slightly domed and uneven in height. plates a flat layer of nickel capped with a thin gold flash: dead flat, long shelf life, a little pricier. For through-hole and 0805 work, HASL is perfectly fine. But the WROOM's underside pads are fine-pitch and packed close, and there a flat surface lets every pad meet the module at the same height; uneven HASL bumps invite a missed or bridged joint you can't even see under the module. That flatness is what makes this board worth the ENIG upcharge.
Order
Upload your Gerber zip here, choose 4-layer + ENIG, order a few spares. Affiliate link. It supports the academy at no extra cost to you.
You don't have to bet a board on it. Download the reference design, the lesson's canonical board, exported and zipped ready for the fab, and order that instead of, or alongside, your own. You still did the design work; this just means a slip in layout doesn't cost you a board and a week's wait.
Do this
Free account · download the files + track your progress
Hands on DigiKey: every line by its exact ; mind stock and minimums.
Your BOM becomes a shopping cart, with a few traps.
Order every line from DigiKey by its exact . Mind the , passives come on reels of thousands, and buy extra of the parts you'll hand-place and lose. If anything is out of stock, this is where the second sources you noted back at sourcing (the RT9080-for-AP2112K, the UMW USBLC6-2) pay off.
One pass straight down the BOM: every line by its exact MPN; mind stock and minimums as you go.
Check yourself
You need two 5.1 kΩ resistors but they sell in reels of 5,000. What now?
Order
Search each MPN from your BOM and add it to the cart. Affiliate link. It supports the academy at no extra cost to you.
Parts usually ship in a few days; boards take about a week to fabricate, plus shipping. Place both orders the same day and the two boxes tend to land together, so nothing stalls ASSEMBLY.
Checkpoint
Quick check: ordering
6/8
Create the build, then attach the PCB order and the parts order to it.
Next · ASSEMBLY