![red circles diptrace red circles diptrace](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ejgvp-I3_VY/maxresdefault.jpg)
The latter seems more efficient then using a voltage regulator. Maybe I could even use the 12V battery to charge the 5v (4.8v) ones. Dropping the voltage and turning the board into a watercooker doesn't attract me so I'm going for an extra powersource (prob some rechargeable cells and maybe a solarcell to keep it full). This kind of sucks as I wanted to run it of 12v all together (and just use the PIC to deliver the 5 volts, but thats a bad idea I read down here). For switching the coils I used the 2N2222A transistor with the 1N4148 diode schematic. Since it will go on and off frequently i just guessed this was a good plan.
![red circles diptrace red circles diptrace](https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/board_editor.png)
I used oddbot's "regulated power supply" with the 470uF and the 0.10uF capacitors to prevent peaks on any channel. Each relay can handle 1 amp, the fuse is 6 amps. It basically does (or is supposed to do) this: 12v DC goes in, 5v DC goes in, the PIC controls the relay coil at 5v, 6 channels, 6 times 12v switchable (on/off) output.
![red circles diptrace red circles diptrace](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jh9MCFL4BUM/maxresdefault.jpg)
In addition, I'm probably making mistakes since this is my one of my first pcb drawings: Please tell me if I got something wrong. Maybe someone can point out the right direction as I think that it must be possible to cross over a line (with some electonic component maybe)? The red circles are the problem areas. I came up with the below but I'm running into some problems with the traces. I'm using diptrace for this as this seems to be the favorite choice. I'm trying to build a board for the mini reef that can switch 6 devices (solenoid valves) at 12v DC with the PIC/Prop controller. I started on some unfinished projects again but I could use some advice.