As an embedded software engineer, I'm used to be at the border between software and hardware. However, for many years I delegated everything more complex than finding a GPIO number to a dedicated hardware team. Now working as a freelance engineer, I've decided to get over the barrier, to be more independent. In this talk, I'll share my journey to the hardware world, from simple hardware designing and routing using free software to more complex design review. As a big difference between hardware and software is the required equipment, I will also go through the equipment I had to buy and how I use it. I hope to convey the message that while hardware is a vast world, it is a real advantage for the software engineer to get familiar with a few basic tools of our hardware colleagues.