2 layer PCB ground and VCC plane question

[djex81]

Hello all. I'm new here and new to PCB design. I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in the PCB forum... any ways. Through my research I can not seem to find a clear answer to my question. I'm designing a few PCBs for a MIDI controller which will contain a mix of either push buttons (cherry mx switches), LEDs, or rotary encoders. All ICs and power will be on a separate main board. These PCBs will be the the ones the user will interact with and will connect to the main board via ribbon cable.

So my question is this. I'm building these on a 2 layer board. Are there any issues with making the top layer the ground plane and the bottom layer VCC and routing all signal traces on the VCC plane? I read that splitting up a ground plane with traces take away the benefits that a solid ground pour gives. Is this the same for a VCC plane? Some say you should not run traces on a VCC plane and some say you can. Some say on a two layer board having both a ground and VCC plane is not a good idea and that there should only be a ground plane ... However in my case having both planes helps keep the PCB small as I only need to route signal traces.

I've included my schematic and top and bottom PCB images below. Any guidance or tips would be appreciated.

[Terry Bites]

With a switch matrix power planes are probably unnecessary unless your scanning them in the Megahertz.
So all's well, go etch. Don't connect mounting holes to ground unless you really need to..... am I seeing Vutrax??

[djex81]

With a switch matrix power planes are probably unnecessary unless your scanning them in the Megahertz.
So all's well, go etch. Don't connect mounting holes to ground unless you really need to..... am I seeing Vutrax??

I wasn't sure if mounting holes should be connected to ground or not. Thank you for point that out. Yeah I'm using a Teensy 3.6 and it will be scanning in the MHz range. The clock speed runs at 180 MHz which is probably too fast to scan at and so I'm probably going to have to slow it down some.

And no not Vutrax. I'm using EasyEDA right now since I'm going to use JLCPCB to print the boards.

Quick question though. When would I ever want to connect the mounting holes to ground? I'm assuring only when the boards need to connect to chassis ground?