![]() ![]() I particularly liked the suggestion of using polystyrene to "test" the layout - that would never have occured to me and I will certainly do that when I get that far. Thanks a lot for your very thorough response, John. Stick with Diptrace, practice with a simple board to start with, and keep tweaking it until you are happy with it. Please dont take this the wrong way, but keep moving from one pcb cad program to another looking for a super simple pcb cad program is not the answer. Any parts you cant find in Diptraces libraries are easily made using the Diptrace pattern editor. ![]() You dont want to drill out a plated hole because the component lead is too big. If not, go back, make adjustments, print again, repopulate on polystyrene, and keep repeating until your are happy.Ī common problem is hole sizes. If you have the components to hand, you can tape your printed copy of your pcb onto a piece of polystyrene, and poke all the parts through to make sure the pattern centres are correct. Check the traces are wired as you expected. Now, you can print your pcb on paper, and look over it. If you don't then you can have problems with the solder paste being sucked away from the component, and end up in the via, leaving a weak joint. ![]() If you use SMD parts and have vias to the bottom layer, then move the vias off the pads, and place them close to the pad. When you think your board is fully routed, then use the Error checking features to compare to the schematic, check net connectivity, and general errors. I won't go into good board layout practice, thats a whole topic on its own. Apart from being good for EMC, the 0v tends to be the most common trace, so makes routing easier if it has its own layer. On a 2 layer board, I usually use the bottom layer as a ground plane. When you are happy with your schematic and all your parts have patterns, then convert to pcb. If you cant find the pattern, make one with the pattern editor. Open the Pattern Editor, search the pattern, then with the datasheet to hand, right click on the component in the Schematic Editor, click on the 'Attach Pattern' option, goto to the previously searched pattern and assign the pins to the pattern. If the part hasn't got a pattern assigned to it, then again, go to RS (or Farnell) find the part, open the datasheet, look for the footprint detail ie. The same goes for capacitors, inductors etc. If it is 800 mils then use a RES800 resistor. If you need a 2 watt resistor for example, go to the RS website, search the part, open the datasheet and look for the recommended hole centres. You will need to do your maths to calculate the power rating etc. If it is a power resistor you will need much bigger. If it is a microcontroller pullup, you can use a 1/8th watt or smaller. Resistor sizes depend on what you are using it for. So to start with what must be the most elementary question - which parts should I select for resistors, capacitors and LEDs ? For the schematics, I have used the RES, CAP and POLCAP symbols but these seem rather generic and if some of the footprints actually are the right ones it would be by accident.īuild it on a breadboard if possible, so your are confident it works before going to a board.ĭecide if you are going to use through hole or smd parts. The diptrace tutorials don't help me either as there seems to be an assumption that you already know a lot from using other programs - and I haven't used any other programs for this. I have done a lot of research to try to find out how to go about this, but to no avail. Other parts probably don't have the right footprint. Some of the parts I have selected only have a schematic symbol, i.e. There is no way I am going to be able to create a PCB. Sure, I can find schematic symbols for most of the parts I use and something that looks almost sensible for other parts. The problems I am facing seem to be related to my lack of knowledge of some sort of secret "code". The circuits work right off the bat, much to the credit of the Diptrace schematic capture. I am able to create good looking schematics that I refer to when I hook up my circuits. My circuits include a power supply, some digital inputs, a few simple sensors read by ADC, PWM and digital output, as well as an ISP connnection to program the mcu.ĭiptrace is the first program I have used to create a schematic and I find it easy to use. I have done a lot of research to learn what to do and I have successfully designed and soldered a few microcontroller circuits on prototyping boards. ![]() Being new to electronics design, I've hit a roadblock. ![]()
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