Autodesk released EAGLE 9. This new version continues the improvement that Autodesk has been providing since acquiring the infamous ECAD tool. There are three areas I look at in this AddOhms Livestream. How I looked at EAGLE 9 In the beginning, I use an old training class I wrote about five years ago when I was using EAGLE daily. It shows how to design a 555 flashing circuit from schematic to PCB. A follow-on class taught…
Earlier I posted a PCB Checklist of items to double-check when sending your board out to a fab. The Dangerous Prototypes blog pointed to a 3D EAGLE PCB tool from a Bulgarian-based developer called Cytec that takes an EAGLE BRD file and renders it in 3D for you.
The example board I have above is a render of my MSO Demo Board. And I have to be honest, it looks much like that one!
Recently I’ve been expanding my retro game collection to include game cartridges imported from Japan. The problem is that I don’t have Japanese game systems (yet). So I’m creating an open source adapter to convert Famicom carts to the NES. Before I submit the PCB to OSH Park, I’m going to run through this PCB Checklist to make sure I don’t forget something silly.
This PCB checklist is something I’ve built over my years of creating boards. If you’ve got tips from your own list, don’t forget to leave a comment letting us know.
PCB Production Checklist
The concepts on this list will apply to almost any PCB software. The tips I give relate to EAGLE, since that is what I use most often. Feel free to comment to add tips for other design software like upverter.com or KiCad.
I am not a fan of relying on the Autorouter in EAGLE — or any PCB CAD software for that matter. When laying out a board, I’ll use the autorouter to get an idea if the part placement is going to work or not. In this case, I was reminded how much autorouters suck! Even after running for while, the autorouter could only route up 50% of the nets (signals). Never Trust The Autorouter As Chris…
Having good libraries in EAGLE is critical to making schematic capture and PCB design fast. Dave at element14 put together a top 10 library link, which includes the list below. Remember, if you’re having trouble Add Parts, you might want to look at this tutorial on enabling EAGLE libraries. element14’s RIoTBoard element14’s Raspberry Pi Compute Module Development Kit element14’s BeagleBone Black Linear Technology Molex Vishay Microchip Atmel Arduino Texas Instruments
