FabLab Academy 2012

Manchester Lab

David Forgham-Bailey

Week  7: electronics design

Weekly Assignment: Add LED and Button to Hello Serial Board

    Narrative:

    Designing the hello-serial board from scratch was a good way to learn how to use Eagle. The biggest problem     encountered was finding the correct parts from the extensive libraries.
    use nets - these can be linked to bus (eg VCC/GND etc) - this make connecting and routing more simple.
    check with desgn rules and electrical rules / change routing from 8 to 16.
    place components so traces can be sited  - (use ratsnest/auto) - save before auto since cannot undo.
    export png files for traces/cutout/ schematic @500dpi
    Use roland Modela to fabricate the board - see week5 - and stuff the board.


    Materials:
    Machine Settings:
    Photos:
eagle_screenshot_hello_mod_board

hello_mod_layout

hello_mod_traces

hello_mod_cutout


The files were used to mill the board - which was soldered up with the components:

hello_led

Course Notes:

circuits - define microcontroller position 0 hierarchical. parametric drawing
traces - if too close, won't mill correctly - old way use drafting tape for traces, photograph then etch.
Software: (Inkscape, Illustrator) - Eagle open source - fab.lbr - Commercial - Kicad/ GEDA/OrCAD/Altium(3D modelling/simulation)
IC Design - Cadence/Synopsys/Mentor/Tanner - expensive
Modelling/Simulation: Spice - simulated circuits    -   ngspice - free  TCLspice - FALSTAD
Hardware description dialog - Verilog/VHDL (hardware description languages - write code directly - output is a program describing the circuit.



Comments:
    Software: Eagle
    Hardware: Roland Modela


    Files:
    Drawings:

External Links: