Week 08: Electronic Design

PCB DESIGN

Other EDA Tools

Several Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools are available for designing PCBs. Here are some popular ones:

• Altium Designer:
  • Comprehensive, high-end EDA tool used by many professional engineers.
  • Features advanced capabilities like 3D modeling, high-speed design, and extensive component libraries.
• Eagle (by Autodesk):
  • Widely used, especially among hobbyists and small businesses.
  • Offers integration with Fusion 360 for mechanical design.
  • Provides a free version with limited board size and layers.
• OrCAD:
  • Another high-end tool with powerful simulation and analysis features.
  • Often used in industry for complex PCB designs.
  • Known for its detailed and accurate signal integrity analysis.
• Proteus:
  • Combines schematic capture, simulation, and PCB layout.
  • Popular for its ease of use and integrated microcontroller simulation.
• DipTrace:
  • User-friendly interface with advanced features.
  • Supports both schematic capture and PCB layout.
  • Offers a free version for small-scale projects.
• Fritzing:
  • Simplified tool aimed at beginners and educators.
  • Allows easy conversion from breadboard layout to PCB design.

Why KiCAD?

For this practice I installed KIKAD for several reasons:

• Open Source:
  • Completely free with no limitations on board size, layers, or features.
  • Continuously improved by a large community of developers and users.
• Feature-Rich:
  • Comprehensive suite of tools for schematic capture, PCB layout, 3D visualization, and more.
  • Supports high-end features like differential pairs and length matching for high-speed designs.
• Cross-Platform:
  • Available on Windows, Linux, and macOS, making it accessible to a wide range of users.
• Community Support:
  • Extensive documentation, tutorials, and a large user community.
  • Numerous libraries available for components.
• Professional Capabilities:
  • Used by both hobbyists and professionals.
  • Ability to handle complex multi-layer PCBs.

Date Components for PCB in KiCAD

The "Date Components" command in KiCAD’s schematic editor is indeed a feature to add dates to components, which can be crucial for version control and tracking component usage over time. Here’s how you can access it:

1. Open Schematic Editor:
   • Launch KiCAD and open your schematic project.
2. Top Bar Menu:
   • In the schematic editor, you will find the top bar menu where various commands are located.
3. Tools Menu:
   • Navigate to the "Tools" menu in the top bar.
4. Date Components Command:
   • In the dropdown, you should find the "Date Components" command.
5. Usage:
   • This command allows you to add a timestamp or date to components in your schematic. It’s useful for tracking when components were added or modified, helping with documentation and version control.

Kicad Board Design

To start, we open software I and download the Fab Academy library. Then, within the library, we search for the components that the PCB will have in order to group them correctly.

Keep in mind that the first page is just a reference and they don't necessarily have to be organized in the same way.

We then move to the second page and click on "Date components for PCB" in the top bar.

After placing the components, they need to be organized to occupy the desired space. In this case, I wanted to create a series of LEDs surrounding the microcontroller. Therefore, I created two strips of Neopixels, each consisting of five LEDs, and connected them with lines of 0.6mm.

Then, we select the "Trace Line" tool from the toolbar on the left side of the drawing space to create the path between components, ensuring all of them match the first diagram. Thankfully, KiCad provides helpful guidance by specifying how components are connected when you touch them, leading you to where each connection should end.

To trace the margin, create a square and make sure it is on the "Margin" layer, which will appear in a different color. To personalize my PCB further, I added my initials.

Finally, margins are added to them, and they are exported as black and white images in order to create the cutting files

Then save the file as PNG or SVG

The machine I used for this practice was the "ROLAND SRM-20", which has the same bases of functioning as the other two machines (MDX-20 and Lunyee) shown on the group assigment. First you have to

The first step to perform is to enter the webpage in which we can generate the documents to be uploaded to the machine interface. The link is the following: Modsproject

As the first time we need to click Program > Open Program >Roland - mill 2D PCB. to open this page

Invert the image to keep the trces

Then upload the traces and click mill traces 1/64 in the section "Set PCB defaults". Then in Mill raster 2D change offset from 1 to 2. An offset of 2 must be applied, as multiple practical tests with the equipment have demonstrated that it is the most appropriate and In the section of the Roland SRM-20 milling machine, the origins must be set to 0 to correctly interpret the parameters for the machine.You enable this section so when you click "calculate" the rml document is document.

Do the same with the margin

For the margin cut First, the corresponding image (in this case, a PNG) needs to be changed, and the image must be inverted.Instead of selecting "mill tracers," choose "mill outline.Once this is done, change the "tool diameter" to the diameter of the tool to be used, which in this case is 0.8. After this, just click "calculate". Create the rml document

The trace shold look like this

Cutting PCB

In order to cut the PCB i used the same tools as the last time witch you can see in Electronic Pdroduction and a simillar process at Group Assigment of week 4