Group discussion and knowledge sharing. Learning Eagle

On a next day itself we had a group discussion and knowledge sharing session where I learned Eagle. Our colleagues explained me about eagle and we all had hands on practice for first day

Downloading and importing fab library within Eagle

Library is a set of components which I can use within my schematic. Libraries can be imported and used or if required we can also create our own library

Imported the ATTINY 44
My very first component and which is ATTINY44 we have imported from fab library and within schematic view
Connecting components to form schematic

That green line is called as a net. Which connects one component to another component. Its labelled as VCC. To label it do a right click and select Name. Provide a name and then again right click and select label. Place a label appropriately

Connecting things using reference label

Net with same labels virtually connects with each other. For example in this case VCC of ATTINY44 will connect with VCC of USB. This is how we can connect using references. Using this technique we can make this design modular and move a part of it to another page to make it neat and clean

Hello ftdi board for reference
Donwloaded png image for Hello ftdi board for reference
Schematic WIP

Imported components required for hello ftdi board

  • ATTINY44
  • 6 pin connector
  • LED
  • Capacitor
  • Resonator
  • Resistors
Repositioning compoenents within board layout
Repositioning again
Generating traces using autorouting

Auto routing creates traces algorithmically and try to connect all of the traces to complete this circuit

Traces generated using auto routing

Finally LED and switch is connected

Design Rules Check for Eagle CAD
Electronic cad software helps us to make PCB layouts which suits our logic. But to manufacture PCB particularly on milling machine we need to take care of clearances.
For example if milling bit is of size 0.5mm then traces should be defined with atleast 0.5mm clerance. Otherwise you may end up with very thin traces or else sometimes traces will vanish
Design rules can be set in eagle cad under menu Tools > DRC
Tools > DRC
Clearance 0.5mm set
Trace width set minimum 0.5 mm for milling
Click on Check
After clicking on Check button it will check for areas where design rule is getting violated. It will highlight area with red hashed markings. You need to resolve these issues. After you are done with this you are ready for milling your board.
Auto routing will also take care of these design rules you have set and will always follow design rules. You may not get 100% autorouting success when you set design rules.
DRC check showing areas violating DRC
Even though auto routing took care of most of the work. But still I had adjusted some of the tracks manually to pass milling cutter with dia 0.4 from within each path and to seperate out each trace
Final Board Traces
Board Cutout
Final fabricated board

Files for download