Electronics Design

Assignments

Redraw the echo hello-world board

Add (at least) a button and LED (with current-limiting resistor)

Check the design rules, and make it

Extra credit: simulate its operation

Eagle

The program i used to draw the board is called Eagle

Eagle stands for: Easy Applicable Graphical Layout Editor

The simplicity of the software provides a fast learning curve, even for those new to PCB design. The openness of EAGLE design resources, such as its extensive and fully-open component libraries, ease the design process for all.

After i downloaded Eagle i also downloaded the fab library for Eagle from the Archive and saved it into the library folder in eagle

The board we were supposed to redraw was the echo hello-world board

My next step was to open up eagle and disable all the libraries except the fab, supply1 and led libraries

After that i added all the components i needed to the schematic

The components i needed for my board should all be available in most Fab Lab inventories

Here is the component list for my board

This is what my schematic looked like after i had placed all the components to the board. The command line in Eagle is really helpful and i used it alot

I connected all the components to their right places using the net feature and changed their values with the value feature

The next step for me was to draw the board layout

To do so you have to click on the file toolbar while in Schematic mode and select "Switch to board"

The next challenge was to create traces for the board and connect the components using the Route feature

After i was finished with the routing i ended up with this layout

To save the traces image for the cutting i opened up my board design, selected the view toolbar and clicked on Layer Settings

In the Layer Settings display i selected the none display option, and then only the top display

My design looked like that after those changes

Now i wanted to export the image. I clicked on the file toolbar and then export

I wanted the image to be monochrome and the resolution to be 1200 dpi

Here is the traces image and you can download it here

Now i wanted to export the outlines of the board

I did almost the same thing as i did with the traces but now i only made the dimensions visible

I scaled those outlines and made the area a little bigger than the board

My next step was to export this image. I did the same as with the traces

Now i had to paint the inner box white and i used the program Gimp to do so

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring

I selected the bucket fill tool (shortcut: Shift+B) and painted the inner box with white color

After that i exported the picture as a png file and the image was ready

Here is the outline image and you can download it here

My next step was to cut out the board using the Roland Modela

For instructions on how to use the machine i reccomend checking out my week 4 page

After i was finished with the cutting of the board i printed out the board layout with the components names to help me with the soldering

I had gained some practise in soldering in week 4 so i was alot quicker soldering this board than the last one

This is what the board looked like after the soldering. I was happy with the results and checked the short circuits

Files from week 6

Eagle files

Traces.png

Outlines.png

The picture i printed out

Electronics Design in Final Project

I also designed my own circuits in my final project

You can read more about it on my final project development page under the "Electronics" section (link)