Help me with making schematic -> pcb (diptrace)

Thread Starter

Nicholas

Joined Mar 24, 2005
139
Hi guys

I thought I should make a new thread. I am totally new in this, and would like help getting my
small driver unit made as an schematic, then converted to PCB layout - and then getting the
pcb made.

I can see that there is a lot of steps involved in this; everything from resistor lengths to copper
width.

Here is the hand drawing I made, and the one I made in diptrace. When I try to convert to pcb the
software crashes



Download schematic for diptrace here!
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
If you can wait till I get hom for from work tonight, can give it a look if someone doesn't beat me to it. What are the part numbers?
 

SLK001

Joined Nov 29, 2011
1,549
What is the device that looks like "-<" in the center of your schematic? I've never seen that before. Before you jump to a PCB, you should try to "air wire" these components to see if it does what you want.

It looks like you are trying to make a voltage supply using a voltage divider network. This isn't a very good idea unless your output current requirements are very low.
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
IMHO Eagle is very complex and not user friendly at all. I gave up trying to learn. I just don't have the patience. You can have a basic schmetic it just a few minutes of using diptrace. .
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,839
Not for me. I spent hours with the product and gave up. I have read similar complaints.
I've read complaints to that effect, but they didn't give any specifics and I dismissed them because it didn't mirror my experience.

Since I can get Eagle to do what I need, I'm not inclined to learn another until it becomes a limiter. Since I do mainly single sided boards (DIY), and don't use the autorouter, I don't expect my requirements to exceed it's capabilities.
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
I am getting this

upload_2015-12-1_19-5-48.png

What you probably did was to pick from Disc_Sch or Symbols

If you intend to create a PCB from the schematic, make sure it has a pattern.

upload_2015-12-1_19-33-27.png

Here is a partly corrected schematic. What remains to to replace or attach a pattern to those 3 connectors I added and to add connectors for those two on the left. You can use the pattern editor to make your own patterns.

I have attached some sample patterns. You can either create a whole new component with component editor and attach a pattern. Also in the zip file is some sample custom components. Some you may be able to use for your connectors. You might be able to make use of the 2 and 3 pin header.
 

Attachments

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,839
What is the device that looks like "-<" in the center of your schematic?
It's an N channel MOSFET; I thought it was an NPN transistor...
It looks like you are trying to make a voltage supply using a voltage divider network. This isn't a very good idea unless your output current requirements are very low.
If the microcontroller sinks and sources current, the resistor to ground is unnecessary; but it's been there all through the other thread...
 

Thread Starter

Nicholas

Joined Mar 24, 2005
139
Guys, thanks for your input and help so far! spinnaker, I will be looking at the files tonight(8 or 9 hours from now). Thanks for making them! I am in the lab the rest of the day :)
 

mcgyvr

Joined Oct 15, 2009
5,394
Guys, thanks for your input and help so far! spinnaker, I will be looking at the files tonight(8 or 9 hours from now). Thanks for making them! I am in the lab the rest of the day :)
Find an hour or so and sit down and actually follow the diptrace tutorial so you can learn it yourself..
Thats a dead simple schematic and you will be happier that YOU made it from scratch
Diptrace is a really easy software package to learn..
 

JohnInTX

Joined Jun 26, 2012
4,787
One thing you can do to make Eagle (or any of the others, I would think) easier to use is to collect all of the components you've successfully used into your own library. I've found that many (most?) of the standard library components are usable but can stand improvement. SMTs in particular seem to have manufacturer-dictated variances in land pattern sizes, even for 'standard' packages like 1206. I pick a good manufacturer that is stocked in depth at Mouser or Digikey, slick up the parts with the library editor and save them to my own library. I'll also include the Mouser / Digikey ordering code in the part's description. A quick schematic can then become a PCB that you can actually find real parts for.

As for degree of difficulty learning Eagle, it wasn't my first PCB layout package but even then had its challenges.
 

spinnaker

Joined Oct 29, 2009
7,830
Great advice. The wonderful thing about these applications is all of the components. The frustrating thing about these applications is all of the components! :)
 
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