Is anyone really acquainted with Eagle software?

Thread Starter

diebog

Joined Mar 23, 2013
223
I downloaded eagle software to try and make a simple board for a project I am working on but after spending a few hours I still got nowhere. So I figured I would ask if anyone had some free time and wanted to mock up this schematic below to eagle software so I can print it out and make my own pcb. I will only be making one of these. I was thinking of using through hole components for the TR and resistors. And a surface mount usb connector. It can be mini or normal size. Whatever fits. And the oscillator on pin 27 and 28 can be eliminated as the HX rev D PL2303 has a built in oscillator.



Thanks

Jeremy
 

Thread Starter

diebog

Joined Mar 23, 2013
223
Here is what I came up with. It shows a bunch of errors but I cant figure out what I am doing wrong. Maybe someone could clean it up? I tried following the schematic, but one main problem was there was only the PL2303 older chip layout which has almost the same pinouts as the PL2303HX rev.D chip. I had to switch from using 21 as GND and used 18 instead. 7,25 and 18 are GND on the rev.D chip. So I have no clue what I am doing wrong here. Please help!
USB.png
 

Thread Starter

diebog

Joined Mar 23, 2013
223
Should I ask on a different forum? I thought there would be some one here that use this program daily and could tell me what I am doing wrong?
 

pwdixon

Joined Oct 11, 2012
488
Without the eagle files or the error list I'm not sure how anyone could answer this one. Your schematic doesn't look particularly wrong but eagle throws errors that can confuse sometimes.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,841
Post some of the error messages.

Another alternative is to create the PCB layout without a schematic using only wires and pads. You can't use the autorouter, but your circuit doesn't have many components.
 

Thread Starter

diebog

Joined Mar 23, 2013
223
I was hoping to find someone that knows this program in and out and could perhaps create the schematic/board for me? There are only a few components here, so it should be easy I would think?
 

pwdixon

Joined Oct 11, 2012
488
I was hoping to find someone that knows this program in and out and could perhaps create the schematic/board for me? There are only a few components here, so it should be easy I would think?
Ah, there's the problem. You ask for help but don't give enough info for anyone to sensibly give any help but really what you want is someone to do it for you. That's not really the way this forum works I'm afraid. I could easily do this for you but you then wouldn't learn anything other than to ask for the next guy to do something for you, as they say "give an man a fish.....but give a man a net and he'll eat for life".
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,841
I was hoping to find someone that knows this program in and out and could perhaps create the schematic/board for me? There are only a few components here, so it should be easy I would think?
You're on the wrong forum. People on this one are here to help people solve their problems, not do their work for them...
 

Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
14,280
There are so few parts to your circuit you could just build it on strip-board. The PL2303 chip could be mounted dead-bug style.
 

Thread Starter

diebog

Joined Mar 23, 2013
223
I'm really not that type of person wanting others to do things for me. Usually its the other way around. I just don't see myself making my own PCB's in near future and thought it would be real easy for someone who uses this program allot to make a quick schematic. I spent many hours reading the help guides and gave it a good try, but there was so many errors I just had no idea where to start. I need to get this going so that's why I asked that. I know if I spent more time and asked questions about the errors I could figure it out, I guess I was just looking for a quick fix. So forgive me If I came across as such. I was not my intent.

I bought some breakout boards for the two chips and was just going to generically piece everything together and try it out to make sure it works. Then maybe get a pcb made.


As far as getting a pcb made, I know its not really cost effective to have 1 board made, what do most do when they need just a one off type deal? I was thinking maybe a 2 sided board and using a piece of wire to make the via connections. Or is there a better way? Anyone know a ball park figure to have one of these boards made once I complete the board in Eagle?

One question I had on the schematic I posted, on the PL2303HX chip, pin 17 is the 3.3v out from internal regulator, pin 4 is the power pin for the serial port signals and it says when the serial port is 3.3v this should be 3.3 volts. So is the schematic showing these two connected or is it just showing both are at 3.3v?
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,841
As far as getting a pcb made, I know its not really cost effective to have 1 board made, what do most do when they need just a one off type deal? I was thinking maybe a 2 sided board and using a piece of wire to make the via connections. Or is there a better way? Anyone know a ball park figure to have one of these boards made once I complete the board in Eagle?
For one-off, I do a single sided layout and make a PCB using the toner transfer method. For commercial boards, oshpark.com charges $5/sq inch for 3 copies of the same double sided board.
 

Thread Starter

diebog

Joined Mar 23, 2013
223
I was thinking of doing the toner transfer method but when I ran the auto trace option, to many wires were crossing and using via's were the only way I could get it to go 100%. I tried flip flopping stuff around and it just seemed no matter what I did, more than 1 wire was crossing. Im sure I was doing something wrong on this portion of the software as well. I was looking for a "magical" auto arrange button that would configure the components the most effective way possible. But I don't think it exists. That would be pretty cool. Choose one layer as the option and press go and let it move stuff around till it fit. There are so many configurations on even something as simple as this one I am working on, each component can be rotated 360 deg making options endless. I guess when I get to that part I will have to play around with the configuration. I did think it was pretty cool how you can left click and rotate the component and the air wires stay attached so you have an idea what needs to go where.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,841
There are no shortcuts to a "good" layout. The schematic and rats nest give me clues as to where components should be placed. I don't use the autorouter much. I'm slower, but I always achieve 100% route completion and, IMO, the routing looks nicer.

I strive for single sided routing because I haven't perfected registration for double sided boards, and use the component side for wire jumpers.
 

Thread Starter

diebog

Joined Mar 23, 2013
223
So does anyone have an idea about the question I asked on the schematic above? Pins 17 and 4, are they showing that they need to be connected together, or is it just saying both of these are 3.3v?

Also, there are allot of unused pins on this PL chip, I read on some other threads that any unused pins should be grounded. Is this necessary for the chip to function properly? It they don't need to be grounded, do all 3 pins that are ground need to be grounded, or just one?
Pl2303 pinout.png
 

Eric Binkerd

Joined Jun 18, 2015
19
When you run the auto route feature, you can select one side. In the first popup on the left side you will see two drop down options. The top one is for the top layer, the bottom is for the bottom layer. Set the bottom to none, or something to that nature. This will force the auto router to only route on the top layer. Another option is using OSHpark.com and doing a 2 layer board. They are a very cheap alternative to making your own. And in my experience with toner transfer, you need some costly equipment for it to work properly.

As for advice with Eagle, practice, practice, practice. Work on a smaller circuit, then rework it, then make it smaller, then change the packages, then make ground planes, then make trace size changes.... It takes practice in order to master a program like Eagle. I started out just like you less than a year ago, and I am no where near competent (by engineering standards) in PCB layout design.

As for your question about the unused pins. Unused inputs should be ground if it is a non inverted input, otherwise it needs to be tied to 5v. In other words, you need to reference the chips data sheet to see what effect those inputs have and determine if the ship needs to see gnd or V+ in order to function as you need it to. For unused outputs, leave them disconnected from any circuit on the board (floating).
 

Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
14,280
So is the schematic showing these two connected or is it just showing both are at 3.3v?
They are connected, so both are at 3.3V. Note there is a decoupling cap on this supply (though its value isn't specified on the schematic).
 

Thread Starter

diebog

Joined Mar 23, 2013
223
Are you talking about the one on pin 17 or pin 20? Looks like I need 2 caps correct? As for the value, how important is it to have the right size? Anything over 5v or so and maybe a 1uf?
 
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