Tag: Gerber

Voltlog #287 – Switching From Eagle To Kicad

Welcome to a new Voltlog, today I’m gonna talk a bit about my process of switching from EagleCad to Kicad. So i’ve been an EagleCAD user for years, I’ve practically learned how to do pcb layout in eagle cad so there is that emotional attachment to a piece of software because it’s what I used while developing this skill. And to be honest there wasn’t any better alternative years ago, Eagle was the first decent piece of cad software to offer a freeware license and it quickly became popular for hobbyists. It didn’t have all the bells and whistles of the expensive software like Altium or Candece but it did the job while being user friendly.

Since it quickly became popular for makers and hobbyists it also meant there was an abundance of support on the forums as well as many user generated scripts and libraries freely available. It was similar to the popularity Arduino got but it was never open source and if you needed some extra features like 4 layer layout or pcb sizes larger than 8x10cm you needed to pay for a license.

Voltlog #265 – FT232H USB to JTAG/I2C/SPI Interface With Python & PyFtdi

Welcome to a new voltlog, today we’re going to be talking about this little board which I designed and assembled myself, it’s a breakout module for the FTDI FT232H which is a usb to serial converter but with a nice twist. This particular chip from FTDI has the built-in Multi-Protocol Synchronous Serial Engine (MPSSE short) which allows you to run a variety of synchronous serial protocols like JTAG, I2C, SPI or simple bit-banging of IOs. You can imagine it can be really useful to be able to interface with a sensor over I2C or SPI straight from your computer over USB through this interface. You wouldn’t need an arduino or other controller in the middle if you plan to do some data acquisition for example.

Voltlog #262 – Is This The Future of Our Hobby?

To be honest I didn’t think we were going to have services like these available so cheap so fast. I mean yes I know pcb prices have been so low in the past couple of years that it no longer makes sense to etch your own PCBs, unless you are in a big hurry. But having smt assembly service so cheap? Soon enough it would not make sense to hand assemble these boards because it would be equally cheap to have them assembled at JLCPCB

Voltlog #235 – I Made A PCB Business Card

Welcome to a new Voltlog, today we’re going to be talking about the possibility of designing a pcb business card. So if you’re an electronics engineer who offers consulting services or even just an enthusiast and you would like to create a nice original and suggestive business card, stick around.

The idea of making a pcb business card is not new and there are many previous examples of pcb business cards, some people build them passive, others like to integrate a small battery some LEDs, maybe a microcontroller with NFC or a USB interface and generate some interaction with the user.

Maybe 7-8 years ago I first wanted to try this idea but back then, it was quite expensive to get PCBs professionally manufactured in China, first they were charging a setup fee which was usually $150 and then you would have the cost of the PCB which for 10 pcs 10 by 10cm was usually about 2-3$ per piece and then you would have the shipping cost which starting from something like $50 for the first kg via DHL. And all of this was for the standard 1.6mm FR4 with green solder mask and tin finish. If you wanted matte black soldermask and gold finish, there was an additional cost.

Voltlog #230 – Guidelines For Board Level Temperature Sensor Layout & Placement

Welcome to a new Voltlog, today I’m gonna show you some techniques that you can use when doing temperature measurements. Typically you will want to measure either the ambient temperature or the system or component temperature. Depending on one of these goals you are going to follow different design rules to achieve that. And to better illustrate the problems, I have these 3 pcbs which have exactly the same electrical circuit but with different layouts on the pcb.

The boards consist of an esp8266 and a digital temperature sensor and you might expect that since all 3 boards are placed so close together, they should all indicate the same temperature but that is not the case as we can see on this graph we are getting 3 different temperatures and only one of them is close to the actual ambient temperature measured with another thermometer, so why is that happening? Well the answer lies in the layout of the PCB and that includes component placement, copper planes and various other elements on the PCB.

Voltlog #201 – How To Generate Gerber Files and Order Your PCBs

Welcome to a new Voltlog, today I’m gonna show you how to order your pcbs from start to finish. We’re gonna start with generating the gerber files and walk you through the process up to placing your order on a pcb manufacturing service website.But before we get started I’ll take a moment to remind you that I now have a Patreon account so you can support me through Patreon to continue making more videos like this one.

The actual start might depend on the cad software that you use for designing pcb’s, in my case that’s Eagle Cad. After finishing up the design of a PCB, you will have to generate the gerber files needed to place your order. Think at these as an universal set of files, stored in a format that every pcb manufacturing facility can read and use to manufacture your pcb exactly as you designed it.

In Eagle CAD we have the CAM processor that takes care of these things, and luckily you can just load a pre-made CAM job file, that will instruct eagle how to output a complete set of gerber files. I have a custom made, voltlog CAM job file for 2 layer pcbs, I will place a link to it in the description below so you can download it. This cam job file will generate all the required gerber files for ordering your pcb, including files for the cream layer which can be used to order a steel stencil that will make assembly of surface mount components much easier.