propa
Well-known member
I've made a schematic for a project, I'm happy Ive been able to get to this stage, although that I'm not even sure works or will work. I've tried to route a version of it semi-successfully (as long as the board is large). And I've comically attempted a small version; unsuccessfully.
Does anyone on this forum have a knack with schematics or board design/layout? Any words of wisdom for someone starting out on this voyage?
The things annoying me so far in shrinkifying this project is knowing the right package size for components ie 402/603/0805 or whatever, I know some are too small to even handle without adequate equipment, I wonder what the smallest package size I can reliably use is. The two regulators 5v and 3.3v take up alot of space, I've used two 317's that seem massive even with the SOT (I think) package.
The other thing I can't workout is how on some Arduino circuits each side of the Atmel chip has a 5V and ground, I don't understand how they've broken out those pins or changed their functions, would make routing simpler if I could access the 5V or ground from any side of the chip.
So the schematic creation isn't the hard part (dammit), routing is a next level ball ache! What's the best approach, do you start with ground plane then route the rest, is there any methods like work from right to left or outermost to innermost? Or even placement before you start routing, are these just skills that take years to develop? Are there any ways to learn best practice other than trial and error/experimentation?
This was my attempt from yesterday:
I had to significantly strip the schematic back to basically nothing to even be able to route that!
And just for comic effect (so you can laugh at how crazy I am) this is the ambition or end goal:
Any thoughts feedback welcome, even if it's just "you're mental, it's not going to work"; I need a ground plane
Does anyone on this forum have a knack with schematics or board design/layout? Any words of wisdom for someone starting out on this voyage?
The things annoying me so far in shrinkifying this project is knowing the right package size for components ie 402/603/0805 or whatever, I know some are too small to even handle without adequate equipment, I wonder what the smallest package size I can reliably use is. The two regulators 5v and 3.3v take up alot of space, I've used two 317's that seem massive even with the SOT (I think) package.
The other thing I can't workout is how on some Arduino circuits each side of the Atmel chip has a 5V and ground, I don't understand how they've broken out those pins or changed their functions, would make routing simpler if I could access the 5V or ground from any side of the chip.
So the schematic creation isn't the hard part (dammit), routing is a next level ball ache! What's the best approach, do you start with ground plane then route the rest, is there any methods like work from right to left or outermost to innermost? Or even placement before you start routing, are these just skills that take years to develop? Are there any ways to learn best practice other than trial and error/experimentation?
This was my attempt from yesterday:
I had to significantly strip the schematic back to basically nothing to even be able to route that!
And just for comic effect (so you can laugh at how crazy I am) this is the ambition or end goal:
Any thoughts feedback welcome, even if it's just "you're mental, it's not going to work"; I need a ground plane