T&L Publications

i have a few schematics i drew,,what or where or how do i find info to where i can have the
schematics plotted out to make a pc board?<p>i have my schmatics but where do i go from here to get them to a finished product?

Whose software did you use for the schematics?<p>If it comes with a PCB program use that and then send the files to whoever is going to produce the PCB's, or go to any of the sites that advertise in N&V such as 123PCB.com and download and use their proprietry software to produce a PCB.<p>If your PCB is likley to be smaller than 3*4" you can download Eagle from www.cadsoft.de or you could try Autotrax [url=http://www.autotraxeda.com,]www.autotraxeda.com,[/url] but I'm not sure how commercialy ready this is, as I haven't downloaded the most recent version.<p>Colin

Try expresspc.com They hsve an excelent program for designing pc boards from schematics. You do the layout from your schematic. They make the boards for you they are great quality boards.

www.expresspcb.com<p>Free schematic and board layout. Link schematic to board.

ok, thanx...i just have it drawn on paper right now...never used a program to do anything...
i want to start going next step farther..
this project uses about 8 / 16 pin chips and less than 20 transistors,,,and a hand full of resistors<p>i'll down load and see how things go,, thanx

i have one question about the expresspcb program..
is there a way to move the pins on a IC component
to a different location
like for instance...on a 4017 ic<p>the outputs Q0 - Q9 and pin 12 are all on one side of the ic... i'd like to be able to move
pin 12 to another location on the IC...is this possible?

You can't physically move the pin on the 4017, so if you move it on the layout, it won't work. If you need to cross wires (PC runs) use a zero ohm resistor or jumper wire. If you are having the board made commercially, runs can be made between the pins (10 mil lines). I make my own PC boards but don't go smaller than 20 Mil lines.<p>I use Autosketch from AutoDesk, it is $99. I draw the schematic and do the layout with this program. It may be a little frustrating getting started, and you will want to make your own symbols, but it does a good job for me.<p>[ November 20, 2003: Message edited by: Russ Kincaid ]</p>

Humm, I tried pcbexpress software and drew my shematic...that worked well.
I dont see how to move from schematic to PCB layout?<p>Is there a menu item I missed?<p>N9AOK

N9AOK,<p>Draw your schematic and save. Now start the pcb lay out software. Now choose the File menu and choose "Link Schematic to PCB...." Now you have to have a pcb component for every component on the schematic. The software will flag you if something is missing.

OK, well, I guess I was expecting it to automatially lay it out for me..LOL At least make sure that I make all the connections.<p>I did'nt see how that would work if it does do that. <p>I did see the "link schematic". Guess I just need to go a bit farther..or maybe I just expected too much from it.<p>Thanks,
Todd (N9AOK)

ok, guys... i did it.. i made my 1st layouts in
schematic and pcb...<p>now.. who wants to volenteer and look at what i did and tell me of any errors,,
i got no flags or warnings...
and everything looks fairly great for a 1st timer..<p>the circuit i made is a series of daisy chained
4017's to make a simple clock i had an idea for
its is almost like the one that was featured in N&V few months ago,,THE BIG BEN CLOCK, but this one is easy enough and cheap to make..but not as fancy or complicated.
my idea is still to have the rings of leds but only one led on per section... hrs. / min. / sec.<p>basically , i have 8/ 4017's daisy chained together...
U1 + U2 will be my count to 60 timebase to give me the 1Hz. clock rate i need,by sampling the AC.<p>U3 + U4 will be the seconds section (count to 60)
U5 + U6 will be the minutes section (count to 60)
U7 + U8 will be the hours section (count to 12)<p>see easy enough for a novice i think..<p>but i know a lot of you out there are thinking,,,WHY ?<p>cause i wanted too

the first check you will want to do is go to estimate cost and enter that it will tell you if thare are any layout errors.

If I were you, I would breadboard it first to be sure it works as intended. PC board are not that cheap that you want to make several.

toejam,,,no netlist errors found...i huess thats good...<p>
russ..i have breadboarded 1/2 but ran out of breadboard..lol but i belive its fine..if you like i can send you the files to peek at if you have the time to......

So what does putting in the schematic do for you?<p>Let me get this straight...you put in the schematic and then you put in the PCB layout. Then the software will automatically check to make sure you have all your connections correct?<p>N9AOK