Intro to modern hardware prototyping

Post by akiselev » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 11:21 PM UTC

wgj wrote: post #14

krapht wrote: post #4

Eh, Eagle in this day in age? If you're going cheap, I'd stick with KiCAD. It's unintuitive, like GIMP vs Photoshop, but gets the job done with no restrictions on functionality. I've also heard decent things about CircuitMaker, but never used it. If you have any academic links at all though, or don't mind piracy, I'd grab a student edition of Altium Designer. Solidworks too if you can get it for mechanical modeling.…

The team at CERN has made big improvements to KiCad, including the push and shove router: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCG4daPvuVI Another good reason to think about KiCad is if you care about open formats (vs. Altium for example.) CERN's own statement [1]: "We think that KiCad can do to PCB design what the gcc compiler did to software: ensure there are no artificial barriers to sharing so that design and developm…

Post by jpm_sd » Tue, Jul 12, 2016, 11:26 PM UTC

akiselev wrote: post #30

krapht wrote: post #4

Eh, Eagle in this day in age? If you're going cheap, I'd stick with KiCAD. It's unintuitive, like GIMP vs Photoshop, but gets the job done with no restrictions on functionality. I've also heard decent things about CircuitMaker, but never used it. If you have any academic links at all though, or don't mind piracy, I'd grab a student edition of Altium Designer. Solidworks too if you can get it for mechanical modeling.…

I'm very much against software piracy but if you're starting out in electrical engineering, you are doing an absolute disservice by not using a pirated version of Altium. Not only is it basically the industry standard (Cadence, Orcad, etc are mostly propped up by legacy clients, especially in aerospace and defence) but its interface and features are leaps and bounds beyond anything else. Pretty much all ECAD software…

Post by DanBC » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 12:12 AM UTC

impostervt wrote: post #24

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That and because the vast majority of products can use a standard, off the shelf enclosure. Problem is that many of the new product designers don't come from a hardware background and either aren't aware of the huge scope of what you can buy (and get modified cheaply) off the shelf, or they think that their product must have a fully custom enclosure. One of the benefits of having a traditional engineering education a…

Is there some way to find "of the shelf" enclosures online?

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 12:58 AM UTC

impostervt wrote: post #24

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That and because the vast majority of products can use a standard, off the shelf enclosure. Problem is that many of the new product designers don't come from a hardware background and either aren't aware of the huge scope of what you can buy (and get modified cheaply) off the shelf, or they think that their product must have a fully custom enclosure. One of the benefits of having a traditional engineering education a…

Is there some way to find "of the shelf" enclosures online?

Post by crshults » Wed, Jul 13, 2016, 2:07 AM UTC

Xunxi wrote: post #38

krapht wrote: post #4

Eh, Eagle in this day in age? If you're going cheap, I'd stick with KiCAD. It's unintuitive, like GIMP vs Photoshop, but gets the job done with no restrictions on functionality. I've also heard decent things about CircuitMaker, but never used it. If you have any academic links at all though, or don't mind piracy, I'd grab a student edition of Altium Designer. Solidworks too if you can get it for mechanical modeling.…

What are some of the reputable "small board-houses"? Any recommendations?