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I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

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Re: I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

#21

Post by interfeco »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #20

> I never did this before so there was plenty to learn, from basic electronics and magnetics to high-speed signal routing. How did you learn this? As a hobbyist I found hardware to be quite impenetrable, given the hard mathematics and physics requirements. My attempts to learn this essentially degenerate to taking an informal engineering course. It quickly becomes clear that I'm years away from making something, and…

Just to be clear, I made a working prototype (and put a hyperbole in the title), I have a lot to learn still.

You can learn something practical like "embedded DisplayPort should be impedance controlled to 100 Ohms" without fully understanding the physics behind it.

AI can be very convincing. It told me to put the ESD protection as close the Ethernet connector as possible, so I put it between the port and the magnetics. This worked, but resulted in around 1% packet loss. When I moved it after the magnetics, I got 0% packet loss. This cost me a full revision, but I'd say this is the price to pay for not learning everything by the book.

Re: I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

#22

Post by qup »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #20

> I never did this before so there was plenty to learn, from basic electronics and magnetics to high-speed signal routing. How did you learn this? As a hobbyist I found hardware to be quite impenetrable, given the hard mathematics and physics requirements. My attempts to learn this essentially degenerate to taking an informal engineering course. It quickly becomes clear that I'm years away from making something, and…

Or, you could make some mistakes.

Re: I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

#23

Post by 15155 »

interfeco wrote: post #21
matheusmoreira wrote: post #20

> I never did this before so there was plenty to learn, from basic electronics and magnetics to high-speed signal routing. How did you learn this? As a hobbyist I found hardware to be quite impenetrable, given the hard mathematics and physics requirements. My attempts to learn this essentially degenerate to taking an informal engineering course. It quickly becomes clear that I'm years away from making something, and…

Just to be clear, I made a working prototype (and put a hyperbole in the title), I have a lot to learn still. You can learn something practical like "embedded DisplayPort should be impedance controlled to 100 Ohms" without fully understanding the physics behind it. AI can be very convincing. It told me to put the ESD protection as close the Ethernet connector as possible, so I put it between the port and the magnetic…

> so I put it between the port and the magnetics

For GP: this is something you would learn from a PHY manufacturer's EVK schematics and layouts. TI (especially), NXP, Microchip show correct magnetics/ESD part numbers and placement - the trickier thing here is finding an EVK that doesn't just use an integrated MagJack.

See https://www.ti.com/lit/df/snlr034/snlr034.pdf

Re: I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

#24

Post by 15155 »

greensoap wrote: post #14
dsign wrote: post #11

A bit tangential, and in the topic of nostalgia for old ways, remember when every block had a photo shop? Couldn’t we get a “PCB shop” in our bright near future? I wonder if the density of enthusiasts that need PCBs made is so low that the entire market is captured by only one or two companies based off China subject to the realities of shipping times.

JCLPCB and who? Having a board made and assembled was both great in speed and effort, and terrible in cost markup when you add tarrifs on a $50 uc at 5 board minimum.

China: PCBWay, NextPCB (hqpcb), ALLPCB, pcbx, PCBgogo

North America: OSH Park

Europe: AISLER

Re: I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

#26

Post by turkeygizzard »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #20

> I never did this before so there was plenty to learn, from basic electronics and magnetics to high-speed signal routing. How did you learn this? As a hobbyist I found hardware to be quite impenetrable, given the hard mathematics and physics requirements. My attempts to learn this essentially degenerate to taking an informal engineering course. It quickly becomes clear that I'm years away from making something, and…

I was going to say, AI has really enabled my hardware projects recently. I've found incorrect output is less common with the newest models - and they're capable of drawing decent diagrams too which can really help me sanity check some of their ideas. I've also had some success with asking it to cite sources where possible, so I get lots of useful links into robotics forums like chief delphi and similar which also help sure up the math

Re: I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

#27

Post by the__alchemist »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #20

> I never did this before so there was plenty to learn, from basic electronics and magnetics to high-speed signal routing. How did you learn this? As a hobbyist I found hardware to be quite impenetrable, given the hard mathematics and physics requirements. My attempts to learn this essentially degenerate to taking an informal engineering course. It quickly becomes clear that I'm years away from making something, and…

> As a hobbyist I found hardware to be quite impenetrable, given the hard mathematics and physics requirements.

IMO there aren't any. It's mostly about reading datasheets, and connecting pins to each other IOC those datasheets.

Maybe the physics and mathematics are more important for analog electronics or designing ASICS?

Do you have any specific projects you'd like to build? Post here and we can talk through it. And/or start by downloading KiCAD and clicking around until you understand the UI.

The programming side is mainly also reading datasheets. Instead of connecting the right pins together, you are writing a certain value to a register, as described in tables.

Re: I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

#28

Post by jagged-chisel »

websap wrote: post #25

> I use AirPlay in my home exclusively, so I needed this streamer to support that Doesn't Airplay switch you to other media on your device (e.g. Reddit, Youtube, etc) while browsing while streaming?

AirPlay doesn’t. Your iPhone might switch what app is streaming over AirPlay, but that’s not an AirPlay problem.

Re: I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

#29

Post by bobjordan »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #20

> I never did this before so there was plenty to learn, from basic electronics and magnetics to high-speed signal routing. How did you learn this? As a hobbyist I found hardware to be quite impenetrable, given the hard mathematics and physics requirements. My attempts to learn this essentially degenerate to taking an informal engineering course. It quickly becomes clear that I'm years away from making something, and…

Building something useful in a circuit design using off-the-shelf ICs and components doesn't require a very deep understanding of the theoretical basis for why it works. There's really no need to be gated by thinking that overly complex mathematics and physics concepts must be fully understood before building. Most electronic parts datasheets have example circuits and layouts that can be followed to get a working design. A lot of progress can be made just by reading the datasheet, learning how to use a tool like fusion 360 electronics, kicad, etc., to connect the parts in a schematic, lay them out on a board, generate a gerber, send it to a china PCB shop like PCBway, get the pcb, assemble/solder the parts onto it, some cases may need some firmware which AI can do a lot now, finally fire it up and see if it works. Very few calculations or theoretical knowledge needed, outside of Ohms law.

Re: I learned PCB design, 3D printing and C just to listen to music

#30

Post by peteforde »

This is really cool. I would love to switch from using the SoM I'm currently using to the Radxa CM3 but I cannot find even a single unit actually available for purchase on any of the "international" distributor options.

Can you speak to how you're sourcing these, and from where? (And would you sell me one?)

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