Author Topic: First board done with Circuit Studio  (Read 6251 times)

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Offline mrtnTopic starter

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First board done with Circuit Studio
« on: December 13, 2016, 07:28:45 pm »
I just received the first board I designed using Circuit Studio. It's a high power PFC booster. The board is very simple which is why I thought it would be a good way to get started.

The notable strong points of Circuit Studio for this board are that:
1. The interactive router (all manual here) works really well.
2. Making components in Circuit Studio (or Altium Designer) is super simple. You could chalk it up to experience but I haven't made a single incorrect footprint since I started using Altium a few years ago.
3. I like how you can use fills and solid regions to add copper to nets that already exist. This saves a lot of time vs. specifically defining polygons.

(see attached images)
 
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Offline technotronix

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2017, 01:48:25 pm »
Nice board. I don't have much experience in making board in Circuit Studio. What is the purpose oof this board?
 

Offline mrtnTopic starter

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2017, 12:58:28 am »
Nice board. I don't have much experience in making board in Circuit Studio. What is the purpose oof this board?

It's a PFC preregulator to boost AC line voltage to high voltage DC while creating a unity power factor.
The chip is a FAN9673 which you can read about here:
 https://www.fairchildsemi.com/products/power-management/power-factor-correction/interleaved-pfc-controllers/FAN9673.html
 

Offline mash107

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2017, 03:58:40 am »
Very nicely done. How easy was it to drop those stitching vias? Find that it's a tad difficult in PADs
 

Offline free_electron

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2017, 04:38:28 am »
Very nicely done. How easy was it to drop those stitching vias? Find that it's a tad difficult in PADs

Driven from a rule in altium. Simply draw the bounding box and altium will fill it according to your rules. You alter the bounding box at will and it will recreate them.
Professional Electron Wrangler.
Any comments, or points of view expressed, are my own and not endorsed , induced or compensated by my employer(s).
 

Offline ebclr

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2017, 06:52:01 am »
On next bath rotate C4 90 degree, processor tracks will short a lot, same for C1 and C8
« Last Edit: January 19, 2017, 06:53:43 am by ebclr »
 

Offline Monkeh

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2017, 07:13:48 am »
On next bath rotate C4 90 degree, processor tracks will short a lot, same for C1 and C8

And now you have a nice big hole smack in the middle of your high current trace.
 

Offline ebclr

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2017, 07:28:32 am »
You mean high current Path short, and with low resitance path
 

Offline Harvs

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2017, 07:54:01 pm »
Very nicely done. How easy was it to drop those stitching vias? Find that it's a tad difficult in PADs

Driven from a rule in altium. Simply draw the bounding box and altium will fill it according to your rules. You alter the bounding box at will and it will recreate them.

Interesting.  I'm guessing this is another thing that they've masked off in CS.  However, could you share what the rule is?  So I can try it in CS and see if it works. Best yet share a rule export of it.
 

Offline mrtnTopic starter

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2017, 10:00:20 pm »
On next bath rotate C4 90 degree, processor tracks will short a lot, same for C1 and C8

And now you have a nice big hole smack in the middle of your high current trace.

C1/4/8 are film caps (see image)
The large round caps are rotated the way they are so I can run the bottom side buses vertically. Yes might be better the other way.. good news is that it appears to work the way it is so far. The thin current sense tracks are differential and it doesn't make a big difference if they're an extra 25mm long.

Sorry the via stitching was just manual. I set the grid size to the via distance and just drop a bunch of vias where I want them.
 

Offline Monkeh

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Re: First board done with Circuit Studio
« Reply #10 on: January 22, 2017, 10:02:51 pm »
On next bath rotate C4 90 degree, processor tracks will short a lot, same for C1 and C8

And now you have a nice big hole smack in the middle of your high current trace.

C1/4/8 are film caps (see image)

Oh, yes, we both misread that silk.

It's fine the way it is.
 


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