Easy way to learn design PCB [QUESTION]

[anker_by]

Hello my friends, i want to know what easy way to take first application for design PCB, I know there is to many to choose Freeware app, but what is the best interface for take and drawing.  (little bit annoying asking), but we need to ask for we take decisions.


Best regards.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

What are you trying to do? (what is your application)

Are you making your own boards?
If so, are you etching them or milling them?
If you are not making them, where are you buying them?

What sort of parts do you intend to use?
(What is your assembly process?)

How much do you intend to spend on all this time wise?

What sort of computer hardware do you already have?

How long to you intend to do this? (one project only, or the first of several hundred?)

Lots and lots of details and *many* decisions that all interact.


Bob

[anker_by]

Hi

What are you trying to do? (what is your application)

Are you making your own boards?
If so, are you etching them or milling them?
If you are not making them, where are you buying them?

What sort of parts do you intend to use?
(What is your assembly process?)

How much do you intend to spend on all this time wise?

What sort of computer hardware do you already have?

How long to you intend to do this? (one project only, or the first of several hundred?)

Lots and lots of details and *many* decisions that all interact.


Bob

At moment, i'm on mac for only search and work, but i want to design project, like motherboards, and other components electronics, and the specs on other computers is good CPU can be good for design PCB's, i want to know what is the best for this kind projects.

Sorry for to much questions, easy way to start this kind projects.

 - Anker_by

[anker_by]

Double Post, Sometimes I use linux and windows , multi-platforms.

- Anker_by

[uncle_bob]

Hi

What are you trying to do? (what is your application)

Are you making your own boards?
If so, are you etching them or milling them?
If you are not making them, where are you buying them?

What sort of parts do you intend to use?
(What is your assembly process?)

How much do you intend to spend on all this time wise?

What sort of computer hardware do you already have?

How long to you intend to do this? (one project only, or the first of several hundred?)

Lots and lots of details and *many* decisions that all interact.


Bob

At moment, i'm on mac for only search and work, but i want to design project, like motherboards, and other components electronics, and the specs on other computers is good CPU can be good for design PCB's, i want to know what is the best for this kind projects.

Sorry for to much questions, easy way to start this kind projects.

 - Anker_by

Hi

If your intent is to design a motherboard, then you probably need to look at professional design packages. Also consider that the first run order on a motherboard is likely to be > $15,000 for the initial half dozen or so boards. That's not including the parts on the boards, just the boards themselves.

Normally board design is somewhere down a road that looks like:

1) Get interested in electronics, read some stuff
2) Decide to buy a board to play with, do some stuff
3) Get some test gear to figure out what went wrong.
4) Need to customize the board, get some assembly tools.
5) Learn some more about what's on the board and how it works
6) Decide that there are simply to many jumpers on the board and look in to alternatives
7) Get some more flexible boards and wire them up

That is about where people then start thinking about board design.

Bob

[anker_by]

yea i will do that, little things, a good example is Raspberry Pi and Arduino, i will take a look,

- Anker_by

[anker_by]

Thats good thank you for helping me, decision with experienced people really really thank you.

- Anker_by

[uncle_bob]

Hi

Ok, one of many routes once you get to the layout stage is to decide where the boards are coming from. In some cases, the board fab has some pretty good free software that they will give you to layout the boards. In other cases, they have software that is known to work well with their process. If you get fancy enough with your software, any board can be made anywhere, that's getting a bit past "simple, easy, basic".

If you stay in the US, a batch of simple multi layer boards likely will be in the $100 to $400 range with a delivery in <= 1 week. There are a *lot* of variables. You can easily go outside that range. You can cut that down quite a bit with boards from Asia, often with a longer lead time.

One of the key issues when you layout a board is getting the components you will use into the layout package. That's where knowing your area of interest *before* picking the software is vital. Not every part is already done up in every layout package. You can spend a *lot* of time entering parts ...

Bob

[anker_by]

yea, i saw on the webpage C programming functions library thats good, now just read and takes time,

- Anker_by