PCB Droid

[EEVblog]

PCB Droid claims to have 270,000 users
 
http://pcbdroid.com/

Has anyone ever used this thing?
Almost 4000 reviews on the android store
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theophrast.droidpcb&hl=en&showAllReviews=true
Who's using this thing?

They have a new desktop version coming out in April.

[Warhawk]

I have not heard of it before.
PS: Their responsive webpage drives me nuts.

[SiliconWizard]

I kinda doubt the figures here as well.

Just looking at their forum - 22 users and 3 topics.
I have a hard time believing there would be so little activity on the forum with 270k+ users and 320k+ projects... Doesn't really add up, especially for a new service like this where I guess there would be a lot of questions and bug reports...

[nctnico]

And the team has only 1 developer. What happens if he leaves?

[2N3055]

It.says on site that beta will come out soon. So no users at all...

[EEVblog]

It.says on site that beta will come out soon. So no users at all...

That's the new version that does desktop too that they claim will be targeted at "professionals" (they contacted me). At present it's only a phone app. Why the hell you'd want to do PCB design in an app is beyond me. Maybe if you were so desperate with your time you need to do a few tracks while waiting at the bug stop or something.

[SiliconWizard]

Maybe if you were so desperate with your time you need to do a few tracks while waiting at the bug stop or something.

The bug stop sounds about right in this case.

[T3sl4co1l]

It.says on site that beta will come out soon. So no users at all...

That's the new version that does desktop too that they claim will be targeted at "professionals" (they contacted me). At present it's only a phone app. Why the hell you'd want to do PCB design in an app is beyond me. Maybe if you were so desperate with your time you need to do a few tracks while waiting at the bug stop or something.

I once saw a kid playing a tablet game that's essentially routing a few traces on a grid.  Didn't ask what it's called.

Tim

[Kasper]

It.says on site that beta will come out soon. So no users at all...

That's the new version that does desktop too that they claim will be targeted at "professionals" (they contacted me). At present it's only a phone app. Why the hell you'd want to do PCB design in an app is beyond me. Maybe if you were so desperate with your time you need to do a few tracks while waiting at the bug stop or something.

I once saw a kid playing a tablet game that's essentially routing a few traces on a grid.  Didn't ask what it's called.

Tim

There may be others but this is one:
Flow free
https://www.bigduckgames.com/flowfree

Used to play it a bit but it felt too much like work.

Its funny I have seen no mention of PCB or electronics or circuits in that game or on their wikipedia page.

[EEVblog]

They claim their users are all in south east asia and who "skipped the PC era".

[2N3055]

Designing PCBs on 15" CRT was not fun.
WTF kind of PCB can you make on a phone with one finger? Whatever it is, you can make it faster on protoboard with few wires..
What a joke..

[ehughes]

CAD on a mobile device is the dumbest idea I have ever heard of.

[Doctorandus_P]

I get blinded by all those flashy images and blinkenlights.
I'll just stick to a normal PC with a Mouse and Keyboard to do my PCB designs.

[Bud]

CAD on a mobile device is the dumbest idea I have ever heard of.

With a finger. "I am going to finger it" will mean " I will design this PCB".

[ebclr]

The screen of phones can be easily viewed on a 4K 75" tv, If is a good phone in 4k resolution

[Simon]

Just try using windows on a touch screen, you soon reach for the mouse again. I really can't see how you can do anything as nuanced on a phone screen projected to a larger screen or not.

[2N3055]

True story:
I have a friend who went into a heated discussion with me some time ago about how he thinks that phones and tablets will make classic PC obsolete and how they will stop making PCs because nobody will need them anymore. Him not being an technical or IT person,  I made a mistake to try to explain him few things. He persisted that he can do everything on his tablet that I can do on my PC.
Few weeks later he came to me with a fancy expensive tablet and showed me how he can do this and that.. So I invited him home and show him PCB CAD. and this, and that, explaining that those are things I do on my PC and that he can't do that on the tablet.
After few more weeks he invited me to his place to have coffee and to show me something..
When I came, he explained to me that he was thinking and that he decided that I was right that he cannot replace a PC with THAT tablet he got because it wasn't good enough. And because I showed him what I do, he went and got a good tablet that CAN replace my PC in EVERY aspect.
So we are going into his home office. And there on the desk was most expensive MS Surface with docking station, 27" monitor, keyboard, mouse....

And then he went on that I was wrong and that he proved how tablets make PC obsolete.

After I explained to him is that a computing unit, that is Intel based, runs full windows, has 27" monitor, keyboard, mouse IS full blown PC, he was little confused..
And after realizing that I payed much less for my PC + Android tablet than he paid for his "one tablet to rule them all" he was confused even more.

So yes, people are irrational..

[Simon]

ok so I am away at the moment and have with me my touch screen laptop (acer spin equivalent of a surface), yep it runs windows and everything and guess what. I was writing an email and wanted to place the cursor between 2 mispelt words, could I? No! becaune all I can do is touch the screen and that is one action, so the default is to bring up the spelling menu, and all I wanted to do was position the cursor......

Touch screens allow one action only, with a mouse you can be more precise and do so much more and you need that fo more in depth interaction.

[nctnico]

True story:
I have a friend who went into a heated discussion with me some time ago about how he thinks that phones and tablets will make classic PC obsolete and how they will stop making PCs because nobody will need them anymore. Him not being an technical or IT person,  I made a mistake to try to explain him few things.
.....- snip -
He persisted that he can do everything on his tablet that I can do on my PC.

After I explained to him is that a computing unit, that is Intel based, runs full windows, has 27" monitor, keyboard, mouse IS full blown PC, he was little confused..
And after realizing that I payed much less for my PC + Android tablet than he paid for his "one tablet to rule them all" he was confused even more.

So yes, people are irrational..

This just made me laugh. And yet I'm currently developing software on an embedded ARM platform instead of cross-compiling. Yes, that means running full blown Linux and Eclipse on an ARM development board!

[2N3055]

This just made me laugh. And yet I'm currently developing software on an embedded ARM platform instead of cross-compiling. Yes, that means running full blown Linux and Eclipse on an ARM development board!

I'm not surprised you do. Problem is not in processing power anymore. It is in user interface and chunkiness of one finger on touch screen and tablet interfaces.
They are low res and simplified and while that's fine for some (even many) uses, it is not even close to usability of "real" computer in many tasks.

I actually took Raspberry PI, connected it to monitor, keyboard, mouse and Ethernet. It was perfectly usable in Libre Office. PI 3 would be even better.
But that is with proper peripheral config. Good luck with pro photoshoping with tablet UI.. Like Simon said.

[Simon]

And how will that ARM board be interacted with ?

[Simon]

Just looked at their website, so it runs on windows and mac now. OOPs that touchscreen dream was short lived. Just another PCB tool no one asked for. I wonder if they can import/export altium libraries?

[tsman]

ok so I am away at the moment and have with me my touch screen laptop (acer spin equivalent of a surface), yep it runs windows and everything and guess what. I was writing an email and wanted to place the cursor between 2 mispelt words, could I? No! becaune all I can do is touch the screen and that is one action, so the default is to bring up the spelling menu, and all I wanted to do was position the cursor......

That doesn't sound normal. If you're getting a menu then you're holding it for too long or swiping at the same time. Single/double tap for left click. Tap and hold for right click.

Touch screens allow one action only, with a mouse you can be more precise and do so much more and you need that fo more in depth interaction.

It isn't just one action only as there are touchscreen gestures to do various things like left/right click, zoom in/out, rotation and scrolling. https://winaero.com/blog/list-touch-gestures-windows-10/ has a list of all the gestures.

Windows 8 was actually a lot more optimised for touchscreens but Microsoft tried to force it on everybody and desktop/laptop users hated it so they backtracked with the design of Windows 10. Windows 8 worked better on my Surface Pro than the latest Windows 10. You do need compatible apps though to support the larger touchscreen controls. The separate tablet mode in Windows 10 which you may need to toggle manually was their compromise over Windows 8. The convertible laptop/tablet ones usually auto switch but regular laptops with a touchscreen will need it to be toggled manually. Some devices bundle a pen for more accurate selection because of the issues with a touchscreen.

[nctnico]

And how will that ARM board be interacted with ?

With a monitor, mouse and keyboard like you would with a normal PC. 1Gbit ethernet takes care of network connectivity. A very fast micro-SD card serves as a hard drive and I must say the speed isn't bad.

[Simon]

ok so I am away at the moment and have with me my touch screen laptop (acer spin equivalent of a surface), yep it runs windows and everything and guess what. I was writing an email and wanted to place the cursor between 2 mispelt words, could I? No! becaune all I can do is touch the screen and that is one action, so the default is to bring up the spelling menu, and all I wanted to do was position the cursor......

That doesn't sound normal. If you're getting a menu then you're holding it for too long or swiping at the same time. Single/double tap for left click. Tap and hold for right click.

Touch screens allow one action only, with a mouse you can be more precise and do so much more and you need that fo more in depth interaction.

It isn't just one action only as there are touchscreen gestures to do various things like left/right click, zoom in/out, rotation and scrolling. https://winaero.com/blog/list-touch-gestures-windows-10/ has a list of all the gestures.

Windows 8 was actually a lot more optimised for touchscreens but Microsoft tried to force it on everybody and desktop/laptop users hated it so they backtracked with the design of Windows 10. Windows 8 worked better on my Surface Pro than the latest Windows 10. You do need compatible apps though to support the larger touchscreen controls. The separate tablet mode in Windows 10 which you may need to toggle manually was their compromise over Windows 8. The convertible laptop/tablet ones usually auto switch but regular laptops with a touchscreen will need it to be toggled manually. Some devices bundle a pen for more accurate selection because of the issues with a touchscreen.

That is all well and good with something like windows where your jesture is applicable to a large part of the screen. what jesture will you do on a touch screen to interact with one in dozens of tracks without affecting the others? to say that a touch screen is going to oust the mouse is naive at best.