Author Topic: PCB to Schematic  (Read 916 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline AndbroTopic starter

  • Regular Contributor
  • *
  • Posts: 121
PCB to Schematic
« on: May 18, 2020, 05:25:28 pm »
Hi,


From a pcb, I want to make the diagram. I have print my PCB with my printer. From this picture, is there any software that can transfer the layer copper side to the components side ? Like if the PCB was transparent.

Thank
 

Offline RoGeorge

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7012
  • Country: ro
Re: PCB to Schematic
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2020, 05:51:47 pm »
No.
 
The following users thanked this post: Bassman59

Offline golden_labels

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1473
  • Country: pl
Re: PCB to Schematic
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2020, 05:54:27 pm »
Keywords to search for:
  • PCB tracing
  • PCB reverse-engineering
There are even companies that will do that for you, including cloning the whole design if needed.

If you need an inexpensive, hobbyist solution and your PCB is simple — and I assume it is if it’s printed by you — you can do that in any graphics program. You haven’t said what operating system you are using, but for Linux you can use either Gimp (reverse-engineering) or Inkscape (reverse-engineering and producing vector output). They should also work for some other desktop/server operating systems, like FreeBSD, MacOS or Windows.

If you till have Gerbers, you may use KiCAD (which also works on multiple platforms) and its gerbview tool. It has an “Export to pcbnew” option. However the results may vary and of course you are missing a lot of information, because gerber is more or less just a vector image.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2020, 05:56:27 pm by golden_labels »
People imagine AI as T1000. What we got so far is glorified T9.
 

Offline schmitt trigger

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2431
  • Country: mx
Re: PCB to Schematic
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2020, 06:01:03 pm »
What I have done when confronted with such a problem, and I don't have the native files, what I have done I take an image of the upper layer and color it red, the bottom layer, color it green, and the silkscreen color it black.

I then open up all images in Photoshop or Gimp, and attach them as, well, layers.

Both programs allow you to control the transparency of each layer and thus is fairly straightforward to follow the traces in a two layer board.

 

Offline Wimberleytech

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 1134
  • Country: us
Re: PCB to Schematic
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2020, 06:16:55 pm »
Your question is a little cryptic.  Here is what I think you have:
1) an image of a single sided pcb, copper side.
2) you want to print this using transfer paper.  You want to transfer the image from the transfer paper to a copper-clad sheet using heat transfer
3) you want to etch the image you transferred.

Your problem is that the result is mirror of where you started.

Solution.  Using graphic software (pick your favorite), take the image and flip it using the flip tool.

Then perform the steps above.

But...again...I am guessing about your problem.
 

Offline TomS_

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 854
  • Country: gb
Re: PCB to Schematic
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2020, 03:22:42 pm »
Hi,


From a pcb, I want to make the diagram. I have print my PCB with my printer. From this picture, is there any software that can transfer the layer copper side to the components side ? Like if the PCB was transparent.

Thank

I dont know of anything out of the box that will do it, but Im not exactly an encyclopaedia of software titles, but you can do it manually in a couple of steps:

1. Take a picture of each side

2. Flip the bottom image horizontally

3. Import images as layers into some graphics software, and adjust transparency/aspect/stretch/etc to overlay and align the copper side to the component side

It may require a bit of fiddling with various settings for each layer to get the exact result you want.
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf