PCB design courses to gain exsperience as a harware engineer.

[Ario]

Hi there

I am a new engineering graduate(BEng) working for a small company in South Africa. I have about 1 year experience. I do some embedded c programming and PCB layout work for my company. I Realize that I still have very little experience, but I would like to gain some more experience and or certification that would make me more relevant in the industry.
Any suggestions on some paid(reputable) online courses that I can enroll in and gain experience as a PCB design engineer? I have done some basic 2 layer layouts, with moderate success. So I know the basics, but would like to move a step up. There seem to be a great amount of PCB design courses for beginners, but not to much for more intermediate to advanced users. I would like to be more employable for job opportunities outside South Africa. The company I work for will never truly do more advanced hardware development, and this type of work is quite scarce in South Africa.

I would appreciate any comments and or advice.

[Kean]

One option is FEDEVEL Academy, but it is primarily targetted at Altium users
https://www.fedevel.com/

[Ario]

Hi Kean

I am considering FEDEVEL academy, I regularly follow his videos on you-tube.  I can not afford Altuim. I am more interested in the theory and calculations than the CAD software, but I suppose you will have to follow along. Some sort of certification is also important to me.
Thanks so much for your input!
 If I can not find anything else I am definitely considering FEDEVEL.

[Kean]

If you can't afford Altium and don't have access through your employer, then look at CircuitMaker which is a free cut down version and possibly sufficient to follow along with the FEDEVEL courses.
https://circuitmaker.com/

I'd actually suggest learning KiCAD may be quite a good option now that V6 is released, and there are some good resources for it.
https://www.kicad.org/help/learning-resources/

Another option is the Contextual Electronics course although it may be too basic for you.
https://contextualelectronics.com/

[Ario]

Hi Kean

I am currently using Kicad at my employer. I am excited about Kicad 6. I will have a look at circuitmaker in the meantime.
Thank you.

[horse_battery_staple_guy]

I don't know if my comment is worth jack as I'm also a newbie at these topics. But I've found that swimming through applications notes, videos and forums to be a great way to find out more about placement rules, general design, etc.

Where I'm from in Latin America, those kinds of jobs are also rare/scarce and I have no mentors, so I kind of get you. I would also think on maybe picking a project on your own that's complex / hard to do without proper understanding of layout. Maybe much higher speed circuits? Long communication stuff, radio, etc. You could then build your portfolio with that(?)

I've been going through a book on electromagnetic compatibility which is kind of cool but really hard. The one I'm using also talks about PCB layout. You could try that route if you're a self-learner.


That said, to answer your question. I would also like to know if affordable / good certs exist for that kind of thing. This one http://www.sigcon.com/Pubs/HSDDsem.html is a course from a Dr. who wrote a book on high speed digital design.

But it costs $10,000 for the whole thing. And I also have no idea if it would be worth it. Probably not..? Chances are you and I can't afford that. I don't know if maybe they'd give discounts?

[free_electron]

calculations

what calculations ? yes they exist , no they are never done (at least not by hand. far too complex )
Fedevel is good.

And learn Altium or Cadence or Mentor if you want a job in the field. The rest is slim pickings..

[josuah]

I am often tempted by learning through culture of people in the field.

What about having a look at Eric Bogatin's conferences?
And a classic of this blog, I suppose: https://odysee.com/@eevblog:7/eevblog-1323-pcb-layout-review-analysis:3

Not sure it is efficient, I am new to electronics as well, these are my 2 cents...
Enjoy!