Reply by Rocco Galati December 6, 20102010-12-06
Thanks for all your replys, guys.

During next days, I'll try to choose what kind of CAD software do
adopt, ma be, i'll choose Eagle because, at least, I've already used it.
I'll let you know about my next step project :)

I'll post some photos or videos about the hardware progresses.

Thanks again to all!

Rocco

Il giorno 06/dic/10, alle ore 03:12, Leon Heller ha scritto:

> On 06/12/2010 01:43, Olivier Gautherot wrote:
> >
> >
> > Another suggestion would be DesignSpark ( http://www.designspark.com/pcb
> > ). I have not used it extensively but the small test cases I ran
> were
> > pretty fast. It generates automatically the BOM with RS Components
> > references - it is free but then the authors are allowed to add some
> > self advertisement :-)
>
> It's actually a stripped-down version of Number One Systems' Easy-PC.
>
> Leon
> --
> Leon Heller
> G1HSM

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Reply by Leon Heller December 5, 20102010-12-05
On 06/12/2010 01:43, Olivier Gautherot wrote:
> Another suggestion would be DesignSpark ( http://www.designspark.com/pcb
> ). I have not used it extensively but the small test cases I ran were
> pretty fast. It generates automatically the BOM with RS Components
> references - it is free but then the authors are allowed to add some
> self advertisement :-)

It's actually a stripped-down version of Number One Systems' Easy-PC.

Leon
--
Leon Heller
G1HSM
Reply by Olivier Gautherot December 5, 20102010-12-05
Rocco,

I back Moses' preference. I've used both Eagle and Kicad and also prefer
Kicad. Not only because of price or license but also ease of use. I
currently use it for relatively complex projects (300+ components).

The one reason to prefer Eagle over Kicad would be the router (it is really
fast) but for the rest, I've had too many problems (library compatibility
issues once you reach 4.10 or 5.10, need to design symbols with physical
footprints when you implement new components, etc.) Kicad, on the other
hand, is flexible but lacks a fast autorouter (there is an integrated one
that can help on low complexity boards and the integration for an on-line
Java app). Despite that, I like the option of designing quickly a symbol to
prepare the schematics and only then spend time on the footprints and the
layout.

Another suggestion would be DesignSpark ( http://www.designspark.com/pcb ).
I have not used it extensively but the small test cases I ran were pretty
fast. It generates automatically the BOM with RS Components references - it
is free but then the authors are allowed to add some self advertisement :-)
Cheers
Olivier

On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 11:26 AM, Moses O McKnight wrote:

> I use Kicad and like it pretty well. Free open source with no board
> size limitations, and easy to use.
>
> http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>
> Moses
>

Olivier Gautherot
o...@gautherot.net
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ogautherot
Reply by Neil Johnson December 5, 20102010-12-05
Hi,

Rocco Galati wrote:
> I used EAGLE last year for a little project, do you think it's good
> for what I have to do?

I should think so:

http://www.milton.arachsys.com/nj71/img/Siel/Opera6/cpuboard.jpg

Double-sided PTH board, just within the limitations of the free
version of Eagle. Oh, and its an LPC2148.

Cheers,
Neil
--
http://www.njohnson.co.uk

Reply by Norman Felder December 5, 20102010-12-05
Hi Rocco,

Eagle is an excellent choice for this project. It's one of two packages that I
use on a day-to-day basis. Eagle would be my first choice for you out of the
packages I've used over the years. Also, if you choose to use Eagle, I can give
you very specific advice if you run into problems editing schematics or boards,
producing Gerber files, etc. If you pick another package I can tell you if
something is wrong, but I might not be able to tell you how to use the tool to
fix it.

Best regards,
Norman

________________________________
From: Rocco Galati
To: l...
Sent: Sun, December 5, 2010 5:32:03 AM
Subject: Re: [Spam][lpc2000] Re: The best way to solder an ARM processor

Thanks a lot!!

I used EAGLE last year for a little project, do you think it's good for what I
have to do?

Il giorno 05/dic/10, alle ore 13:22, gsntone ha scritto:
>
>Free CAD:
>
>http://www.cadsoftusa.com/freeware.htm.en

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Reply by Howard Hansen December 5, 20102010-12-05
The book "The Circuit Designers Companion" by Tim Williams has a 28
page chapter on printed circuit boards. It covers Board Types. Design
Riles, Board Assembly: surface mount and through hole, Surface
Protection and Sourcing Board and Artwork. This chapter will be very
helpful to a novice who wants to design a printed circuit board.

Howard
On 12/5/2010 6:14 AM, Rocco Galati wrote:
>
> Hello,
> thanks for your interest.
> Yep, one of the abilities which I want to aquire is to be able to
> design a circuit board.
> At the moment, I have some skills to do it on the paper, but I never
> used a CAD package and in these days I'm trying to find one which i
> can use for schematics and the circuit board.
> I used OrCAD but may be there is some other better CAD. I'll look for it.
>
> Few hundred euros are not a problem, but I'd like to realize the best
> solution at low cost.
> During the last months, I've bought three arduino duemilanove, a lot
> of sensors (RGB color, LCD display, temperature, humidity, PIR, etc..)
> and two ARMS which I'd like to use in order to substitute the Arduino
> circuit.
> I've also bought a JTAG Adapter in order to be able to program the ARMs.
>
> Thanks again for your help.
> Rocco.
> Il giorno 05/dic/10, alle ore 01:31, Norman Felder ha scritto:
>
>>
>> Hi Rocco,
>>
>> Thanks for putting the project into context. I think I understand
>> what you're up to now. If you don't mind, I have few more quick
>> questions:
>>
>> First, is one of the skills you're trying to pick up the ability to
>> design a circuit board? If so, do you have a particular CAD package
>> already that you want to use to capture the schematic and lay out the
>> circuit board?
>>
>> In general terms, how much money are you prepared to spend on this
>> exercise? Is a few hundred euros a major outlay or a minor expense?
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Norman
>>
>>
>> *From:*Rocco Galati >
>> *To:*l...
>> *Sent:*Sat, December 4, 2010 3:42:38 PM
>> *Subject:*Re: [lpc2000] Re: The best way to solder an ARM processor
>>
>> Hello,
>> > - what are you really trying to do? I don't mean "read sensors", I
>> mean what is the application ?
>> >- what is being sensed, where, how often, what happens to the data?
>>
>> I'd like to write an application which read values from some sensors
>> like temperature, humidity, motion detector and
>> displays it on a LCD display. I'd like to read values each seconds
>> and to update each time the values.
>> I need to send these values via bluetooth so I've bought a wt11
>> module from Bluegiga and I need to connect it to the ARM, too.
>>
>> So the main application is to read the values and to send them via
>> Bluetooth.
>>
>> I'm doing this very well on Arduino duemilanove, but now I'd like to
>> switch to the ARM because I want to develop a system all by myself;
>> in this way i'll learn a lot of things.
>> I've bought two ARM devices and this is their datasheet:
>> http://docs-europe.origin.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/0db0/0900766b80db0f69.pdf
>> and this is the photo of one of them:
>> http://lnx.mangaitalia.net/IMG_2313.jpg
>>
>> >- where are you? Private hobbyist, school, college, university, company.
>>
>> I'm in Italy and I'm a mechatronic engineer but I have no skill on
>> these devices so I'd like to receive some advices from you.
>> I'm doing this as a personal project and I don't have to do this for
>> business or for a company.
>> I just have to improve my skills.
>> I hope you can help me and suggest me the best way to realize my project.
>>
>> Il giorno 04/dic/10, alle ore 23:16, Neil Johnson ha scritto:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Rocco Galati wrote:
>>> > why? :(
>>>
>>> Interesting discussion. If I may ask you a couple of questions:
>>>
>>> - what are you really trying to do? I don't mean "read sensors", I
>>> mean what is the application ?
>>>
>>> - what is being sensed, where, how often, what happens to the data?
>>>
>>> - where are you? Private hobbyist, school, college, university,
>>> company.
>>>
>>> Answers to the above would help the audience on this list provide
>>> answers with the right context.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Neil
>>> --
>>> http://www.njohnson.co.uk
>>>
>> ----
>> Caselle da 1GB, trasmetti allegati fino a 3GB e in piu' IMAP, POP3 e
>> SMTP autenticato?GRATIS solo con Email.it
>>
>>
>> Sponsor:
>> Emailpaghe: le paghe in 3 click, veloce ed efficiente puoi averlo in
>> prova gratuita fino al 31 dicembre 2010. Cosa aspetti provalo!
>> Clicca qui
>>
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Reply by rtstofer December 5, 20102010-12-05
--- In l..., Moses O McKnight wrote:
>
> I use Kicad and like it pretty well. Free open source with no board
> size limitations, and easy to use.
>
> http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
>
> Moses

I use ExpressPCB to build my miniboards so I must use their software. It is not nearly as capable as Eagle and some of the others.

Try to find a CAD package that has the pad layouts for your chip. I have had to design my own pad layouts for ExpressPCB and it is tedious. In the end, it works.

Make sure your CAD package outputs Gerber files if you intend to have the board built by a manufacturer. ExpressPCB does NOT produce Gerber files so I am locked in to one manufacturer.

Why do I stay locked in? I have made several attempts to get started with Eagle and I just can't get up the learning curve. It is the absolute least intuitive software on the planet. Those who are willing to spend the time learn to love it. I have a short attention span and just can't quite make the climb.

As I said earlier, use the electrical design from one of the Olimex boards sold at Sparkfun. This will tell you where you need pull-up and pull-down resistors. Copy the design exactly and you will find it easier to get the board working. You would be amazed at how many new boards are missing a pull-up or pull-down resistor and the designers come here to find out why their new gadget doesn't work.

The 64 pin chip you are using shouldn't be too difficult to deal with. But you need to deal with the power/ground traces (planes) and the decoupling capacitors first. This is very important. Everything else is just running signals around to the various headers. I would put the power/ground on the bottom and leave the signals on the top layer. But that is just a starting point. I often have the ground on the bottom and the power on the top.

I am assuming you will use a commercial board house because, otherwise, you will not be able to get plated through holes (PTH). Yes, you can put short pieces of resistor leads (cut offs) through aligned holes but that is a pain.

I would still approach the project with a manufactured prototype board even if I intended to build a board later.

One thing I have done with premanufactured header boards is to design a matching board that stacks on top (or bottom). One of my eZ80 projects used a Zilog header board for the CPU and memory. I added a matching stackable board for the serial->USB ports and the compact flash interface. I now have a 50 MHz Z80 machine running the CP/M 2.0 operating system and Microsoft's M80 Fortran Compiler (stuff from '76 or so). It is about the size of a pack of cigarettes.

You could do the same thing. Use a manufactured header board with all the built-in features like JTAG and then just add another stacked board to connect the sensors. MUCH easier to build. And much more flexible. You can reuse the processor board for other projects or you can redesign just the add-on board to add more gadgets.

This group tends to focus on software. There are other Yahoo groups more appropriate for board design.

Richard

Reply by Wouter van Ooijen December 5, 20102010-12-05
> Those adapters have the problem that you can't get decoupling capacitors
> close to

For TQFP64 I have a PCB that allows relatively close placement of
decoupling C's: http://www.voti.nl/shop/p/PCB-09.html But even this
might be too far away.

--

Wouter van Ooijen

-- -------
Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
consultancy, development, PICmicro products
docent Hogeschool van Utrecht: www.voti.nl/hvu

Reply by Moses O McKnight December 5, 20102010-12-05
I use Kicad and like it pretty well. Free open source with no board
size limitations, and easy to use.

http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Moses

On Sun, 2010-12-05 at 13:32 +0100, Rocco Galati wrote:
> Thanks a lot!!
> I used EAGLE last year for a little project, do you think it's good
> for what I have to do?
>
> Il giorno 05/dic/10, alle ore 13:22, gsntone ha scritto:
>
> >
> >
> > Free CAD:
> >
> > http://www.cadsoftusa.com/freeware.htm.en
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----
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Reply by Donald H December 5, 20102010-12-05
Hello Rocco,

This list gets lots of students posting for miracles.

Your original post sounded like of those students.

You have a large project in front of you and I understand how a project like this can fail, (been there, done that).

I you would have given enough information from the beginning the kind of advice would have been different.

Good luck with your project.

don
--- In l..., Rocco Galati wrote:
>
> Hello Donald,
>
> I never said something like that.
> I have the money and I don't care how much I'll spend in the future to
> realize the project and to learn how to do it.
> I never said I will blame you if it won't work, I'm just asking for
> your help because you have skills in this area.
> I think this is a free and open group so if you aren't interested in
> my questions, why you answer to me?
>
> I don't know why you are attacking me and you are so presumptuous and
> arrogant with me.
> However, this is a photo about my actual project on arduino:
> http://lnx.mangaitalia.net/arduino.JPG
>
> In the lower left corner there is the Zilog PIR detector, on the right
> there is the Displaytech LCD 2x16 and on the upper right corner there
> are the temperature and humidity sensor.
> I use the potenziometer in order to adjust the LCD.
> Actually I use the LCD in order to display the information about the
> status sensors and if it detect a motion.
> In this photo there is the Bluegiga wt11 module because it wasn't
> connected at the moment.
>
> I've bought 6 wt11 modules and two wt41 modules from Bluegiga in order
> to test them.
>
> The ARM processors are not free, I've bought them from RS at 9 euros
> each single piece.
>
> Thanks.
> Rocco.
> Il giorno 05/dic/10, alle ore 02:46, Donald H ha scritto:
>
> > Thanks for putting this project into context.
> >
> > Rocco said " I got a free sample of the chip and I do not have the
> > money to do it right. So help me do it at all and I will blame all
> > of you if it does not work."
> >
> > Yes, I understand Rocco now.
> >
> > Good luck
> >
> > don
> >
> > PS: The clock is still running.
> >
> > --- In l..., Norman Felder
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Rocco,
> > >
> > > Thanks for putting the project into context. I think I understand
> > what you're
> > > up to now. If you don't mind, I have few more quick questions:
> > >
> > > First, is one of the skills you're trying to pick up the ability
> > to design a
> > > circuit board? If so, do you have a particular CAD package already
> > that you
> > > want to use to capture the schematic and lay out the circuit board?
> > >
> > > In general terms, how much money are you prepared to spend on this
> > exercise? Is
> > > a few hundred euros a major outlay or a minor expense?
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > > Norman
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > > From: Rocco Galati
> > > To: l...
> > > Sent: Sat, December 4, 2010 3:42:38 PM
> > > Subject: Re: [lpc2000] Re: The best way to solder an ARM processor
> > >
> > >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > > - what are you really trying to do? I don't mean "read sensors",
> > I mean what is
> > > >the application ?
> > > >- what is being sensed, where, how often, what happens to the data?
> > >
> > > I'd like to write an application which read values from some
> > sensors like
> > > temperature, humidity, motion detector and
> > > displays it on a LCD display. I'd like to read values each seconds
> > and to update
> > > each time the values.
> > > I need to send these values via bluetooth so I've bought a wt11
> > module from
> > > Bluegiga and I need to connect it to the ARM, too.
> > >
> > > So the main application is to read the values and to send them via
> > Bluetooth.
> > >
> > > I'm doing this very well on Arduino duemilanove, but now I'd like
> > to switch to
> > > the ARM because I want to develop a system all by myself; in this
> > way i'll
> > > learn a lot of things.
> > > I've bought two ARM devices and this is their datasheet:
> > > http://docs-europe.origin.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/0db0/0900766b80db0f69.pdf
> > >
> > > and this is the photo of one of them:
> > > http://lnx.mangaitalia.net/IMG_2313.jpg
> > >
> > > >- where are you? Private hobbyist, school, college, university,
> > company.
> > >
> > >
> > > I'm in Italy and I'm a mechatronic engineer but I have no skill on
> > these devices
> > > so I'd like to receive some advices from you.
> > > I'm doing this as a personal project and I don't have to do this
> > for business or
> > > for a company.
> > > I just have to improve my skills.
> > > I hope you can help me and suggest me the best way to realize my
> > project.
> > >
> > >
> > > Il giorno 04/dic/10, alle ore 23:16, Neil Johnson ha scritto:
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > >Rocco Galati wrote:
> > > >> why? :(
> > > >
> > > >Interesting discussion. If I may ask you a couple of questions:
> > > >
> > > >- what are you really trying to do? I don't mean "read sensors", I
> > > >mean what is the application ?
> > > >
> > > >- what is being sensed, where, how often, what happens to the data?
> > > >
> > > >- where are you? Private hobbyist, school, college, university,
> > > >company.
> > > >
> > > >Answers to the above would help the audience on this list provide
> > > >answers with the right context.
> > > >
> > > >Thanks,
> > > >Neil
> > > >--
> > > >http://www.njohnson.co.uk
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ----
> > > Caselle da 1GB, trasmetti allegati fino a 3GB e in piu' IMAP, POP3
> > e SMTP
> > > autenticato? GRATIS solo con Email.it
> > >
> > > Sponsor:
> > > Emailpaghe: le paghe in 3 click, veloce ed efficiente puoi averlo
> > in prova
> > > gratuita fino al 31 dicembre 2010. Cosa aspetti provalo!
> > > Clicca qui
> > >
> >
> >
>