In a very first course, the board should be a given. The students should first learn about parts, schematics, and soldering.
Only with that base should they later get into designing pcbs, using the schematics they made earlier.
Only with that base should they later get into designing pcbs, using the schematics they made earlier.
Imo it is a decent choice for you Jan where you can focus more on the seminar or course material than learning to drive a new ecad. Especially if you have libraries done and ready to go vs having to potentially create new libraries for a new ecad toolset.
Good luck in your new teaching career 🙂 Instructors with passion make for much better teachers based on my experience. If you need any assistance whatsoever certainly do not hesitate to reach out to me.
Cheers
Rick
Good luck in your new teaching career 🙂 Instructors with passion make for much better teachers based on my experience. If you need any assistance whatsoever certainly do not hesitate to reach out to me.
Cheers
Rick
I had just downloaded KiCad a couple of days ago, then I saw this thread. Just coincidence. With KiCad I was having some issues understanding the jargon. It is a simple PCB that takes a RaspPi 40 pin header and rotates it 90 degrees so the hat and raspPi connectors face the same direction. So I am mostly concerned with locating the mounting holes with the 40 pin connectors. I have some CAD experience so it isn't that hard to dimension out the PCB.
Perhaps you have a point, but I know (as in follow online) several people who have learned electronics, PCB layout, embedded programming, etc as adults on their own and done amazing things. This guy landed a model rocket vertically, inspired by Spacex Falcon 9. He says here he uses Eagle, I suppose that'll change if he does much more PCB work:
https://bps.space/pages/about
Having learned that way myself as a teenager, it's more than just a point.
Forcing students to learn the rather complex pcb design process as a prerequisite
to understanding parts, soldering, schematics, and circuits, is just too much to ask or expect.
Forcing students to learn the rather complex pcb design process as a prerequisite
to understanding parts, soldering, schematics, and circuits, is just too much to ask or expect.
Good point Rayma, I will take that into account.
The important step now is getting people to sign up!
Jan
The important step now is getting people to sign up!
Jan
I agree and disagree with you at the same time, lol
It's a very much double edged sword.
But it also depends on the intention of the course.
To take the MS Office as an example, the basically practical de-facto standard voor PCB's is just Altium, if you like it or not.
So I 100% agree with your feelings about this, at the same time it's actually more useful to already have experience in a program that most/a lot of companies are using anyway.
If the course is just more of a hobby course, I would just go for any free program.
I dunno, selecting an important application on whether it is free or not doesn't seem like a good career move.
If it doesn't do what you want, being free is irrelevant.
Example: all my PC's are synched and kept on exact same status, even at exact same file structure, will all the same files and updates, through OneDrive.
I pay $ 9 / month for up to 1TB space. All MS Office apps are thrown in for free.
Not all free but hard to get a better deal which ticks all those boxes.
Jan
If it doesn't do what you want, being free is irrelevant.
Example: all my PC's are synched and kept on exact same status, even at exact same file structure, will all the same files and updates, through OneDrive.
I pay $ 9 / month for up to 1TB space. All MS Office apps are thrown in for free.
Not all free but hard to get a better deal which ticks all those boxes.
Jan
Problem is also that some programs don't update coppers poors or tracks realtime.
So I just always make it a habit or refreshing everything just before I export the Gerbers and order.
Sometimes I even still scan the Gerbers visually.
That's a viable view.
I think it would be better to go broad and develop a project step by step going through all phases, albeit lightly.
That includes an introduction to simulation and an introduction to PCB layout, without immediately diving in headlong.
Jan
The unfortunate problem we still have after decades, is that there are zero standards, or even semi-standards for schematics and PCB making.
In 3D CAD applications, you can always export/import STEP files (or similar)
Granted, often you will lose quite some additional information, but it's at least workable with a tiny bit of extra effort.
Some programs can do this as well for PCB's to a little extend, but overall this is very minimal.
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You know where I learned most of PCB designing back in the day?
From those experiment proto-boards.
Not only do you really learn how to solder, but you also really have to think about how to layout your design.
Not only that, but you even see and experience that real-time.
Process, tool set capabilities, pilot ... = accuracy, time to market = success = $? 🙂
Let's see if I can end my pcb design career and not need a STEP file for pcb layout 🙂
A STEP file for pcb layout is like Lego, a STEP file for an ME, is their life blood. 🙂
Let's see if I can end my pcb design career and not need a STEP file for pcb layout 🙂
A STEP file for pcb layout is like Lego, a STEP file for an ME, is their life blood. 🙂
Jan, did you check out horizon EDA ? tutorials seem nice and simple, it`s free, and has even ODB++ export, the professional file interchange format for complete board designs. You could also try to get an invite to spend a day at VDL TBP electronics, just to see how PCB assembly is done in the real world. I once gave them a PCB design, wich I found was flawless, and it came back from them with a huge list of improvements. They do achieve error rates in the 10ppm range for large boards.