Schematic Tips & Tricks - Phil's Lab #62

Schematic tips and tricks to improve legibility, clarity, and usefulness. Tool-independent techniques but shown in Altium Designer, as well as showing things not do featuring a 'commercial' schematic.
Mixed-signal hardware design course: phils-lab-shop.fedevel.education
[SUPPORT]
Free trial of Altium Designer: www.altium.com/yt/philslab
Patreon: / phils94
[LINKS]
GitHub: github.com/pms67
[TIMESTAMPS]
00:00 Introduction
00:31 Altium Designer Free Trial
00:55 Sectioning
02:35 Title Block
03:14 Text and Calculations
04:17 Symbols
05:20 Crossings
06:17 Net Labels
07:02 Horizontal Text
07:19 Power and Ground Direction
07:38 Junctions
08:20 Overlapping Text
08:38 Component Order and Placement
10:22 Colours
10:56 Annotation
11:26 What not to do...
ID: QIBvbJtYjWuHiTG0uCoK

[@agriculex3464]

Some of the critiques you gave on schematics from ST are very relatable to me! It boggles me how some of the worlds biggest companies could produce schematics at this level of quality and clarity.

[@PhilsLab]

Completely agree, it's astounding sometimes what companies release for the public to use/see.

[@Piccodon]

The bigger the company the more "wrong" stuff you will see. TI has obviously gone thru generations of standards, their document naming was apparently done my some autistic.

[@cavemaneca]

@@PhilsLab it's even worse with companies that only release documents confidentially. You don't have anyone else to ask when their evaluation board design doesn't make sense and the datasheet doesn't explain it.

[@dancollins1012]

Very much support Phil's comment around showing calcs for analogue electronics values - makes a peer review much easier, and helps later on when revisiting the project

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Dan - completely agree!

[@crackerdeadmachin8743]

Thank you for your videos, as an EE student they provide some really great practical tips that I rarely hear at school !

[@PhilsLab]

I'm glad to hear that - thank you for watching!

[@azimyth1542]

I've been doing schematic capture and layout for a few years now, and some of your organizational tips are absolutely brilliant. This is going to make my life a lot easier, thank you!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for watching!

[@xyz6106]

You videos are one fo the best for begginers. I've been sharing it to people starting out Altium adn PCB designing. As always, amazing explaination. Can't wait for the PCB design tips.

[@AhmadAsmndr]

Thank you very much. I am learning every day something new and helpful from you. Vielen Dank!

[@mohamedabdalla-es6ll]

Thank you very much, Phils. I always find what I have forgotten in your Videos. Thank you from the bottom heart. 🖐🖐🖐

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Mohamed!

[@awuk3468]

Neat list of what to concentrate on, one of the reasons I love Altium is the fact it has all of this built in, I use KICAD at home and half of the stuff isn't in there, but it's fine for the price! I can't afford Altium for home use, but I use Altium for work and it does make things a lot simpler. Thanks for the video.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks! Yes, exactly - KiCad is definitely great for being free but once you've used Altium, to me at least, there's no going back.

[@wyattr7982]

@@PhilsLab The biggest thing I like in Altium over KiCad is the 'component' concept, especially for a production environment where you could have to manage hundreds or thousands of different part numbers. For things like resistors you may only have a handful of different symbols and footprints, but hundreds of different unique parts. The component as a bucket for holding the symbol, footprint, and parameters of the physical device makes it easy to create a new component representing that specific device (and alternates) without having to add a new symbol.

[@kyle494]

Altium is awesome. The pricing per month is just wayyyy out of the ballpark for a hobbyist or heck even small startups.

[@awuk3468]

@@PhilsLab I wish there weren't for me, but I can't justify the cost of Altium, certainly not for home use, KiCAD although development not as fast as some might hope, is getting better with every release.

[@selenium-ai]

@@wyattr7982 Agreed. DipTrace also has the concept of Component and is 1/20th the cost of Altium (and there is also a usable free version). It also has hierarchical groupings of components on a sheet that can be used as a block on any other sheet. Far superior to KiCAD.

[@eis3nheim]

Top-notch quality content. Thank you.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for watching!

[@electronix6898]

Great video for a beginner like me. I come from a software / operating systems background (undergrad degree was in CE) so I've always been a bit peeved at my lack of hardware knowledge in my undergrad. I learned some basic circuitry stuff but creating a schematic, a PCB, soldering, we were never taught those things and I aim on fixing that.

[@johnstephenson4428]

Very informative video, as always, thanks for your videos!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, John!

[@vincemcman4086]

Your timing is impeccable

[@PhilsLab]

Glad to hear that!

[@skrunsthestreets]

Any possibility of touching on ports vs. nets, I don't see them that often in your videos so just wondering if you ever use them.

[@skrunsthestreets]

I'm hoping to bump this so Phil sees this.

[@gregwoolley]

Thank you, very helpful!

[@andymouse]

Great tips !...cheers.

[@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials]

Happily I see I'm not the only one to work in this way. Somebody made me feel guilty to be down at this level of clarity saying "less is enough. Don't waste yor time". Thank you for this video.

[@7alfatech860]

Thanks for these common sense tips, which are ignored by too many. Appreciate your content as always.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks - yes, basically just comes down to common sense, as you say.

[@AndrewKiethBoggs]

Thanks for the fantastic tips, Phil. Just now entering industry as a recent grad and realizing how little I know. Hoping to leverage your knowledge and supporting you in some way like patreon soon.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Andrew! I'm still learning every day as well.

[@jonathanfulcher602]

Great content!

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Jonathan!

[@t1d100]

Good info. Thank you.

[@thenextproblem8001]

Awesome mate! I find myself searching for where the hell is this random net goes... I will try to organize tightly and rightly 👌

[@Bianchi77]

Nice info, thanks :)

[@ArnabMYT]

Thank you for this

[@MAYDAYDEEJAY]

This is the well awaited video, from I hope a series about audio analysis! The APx555 is using AK5394A for the hi-res ADC and the AD7760 for the hi-speed ADC and is achieving around -125dB of THD+N. I can't remember of top of my head what front end is used in my DscopeIII, but the results are around -118dB of THD+N. Please keep sharing this project as it's particularly of interest to me.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Mark! Yeah, the APx555 and co. instruments have some pretty neat ICs inside. The plan for the 'ZettDSP' is far lower cost - essentially an affordable 'advanced-hobbyist' grade version of those instruments.

[@MAYDAYDEEJAY]

@@PhilsLab can not wait more videos from this series! Please let me know if I can by of any help, I can make a short video for You of the DscopeIII hardware, send some pictures of the internals, some pictures of APx and also I have access to lots of Dewesoft and Dewetron hardware, which in turn, as for top brand DAQ systems, they have some neat hardware on the front end as well...

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks a lot, Mark. I'd actually be very interested if you have pictures of the internal hardware of those units! Could you please send them to [e-mail] - thanks :)

[@davidhildebrandt4891]

Hey Phil, thanks for the very informative video. I have one question though: When using subschematics as much as you do I find it way less practical to use the net highlighting tool to check, if every connection is correct or if I made any mistakes. What is your procedure to check if your connections are correct, besides the ERC?

[@BLOitouP]

Great Video! I will definitely will be using the guidelines with my current project. Would you be willing to make a video on how you deal with Schlib's, Pcblib's and integrated libraries? It would be also great to know how you source part libraries and work effectively with them.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! Yeah, SCHlibs/PCBlibs definitely warrant a video of their own. Will probably make a video on that in the future.

[@normansabin7207]

Bro, you literally work at Xilinx?? Yea, imma need to sub. Good lookin out homie, this channel is so dope!

[@MSaifUlislamBhatti]

Very useful tips

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks a lot!

[@Cannabic]

Hi Phil, I used to add Footprint, Voltage, Dielectric and other parameters if necessary to the schematic. Also manufacturer logos in svg format to ICs

[@voytechj]

Dot in 4-way connection can disappear when schematic is scaled down. Printed schematic in paper after n-photocopy can dissolve dot connection as well, so it is safe not to use that type of connection.

[@yellowcrescent]

Nice points. I have def been guilty of pointing power nets whichever way is convenient on dense analog or power sections. Which way would you point a negative power net label-- up or down? I have seen it done both ways, so am curious. I usually try to point them down since I think it makes more sense.

[@_a_x_s_]

Great tips. They are really good practices in design. Unconnected crossing is very useful, especially when you try to print it. Colour highlight of wire is a neat solution to determine the signal groups. I do not know why KiCad does not support those features while I think there must be plugins achieving those.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! I'm not sure but as you say, maybe someone has come up with a KiCad plug-in.

[@sudheerkumar5966]

Very very good

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks!

[@gabrieldamian226]

Wow this makes me realise I really didn't learn much in my EE degree 😅 But super awesome video, thank you! I am catching up in my professional skills 😃

[@PhilsLab]

Hadn’t nothing on this either in my EE degree I’m afraid :(

[@elecengguide]

Same here man !!! Phils lab and Robert farnec are the fuckin best !!! 👌

[@jamesttol]

Great video Phil. I'm more excited to see the zettDSP than these tips and tricks though! What's the plan for the hardware? open source or closed? I've always wanted to build an audio analyser. Cheers,

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, James. Haven't really thought too much about that yet as it's more of a personal project right now. Schematics should be open-source :)

[@subhodipdas652]

As you mentioned at 7:02 that every text must be Horizontal, is there a way to rotate the values & parameters of components horizontally altogether?

[@alexevivi]

You mentioned in another video you may release another course. Do you have a time frame?

[@PhilsLab]

I'm still waiting for the boards to come back from manufacturing, then testing, and then I'll start making the course. So probably end of this year, beginning of next year.

[@AbinayaS-gg6pp]

any trail version is there

[@msanterre]

Would you be open to also making a course on advanced PCB design (FPGA, ARM chips) using KiCAD? I don't have Altium since it's too pricey for hobbyists, but I'm super interested in designing PCBs that can support higher-powered chips for AI at the edge.

[@PhilsLab]

I'm afraid I won't be using KiCad for more advanced PCB designs, simply because - in my eyes - there are quite a few functions/features missing. However, the course will otherwise be pretty much tool-agnostic, so most people (regardless of the tool their using) should be able to follow along.

[@doughboydad9036]

Good explanation :-) PCB next?

[@PhilsLab]

PCB definitely in a future video :)

[@iunderstand118]

Unable to find a + bounded by a circle that needs to be there +VDC & -VDC. Help urgent please!

[@douggale5962]

I think the "decoupling capacitor floating in space" thing is tolerable, as long as there is no ambiguity, and that page has little enough on it to make its purpose obvious. I agree though, I have seen FPGA project schematics that just have a whole page of random decoupling capacitors. That's ridiculous.

[@korndawgboys4jesus130]

On average, how much time does schematic designing take? I guess it depends on experience & software

[@PhilsLab]

Really depends on the project. The schematic for my latest Zynq board took about two weeks (then again, this is a personal/side-project).

[@masterfixgr]

I mostly do reverse engineering and I find it easier to have symbols laid out like the actual pinout of the device. Apart from that great info and suggestions.

[@GalvayraPHX]

These videos always leave me a bit conflicted - this sort of advice is the most valuable for beginners/hobbyists but which hobbyist is willing and/or able to pay 300 euro per month for altium designer...Especially recently altium seems to have intensified their marketing on various electronics channels. And no, I don't think a time limited "free trial" helps. A lot of the advice is general and can be applied to other tools like KiCad. I guess I'm just sad to see the progression from free tools to, well, altium-priced tools ;)

[@theonlyari]

It seems that eval boards often have some of the absolute worst schematics in the universe. I dont know why. Also, i wish Altium would make it easier to change the colors of schematics. The default template is absolutely atrocious. Im not sure which is worse, Yellow/Maroon components, yellow and bright green block diagrams, or the Times New Roman font which makes me feel like i am reading a questionable Chinese website. I realize these can all be changed, but its extremely labor (spelled correctly) intensive.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching :)

[@abdurrahmanyaman5700]

You are ungrateful, they put those labels sideways because they want you to exercise your neck.

[@PhilsLab]

Exactly :)