SparkFun According to Pete #34: PCB Layout

Over the years, we at SparkFun have laid out hundreds - nay, thousands - of PCB designs. Over time, we have come up with many tips and tricks that help make our lives a bit easier. Some of them you may already know, but some may be new - so today, we wanted to share them with you in this episode of "According to Pete."
www.sparkfun.com/news/1248
Tags: ATP
Talent: Pete Dokter

[@mikedrz]

This video is awesome, this is the stuff nobody will tell you. I searched hundreds of board layout videos. They all show you how to run a trace, and that's where the video ends. All next to useless. Thank you for this!

[@pedrogonzalezgil]

Pete, it's like somehow you tuned my brain. For the last episodes, you have talked exactly about the problems I've been facing in my journey through electronics. Hughe THANKS mate!. Keep up that great work.

[@pbtubeyouser]

I've been away for a while, it's been four years since I've laid out a board. Awesome quick and dirty refresher. Thanks!

[@GENcELL2014]

There's 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, etc.. oz copper options all the way up to 200 oz!! A 20 oz board can cost $2k+, they are usually used for aerospace or military applications.

[@lexrogan2207]

Very cool!

[@tamyboy1]

thanks Pete, put more videos please, world needs you

[@grillipp502]

Great video. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot!

[@tonysicily2687]

Thank you, I learn a lot, not sure if I will ever be brave enough to try to to layout my own board, but I am certainly thinking about it, and this was very helpful.

[@rupalm8468]

Great video! So glad I found your channel! 🙏

[@curtboston]

He's talking about mils, which is not short for millimeters. A mil is 1/1000th of an inch. Mils are used in higher precision design/manufacture (like on a mill, lathe, CAD software, etc.) while still keeping the U.S. standard unit system. 'Merica

[@jonmu8140]

Wow! I learned a lot, yet have a lot to learn ....

[@matthollandsf]

Right angles only matter when it's important to control your impedance (which requires controlling your trace width). because at a right angle the width of the trace increases briefly. In a transmission line this will cause some amount of reflection, which affects signal integrity. for slow signals or short traces it doesn't matter. The usual rule of thumb is something like trace length under 1/10 the wavelength of the highest frequency of interest, highest frequency being related to the rise time (not the frequency) according to 3.5/Tr or 5/Tr. Has nothing to do with probability. (Paraphrasing Johnson's black magic book here).

[@roll86]

+matt holland Matt, you are dead right but i reckon this is a good start up for beginners like me.

[@jimmydburrell]

Good information. I would love to take it to the next step with audio grounding and signal routing. Food for thought.

[@alkopop79]

Excellent, very useful!

[@YusufAli-je5vv]

Excellent explanation of everything..

[@sahankalz5416]

Learned a lot. This video was really helpful.

[@developandplay]

This video is great. I feel like I've learned a lot. The only aspect that I disagree with is not using the auto-router. In my opinion it's a great way to figure out how to layout your components or create boards with a low amount of parts. If some of the traces are not routed perfectly you can simply rip them up and thereby perfect the auto-routers suggestion. Also at least in Eagle by using the "follow-me" feature you can ensure that your traces stay within your DRC specifications. So essentially this kind of "semi-auto"-router allows you to combine the best features of automatic and manual routing.

[@FutureInventions]

Great video! Very helpful.

[@Sembazuru]

Nice two part miniseries. Lots of good info. While not quite in the scope of this miniseries, I'd like to share a schematic trick I first saw when I got a hold of the schematic for an Amiga A500. (Also seen on A2000 and A3000 schematics, don't know if it is historically Commodore or HiToro.) One of the last pages of the schematic were all the decoupling capacitors. There was a square glyph for each and every IC with just the power pins, and the decoupling cap for each pin was attached to the relevant pin and the pins were connected to their appropriate power/ground sources. (Also keeps from cluttering up gateA of each IC with power considerations, and having to connect Vcc to Vdd to +5V to connect hidden pins...) I've been able to replicate this practice in KiCad because it doesn't force multiple gates of an IC to have the same glyph. YMMV with other EDA packages. Makes it helpful when laying out the board with a multipage schematic because I only need to reference 1 of the pages when placing (and verifying) the decoupling caps in one pass.

[@dammachines]

"This thing will oscillate a lot... like a thing that oscillates a lot..."

[@AmitsLife]

Thank you

[@yugmlif]

Thanks this explains it. I thought I was missing something. I'm use to metric so dealing with imperial throws me, especially at that accuracy. My Dads an old school engineer in the UK and we are always trying to convert it. Makes sense now cheers.

[@MartijnvandeStreek]

A thing that oscillates a lot... an ocelot?

[@strictnonconformist7369]

Their purring frequency has a wide variation depending on their purrents.

[@avibank]

From @17:00 was most helpful to me. Thanks.

[@IzzyMonroe]

Aww yeee...thank you!

[@yugmlif]

Makes sense now cheers.

[@AndrewStottisTheIndiWerWlf]

EFFFFFFFFFFF!! How did I not know you guys were in logan! I live maybe 45 minutes from there.

[@Sumida2]

YES!

[@JaimewissnerCreate]

"Coffee"

[@SoroushRabiei]

Really helpful video. Thanks a lot BTW why he is wearing a cap indoor?

[@edriskeyam726]

What about GND plane on top and bottom layer then trace the VCC lines and data?

[@jamiekosky6580]

the beer mug is it only for USA or The UK?

[@marv4895]

16:53 .. but if I feed the powerpins under the microcontroller like that, the decouple caps would be in the trace BEHIND the powerinput-pin of the microcontroller .. so like VCC---->Pin--->Cap ... that way the cap wouldnt really help to filter the current before it gets into the controller.. .. it has to be VCC----Cap---Pin .... at least thats what i learned. so from unter the chip, if the chip is on top, you could route like that on bottom, make your cross and route to outside of the package area, via to top, then route to cap and then route to pin

[@marv4895]

same problem @ 21:25

[@wueric5153]

useful!

[@rpcelectronics]

Search RPC Electronics Eagle Tutorials for a video series to get you started on EagleCAD.

[@SELG88]

SO IS CIRCUITWIZARD WHICH IS AN AUTOROUTER BAD?

[@Tutoelectro1]

KiCad is the way to go if you want a free/hobbists CAD

[@legoscratch]

TutoElectro not anymore, EasyEDA!

[@frank215m]

I stopped counting the number of times you pushed your glasses back on your face at 50. On the bright side, you could make a drinking game out of it.

[@suestephens8010]

Brill vid. thanks. Sue S

[@scruffy0mogwai]

This is for everyone, including Pete: Q: Just out of curiosity, what Capture/Board software do you use? FYI: I am running Eagle 6 Freeware on Linux

[@pkilo2811]

Kicad 5 is awesome and is open source too

[@tilaksai420]

Me (with single layer board): Hold my beer

[@ignouliaignoulia7545]

Please make a video on dmx controlle..

[@yugmlif]

Does any one think that his conversion to metric is off... he say "10mm tracers" which 0.39inch .... which is really thick, although i am a newbie to electronics??

[@indyzd]

He said 10 mil, not mm, 10 mil = 0.010" 1 mil = 1/1000 of an inch

[@brycetoob]

Pete said 10 *mil* traces, not millimetre. 1 mil = 1/1000 inches or about 0.25 mm.

[@jamesblack8763]

great music at the start (sarcasm)

[@SELG88]

for coffe : yea sure

[@alibehrouz9833]

JEJUNE

[@sebve9399]

how about using SI for the non-Americans here?

[@mb106429]

oscillates like a ......

[@VarunVh2014]

He act like brother of jonnydep -----> Captain Jack Sparrow :D

[@Bob220V]

Dont use an auto router ..... auta ata auata ataah

[@vsyncci]

do your math again

[@WilsonJReyes]

Victoria

[@Ratkill]

The "NO NO NO DONT DO DIS" s peak and distort pretty awful

[@johnjoyce]

Great but too long. Break it up.

[@TheGreenFishingLight]

Would be better without the drama queen act.