Comments on: Last Stage of Circuit Board Design: Correcting for the Real World

By: Keith Neufeld

Keith Neufeld — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:50:28 +0000

Ross, it would make for simpler traces, but I’m a believer in consistent orientation of polarized components when possible and I like to put the positive terminals on top. In this design, the wasted traces were worth it to me. Of course, clear, unequivocal labeling is even more important.

By: Ross McKenzie

Ross McKenzie — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 07:10:51 +0000

Hi Keith.

Interesting article.

One change I would make to your final layout would be to rotate 180 degrees anti-clockwise your two electrolytic caps in the top left hand corner to produce a simple trace layout.

Cheers,

Ross

By: Michael Shimniok (Bot Thoughts)

Michael Shimniok (Bot Thoughts) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:43:49 +0000

Great article!! I didn’t know about the DRC restring… my latest DIY board suffered from tiny pad syndrome. PITA to solder. Anyway great tips.

I find it’s good to do enough board design to get into a rhythm of design and validation like you.

With recent boards, I start selecting components so I can
pick correct packages in the layout either before doing layout or while.

Also, I got sick of leafing through the eleventy billion different connectors so I now standardize on .1″ pin headers, stock up on vertical and right angle, as well as 2-6 pin female sockets, and call it good.

I’ve forgotten holes on a number of boards I now try to stick those on early.

I usually do a first pass layout, then work on shrinking the footprint from there. Anyway thanks for all the great tips!

By: John Wilson

John Wilson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:16:09 +0000

Don’t forget your Z-axis! On a project I did recently, I was going to use board mounted potentiometers. These board mounted pots had a metal sleeve with a washer and nut. I figured I could mount the pots to the panel with the washer and the nut, and the pots are already soldered to the board, so I don’t need any mounting hardware, right?

Then I got my prototype boards back. Turns out I forgot to take into account the height of the capacitors, and I couldn’t mount those pots to anything but the thinnest of metal. Also I wired one of the pots backwards, and since it was a board mounted pot it wasn’t so easy to fix.

Had to switch to external mount pots.