Questions tagged [pcb-design]
About designing the boards which carry the components of an electronic circuit. For questions about getting them built instead use PCB-fabrication. If your question is specific to a certain CAD tool, say which tool and version you are using.
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HealthBand Project - Good Alternative to ME6206A18M3G 3-pin Voltage Regulator (LDO)
So the context here is basically I am simulating the Breakout Board Circuit of MAX30102 and want to integrate it onto the PCB Board. I am planning to build my own opensource type of Healthband that ...
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What is an ideal layout for a normally-open solder jumper?
We would like to make a normally-open solder jumper between two 50x50mil unmasked square pads. I've seen this kind of thing by others and would like to replicate it in our layout. We tried a simple ...
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Are these patches of copper pour useless?
I have a 2 layer PCB.
Bottom layer is ground plane (blue in images below), top layer is power and signal traces and the rest is ground pour (red in pictures below). Vias are connecting the bottom and ...
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What are these double arrows on a schematic?
If I have to reproduce this schematic in KiCad, what should I use?
How do I represent Vin+ in KiCad? Is this a local or global label?
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Use earth as shield between high and low voltage on PCB
I have a PCB with both mains and low voltage.
The ground plane of the low voltage side is kept distant from mains (separation marked with a white silkscreen line), and separated with cutouts.
I am ...
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How can I line up top and bottom photos of a PCB?
I'm trying to reverse-engineer a PCB. I have some photos of the top and bottom, but lining them up is tricky as they were taken free-hand. Is there an easy way to line them up?
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Seeking Validation for Stepper Motor Control PCB Design
I'm currently in the process of developing a PCB intended as a base board for the precise control of a stepper motor. The system involves an LCD display and various sensors for control. Before ...
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Hierarchical with room in PCB Altium
I have a basic Altium design project of an amplifier, shown in the attached link.
My goal is to get a PCB as shown below.
I have tried to make the schematics into hierarchy and made 3 copies of the ...
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EAGLE PCB GND Plane not properly connecting to through hole pins
So I submitted this board design to PCBWay to get prototypes, but they kicked it back to me saying that there are very thin wires throughout the board. Upon inspecting the pictures they sent back to ...
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Does this inverter gate need a decoupling capacitor?
I found that most data sheets show that ICs need a decoupling capacitor.
Does the SN74LVC1G04 inverter need one also? The datasheet does not seem to show one.
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Build a PCB with GPRS + GNSS (GPS) [closed]
I'm interested in creating a GPS tracker device that will connect to my server using either TCP or MQTT. To achieve this, I'm considering using a main chip like the ESP8266, ESP32, or ATmega328. ...
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Can I place vias under components if they're not on the pads?
There are several posts on this site (and elsewhere) discussing why, in general, vias on pads need to be avoided.
Understood. Can I place vias under components if they're not under the pad?
If so: Is ...
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Create footprints on flexible PCB
I'm completely new to PCB design but I'm trying to create my own flexible PCB. Now I want to recreate the board below but with different contact pads on the bottom (because they are really fragile). ...
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Guard rings for PCB and specific part
Electronics beginner.
I am trying to follow the layout recommendations for this part, which is a high PSRR LDO.
For the SET pin, one can read the following (P.15):
Any leakage paths to or from the ...
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Understanding the basics of a ground plane and vias to it on a 2 layer PCB
I'm trying to learn the process of PDB design. I believe I've succeeded at placing my components and drawing tracks to their pads, but am having trouble adding the ground plane and connections to it.
...
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Why the fill does not fully cover the traces and component in Kicad?
If the fill is touching the traces, it means they are same net, but why the fill does not engulf the trace and cover the component?
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What ground pad should be put on a PCB for testing?
When designing a PCB, it's common to place pads as test points. What about ground for test? Should I just place a pad connected to ground? The problem is that it's hard to manually hold probes to two ...
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Open-Source Temperature Logger (HELP)
I am almost finished with the development of an open-source temperature logger (USB + battery powered). I have built the PCB using ATMEL ATMEGA32u4 with feather 32u4 bootloader (3.3V 8MHz). Its an ...
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route on inner or outer layers for SPI clocks signals etc?
What is better for (for example) an SPI clock signal: to be routed on the inner layers (more ground, avoid EMC issue) or on the outer layer? (Avoid changing layers and impedance mismatch and any ...
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Should I fill free PCB space with ground?
I'm new to PCB design and I'm wondering if it makes sense in a two layer PCB to fill any free space on the top and bottom layer with a ground area.
My design:
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Interdigital filter ground connection on PCB
I have used an online designer utility for my 5 GHz to 6 GHz RF output filter, on the schematic it generated it had shown ground attach points, but I am not sure if I designed ground connections and ...
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Symmetry and disorder in PCB Layouts
Very vague and general question.
For PCB layouts, is it better to have symmetric layouts or to break the symmetry between components?
Very simple example, say I want to use a Pi filter in my layout; ...
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How to interpret External Clearance spec on HCPL3700M IC?
The spec for the HCPL3700M (AC voltage detection IC) lists an "External Clearance" of ≥7.4mm.
Is this saying that no component or exposed trace should be within 7.4mm on any side of the chip?...
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S11108 Circuit Design Logic
This is my first post and also my first dip into electrical engineering, and I wanted to ask if you have any suggestions on the circuit I have designed. As a background, I'm a Computer Science student,...
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How Can Non-Parasitic Capacitance Be Excessive When Smoothing Voltage?
I mostly do VHDL/Verilog, and I'm laying out a PCB for a small FPGA project.
The FPGA will operate in a noisy environment. I want to make sure the board has more than enough capacitors to provide the ...
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PCB stencil layer for cutout
I ordered a multiple PCBs which all arrived fine. I never included a stencil because of the high cost for it compared to the PCBs. Now I combined a few board designs to fit on a single stencil, so I ...
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Custom PCB based on LM2596SX-3.3 shorting out
I designed a custom pcb based on this https://github.com/azrael783/esphome_garagedoor_opener and this https://github.com/jampez77/garage_door_sensor for esphome/homeassistant
I nailed the esp part but ...
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Simple door phone circuit
I'm a novice electronics engineer and I have a simple circuit from an analog door phone system. It's the circuit of the push button. It basically takes an input of 12 VAC so it powers 3 LEDs for the ...
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How to connect a removable multipolar signal flat cable to PCB
Wich is the best and easy way to connect this kind of cable to a PCB in a manner that it can be attached or removed to and from the PCB?
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PCB layout and power planes
Currently I am working on PCB layout of previous question asked on this site.
This board has only 2 layers and will be produced as an home-made prototype.
Voltage: 12V
Current: 1A
This is the ...
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Should I put a termination resistor?
I am a beginner in electronics and am trying to design a PCB where a buffer (BUF634A) output will be connected to an AD8138 (Differential ADC driver). In the PCB's previous iteration, I used a ...
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Pros and cons to round PCB design
This is mostly out of pure curiosity, but when designing a PCB, are there any pros to going with a rounded or circular shape? I can see the obvious con of losing out on surface area for running traces ...
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Footprint for 12.3x12.3mm SMD inductor
I want to incorporate this inductor:
https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/Inductors-SMD_SHOU-HAN-CYH127-150UH_C2929506.html
in my project.
Datasheet it here: https://datasheet.lcsc.com/lcsc/...
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AC 240 V UK and 120 V US PCB Trace
If the hot AC trace of 240-264 V has a 10 mil (0.254 mm) of clearance to the polygon and 35 mil (0.889 mm) clearance to the pad, will this cause it to arc and current to flow? Or even if these ...
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Kicad 7 - Drill out of range
I had a footprint for a component in Kicad 5. Then i updated to Kicad 7 and I am getting this error:
...
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Matrix Trackpad
I wanted to build a matrix capacitive trackpad. Ideally, its PCB would have 4 layers:
1--> The plate array
2--> The circuit that links the rows (horizontally)
3--> The circuit that links the ...
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Smartphone Bluetooth Antenna Modification
Is it possible to modify smartphone Bluetooth antenna (2.4 GHz) by redesigning it? I am currently designing a Polyimide microstrip patch antenna with 50 ohms impedance. What steps should I make so ...
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Incomprehensible ratsnest in Kicad
In PCBnew, there is a ratsnest that I cannot comprehend why its there. This is it:
As you can see, there is supposedly connection between pins 3 and 4.
However, if you look at the schematic, pad 4 is ...
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Pie shaped stubs in RF supply PCB layout
In a recent question there is a photo of a RF PCB
And it shows several pie shaped pads on the supply end of the biasing network.
How are these pads designed. Is there a rule of thumb for the two ...
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Helical antenna on PCB connected on ground?
I purchased the wireless bell that works on 433 MHz and would like to have an antenna with more gain in order to receive the signal a little bit far.
When I opened the device I found the helical ...
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ESP32-C3 RF pin design question
I have a question regarding the ESP32-C3.
I would like to have a transmission and receiver antenna in my system. The transmission antenna needs to be close to isotropic and the receiver must be very ...
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NPTH through SMD pad
I'm trying to incorporate this design for an 18650 battery clip into my PCB. I'm using KiCad.
If you look at the datasheet, you'll notice that there's actually two tabs sticking down from both ends of ...
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Kicad 7 - Resize a board
I created a board in Kicad, but doing more work on it, I managed to shrink its size.
All this is unused space.
Is there a way to shrink the board. It is easy to move the edge cuts, but the unused ...
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How can I identify this header?
I am trying to find 8 pin, 2.54 mm header on mouser, but had no luck. I don't really know what search keywords should I use, walked through many many pages of "2.54 mm header" results, but ...
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How does a copper pour work in Kicad?
In my project, I have a label in the schematic as Vcc.
When I created my backside copper pour in PCBnew, I gave it the Vcc net.
Thus, when joining a Vcc pad on the frontside layer, via a via to the ...
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Trace Width, Length, and Clearance for SATA signals in KiCad PCB Design
I am looking to design a SATA adapter board which interfaces an FPGA LPC FMC connector with a SATA connector. This board will contain the 6 signals (RX+, RX-, TX+, TX-, and Clk+, Clk-) along with ...
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Designing copper fill zones in Kicad 7
I have the upper layer of the board as GND.
I want to have the bottom layer of the board as VCC (of course, I have declared the VCC label in the schematic).
When I select the copper fill zones, this ...
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Kicad Ground Pads are not completey connected with Ground plane
I have the upper layer of my board set up as GND copper plane.
However, when GND pads are connected to the GND plane, they are not completely connected to GND. Rather, a cross is formed on the pad. ...
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Reason for this ratsnest in Kicad
When (re)designing my board, I came across a ratsnest that I cannot understand its reason, nor do I know how to connect something in order to remove it.
This is the ratsnest that I am talking about (...
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Using USB-C connectors and cable for non-standard connection between two boards in prototype
I am building a wearable prototype where I need two custom PCBs to interface between, and power, a system-on-a-chip on one end, and two sensors on the other. The PCBs will be situated about 0.5—1 m (1....
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