6 Tips to Ensure Great PCB Designs
Electronics is not just a vast industry, it is also a hobby for many students and engineers. You can find a variety of blogs and forums online, which discuss steps to create electronic devices. Generally, these posts are read and used by DIY students and engineers. Many of them use Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) in their personal designs. To help these types of online users, we decided to create a post on electronic design techniques.
Practical Points to help you Create Great PCB Designs
The following points are electronic design tips and tricks, which can be useful to a budding electronics student, or the DIY engineer.
1. Save Your Notes: A Cardinal Rule – Never throw out your notes! The notes you create when planning the design of the device are essential. They can be used to highlight or remember important points, such as:
- Reasons for adding or removing components
- The settings of the logic table
- Power supply considerations
2. Create a Block Diagram: Before starting any electronic project, you will obviously create a design schematic. The easiest way to achieve this is to create a block diagram. This acts as an outline to the schematic, and offers an overview of the electronic architecture. If you decide to upload your PCB design online, the block diagram will be a great reference for anyone who may peruse your document.
3. Describe the PCB Nets: While many may consider this a time-consuming process, it is a good idea to create a list of all the nets on the printed circuit board. You should also add descriptions, stating the purpose of each net. There is a very simple reason to this. As you may know, PCB nets are considered when a program needs to be debugged, or when simulation runs need to be conducted. Naming and describing each net will make these processes easier to complete.
4. Maintain the Design Flow: When creating a design schematic for a device, it is wise to ensure a good flow between all the blocks in the diagram. The reason? When you condense a design plan, or draw it up with shortcuts, it can be difficult to follow. It can also result in people not being able to recreate the design, when required. While this may also be a time-consuming task, creating a detailed design flow is always a good idea.
5. Ensure all Connectors in the Diagram are Visible: The thought behind this point is simple – connectors are easy to follow when they can be easily identified. Hence, it is important that all the pins of each connector are in order, and each connector is identifiable. By doing this, readers will know exactly what connector to look for in a schematic. Please refer above schematic detail diagram for the references.
6. Use the Right Tools: When we say ‘tools’, we mean the design software, as well as the manufacturing tools. The right tools can help in designing the schematic, as well as the PCB assembly. Choose a design software that has different options to help you create a detailed schematic. Use bread boards when creating prototypes, as a lot of experimentation can be done in terms of wire placement, digital circuits, and even CPUs. Choose a solder that will be easy to apply, but won’t be hazardous to your health.
When you follow the above mentioned points, anyone in the electronics industry will be able to understand your electronics design. A clear and detailed design schematic will it make easier for you to showcase your product idea to an organization.
About the Author:-
Gopal Radadia is an American author. He is the owner of Creative Hi-Tech LTD . He has been writing content for the same category from last few years. Creative Hi-Tech Ltd being into service from the year 1998 and has been a trusted company.
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Albert van Bemmelen
April 22, 2016 at 3:10 pm
Thank you Gopal Radadia. Making a good Block Diagram and keeping good notes is probably the best way that any Engineer should start with. No matter if he is building a circuit on a experimenter's Board or if he is Programming in any language. And now any Engineer also can program his electronic circuits in plain text too. Like in VHDL or Verilog. The future is here!
Gopal Radadia
May 2, 2016 at 4:40 pm
Hello Albert,
I really appreciate you liked my article. I just want people to know more about PCB and their circuit designs.
Kenny
November 10, 2021 at 8:18 pm
Hello
I am happy to come across this very good lecture.
Robert Calk
April 22, 2016 at 4:50 pm
Thanks Gopal. I agree with everything except the solder. I only use leaded solder with use latex gloves.
Gopal Radadia
May 2, 2016 at 4:46 pm
Very true Robert. One must stay safe while using solder. A very good advice.
Humberto
April 25, 2016 at 8:44 pm
Thanks for your tips Gopal. By the way, I surfed into your website and I really confess you have High Technology in your Industry. Congratulations.
Gopal Radadia
May 2, 2016 at 4:48 pm
Thanks Humberto. I really appreciate.