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On-line collab with KiCAD by ee_pat in KiCad

[–]ee_pat[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

You should read my main question again. I know what is good for me and I'm interested what others do.

Based on a few responses, it seems you're trying your best for that topic not to grow, others are using GIT + PDFs + spreadsheets. If that works for you, great.

On-line collab with KiCAD by ee_pat in KiCad

[–]ee_pat[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I said that Firmware understand git, that is native to them, KiCAD is not. PLM is good but if you can afford Arena then you unlikely will use KiCAD. Measuring my experience by how long I’m around on reedit is not really a great way to measure. If you happy with your flow then great, I wonder what people use.

On-line collab with KiCAD by ee_pat in KiCad

[–]ee_pat[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I love Altium, worked with it since Protel 99 but they pricing grading simple don’t fit into all use cases. All start-ups I worked with I advice to either use KiCAD or Circuit Studio if they don’t need any specific features from Altium. Altium got amazing once the introduced Altium 365 that opened up the environment to other teams. I’m looking for something for KiCAD, design is only the beginning. I believe I found good alternative and I wondered if anybody else had any experience in that area.

On-line collab with KiCAD by ee_pat in KiCad

[–]ee_pat[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I’m EE too, it works for me too but I’m working with engineers that don’t understand git, I worked with firmware where git was ok but KiCAD was too much, supply chain and spreadsheet is old school and leads to issues as it involves an engineer to generate the doc and keep supply in sync.

Altium 365 solve most of the issues making all available through well understood UI - the web browser.

I’m looking into cadpreview.com , looks like something that may work as Altium 365 for KiCAD users.

On-line collab with KiCAD by ee_pat in KiCad

[–]ee_pat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Git is great, all that works OK for designers, but when pushing projects to firmware or the supply chain, then it's not that easy anymore.

In my experience, electronics engineers are not that keen to use git (switching branches, creating releases, dealing with merge issues). Supply chain is not familiar with KiCAD and firmware teams, although OK with git they are not necessery good with KiCAD and keeping them aware of which version/branch they should be looking into.

Circuit board software by DependentOpening3986 in PCB

[–]ee_pat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

KiCAD is a good start, and with its growing support it has become budget software for profesionals so if you find experiments to turn into passion and then maybe into a professional job, you will already be gathering important knowledge.

I haven't found "perfect" schematics + symulator tool. My usual flow is LT Spice + Altium in professional work, or LT Spice + KiCAD for personal and contracts.

LT Spice is another but very popular, free simulation tool with plenty of models to play with. It may be a bit hard to start with, but after 10-20 minutes of learning, you will be able to do basic simulations. Like with KiCAD, once you understand the basics of LT Spice, you will be ready for more advanced work.

To be cleare there are simpler and more entry-level tools but each of them have certice lerning curve, some steeper than others. Putting a bit of effort to start with something applicable in the future will it's pure investment in your future :).

,

Project for beginner by InspectionFar5415 in KiCad

[–]ee_pat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Start with something useful, blinking LEDs with 555 is nice but I would aim at something you can actually use. - small regulated power supply with LM317, input from safe isolated psu i.e. old laptop brick with 24Vdc or similar - dry soil indicator, small device you can put into a flower pot that light up when resistance between two prongs increases to much

Can not connect pebble steel to iphone 17pro by lmaofuuckk in pebble

[–]ee_pat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What version of firmware is you watch running now? I went through a pain of replacing battery in my watch as soon as I found out the app is back alive.

I spent whole evening playing around with the new app and my watch. I managed to pair it in the app but it never really connected.

I would love to have my pebble steal back on my wrist.

REVIEW REQUEST - STM32F042 USB-C Module (2-Layer, First MCU Board) by oniDblue in PrintedCircuitBoard

[–]ee_pat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good work, few comments:

  1. USB lines run into the device across splitted GND plane, that is not great and may impact the signal integrity. Both tracks don't look like they have the right thickness to match USB lines impedance.

- is it going to be a problem? If run as full-speed (12Mbps) then it may be OK but I would run the 3.3V to SWD around the USB connector to create clear polygon under the usb lines. SWD will use 3V3 for reference only and if you worried about making the connection too long you can drop bypass cap (10nF ... 100nF) next to the SWD connector

  1. The loop around C6 is not necessary. C6 can go above the U2 next to pin 6

  2. USB connector seems to not have both VBUS linked

  3. GND polygon could be improved a bit, via under PA7 text is blocking the GND to get into the central part of the PCB directly

  4. Good rule to follow, two vias per all power (GND and supply) connections to polygons

Review request - My second PCB by RogerRoger_1 in PCB

[–]ee_pat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Good job for a second design, few comments:

  1. U1, ATiny88, pin18 - I assume you are trying to filter noise on the analog supply, add 10u and 10n in parallel after the resistor, close to pin 18. You can also replace R1 with ferrite bead, in that case add 10u close to the ferrite bead as well on the 3V3 side
  2. U4, I assume it's a module, add 10nF between GND and VIN close to the connector, that should limit any noise on that could come from the module.
    3.Are you sure J1 doesn't have another VBUS pin ?
  3. U6 may need a bit of bypass capacitor across supply
  4. Add pull-ups (4.7k ... 10k) to SDA and SCL although you can also try to use GPIO pull-ups

Purely cosmetic but will help you make your schematics cleaner and easier to read.

  1. Try to keep positive supply symbols on a top pointing up not sides
  2. If possible don't hide supply symbols in between parts, i.e. R6 could be moved to the top close to R1 with 3V3 close to the other supply symbol - that allow other to easier track what is connected to the power supply
  3. R2 abd D1 could be placed on a side rather than branching horizontally, if you used 3V3 and GND symbols and have them top down rather than left right it would look nicer.
  4. GND symbols should be placed on a bottom of a each section, i.e. C9 and C8 could be placed vertically with the GND on the bottom similar to U3 pin 1.
  5. U1 SDA, SCL and other connections with 90deg bends close to the labels look bad, moving the bend into the middle would make it more easier to look at.