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Member's Forum Are there specific mistakes that you now intentionally test for early in new designs?
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Are there specific mistakes that you now intentionally test for early in new designs?

chloro
chloro 1 month ago

The designs that look good in the early stages often have many failures that tend to repeat themselves. I would like to know the ways in which engineers know which failure modes they can intentionally try to expose as early as possible before the design becomes costly to change.

Are there certain errors that you now intentionally test for early based on past experience (such as power sequencing assumptions, thermal margins, EMI susceptibility, connector orientation, tolerance stacking, or firmware coupling)?

More importantly, how do you set up early tests or reviews to intentionally look for these problems?

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  • dougw
    dougw 1 month ago +5
    Analog schematics - I check for any paths for power supply noise to reach analog signals such as any resistor or capacitor connecting a signal to a rail. Schematics in general - check for adequate decoupling…
  • wolfgangfriedrich
    wolfgangfriedrich 1 month ago in reply to OwainM +5
    When in doubt, always do this:
  • dang74
    dang74 1 month ago +4
    For PCBs, I always double check pinout and footprint for new components.
  • dang74
    dang74 1 month ago

    For PCBs, I always double check pinout and footprint for new components.

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  • wolfgangfriedrich
    wolfgangfriedrich 1 month ago in reply to dang74

    And that is double true for connector pinout and footprints, so they get triple checked.

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  • dang74
    dang74 1 month ago in reply to wolfgangfriedrich

    Indeed.

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  • Oliver2003
    Oliver2003 1 month ago

    I always prioritize testing for voltage rail sequencing and trace impedance mismatches early so I may avoid costly redesigns and EMI failures later. it helps a lot, my teacher advised me to do so.

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  • Andrew J
    Andrew J 1 month ago in reply to dang74

    I was going to comment exactly the same thing.

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  • dang74
    dang74 1 month ago in reply to Andrew J

    I'm in good company. :)

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  • chloro
    chloro 1 month ago in reply to wolfgangfriedrich

    It's universal ig.

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  • battlecoder
    battlecoder 1 month ago

    Probably the main thing I'm constantly testing for is current consumption. It's very easy to lose track of that while you are designing a circuit. Especially if you are building it by blocks (which is normally how I do it). A project can easily go from being able to run off batteries for a month, to something that would not last a day, if this is not being tested during the design and prototyping stages.

    Now, while this might seem more important for battery-powered stuff, it's also relevant for any project. At one point it's going to require a power supply (either on-board or external) and if it's not providing enough power the circuit will work erratically, or not at all.

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  • dougw
    dougw 1 month ago

    Analog schematics - I check for any paths for power supply noise to reach analog signals such as any resistor or capacitor connecting a signal to a rail.

    Schematics in general - check for adequate decoupling capacitors and ESD protection.

    On relays and inductors - check for snubber diodes

    On PCB layouts - check for appropriate mounting holes and test points and access to every track that may need surgery.

     - check trace width versus current on all power tracks

    - check for ground loops

    Double check Tx & Rx pins on connectors

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  • OwainM
    OwainM 1 month ago in reply to dougw

    That last one cost me months! In debugging why a custom shaped ESP32 board I'd designed wouldn't program, it turned out the connection between the USB to UART Bridge and ESP32 was connected Tx to Tx and Rx to Rx.

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