RE: Resources for Early EAGLE Users

e14 Contributor — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 22:47:12 GMT

This is a great write up. If you're working with SMT/SMD and have a reflow oven, there's a new service similar to OSHPark called OSH Stencils, www.oshstencils.com that works in a similar fashion. They make low cost high quality stencils for solder paste/reflow applications. They charge by the square inch as well, and their quality is great. They also accept Eagle files directly so you can drop your board at OSHPark, then your same file at OSH Stencils and spend very little money to produce a quality prototype.

RE: Resources for Early EAGLE Users

shabaz — Thu, 18 Jul 2013 18:07:31 GMT

EAGLE is one of the best tools to be productive with, and that is mainly due to the fact that new components can be created very rapidly - some other CAD systems seem to have a very long workflow for parts creation.

I totally agree it is better not to trust other people's components, and create your own. It might initially seem a waste of time, but it's not if you just consider it to be part of the entire design process, which it is. So, I just factor that time in, and it's not a lot of time either. It gets you very familiar with the part, because you have to study the datasheet carefully; furthermore, you learn valuable information like advice on how to route certain signals or what supply rail decoupling is required, because this is contained in the datasheet. That means the design is more likely to work first time.

Each manufacturer has subtly different recommendations on component land patterns, and also you may wish to modify some slightly to make for example protoyping easier (such as placing a hole for thermally-enhanced SMD IC packages), so it should be considered normal that most components in a design should be created from scratch in any CAD package; about the only components that I don't create from scratch are chip resistor and capacitors, but even they may need special land patterns created if (say) the design contains RF.

Here are some notes I created a while back that are a bit old now (I don't have the latest EAGLE package) that I still refer to occasionally, to confirm what the layers mean.