All About Circuits

Latest EDA Tools Technical Articles

Categories

Stencil Design for Exposed-Pad Packages

Stencil Design for Exposed-Pad Packages

A properly designed solder stencil helps to ensure successful reflow soldering with IC packages that have an exposed thermal pad.


Reflow Soldering? It’s So Much Easier with a Solder Paste Stencil

Reflow Soldering? It’s So Much Easier with a Solder Paste Stencil

In spite of their convenience, the cost of solder paste stencils has prevented many hobbyists from using them. But the use of polyimide film has brought the prices within reach... if you know how and where to get them.


Easier PCB Design: EAGLE CAD Tips and Tricks Part 2

Easier PCB Design: EAGLE CAD Tips and Tricks Part 2

Most hobbyists and many professionals use EAGLE CAD as a daily tool in designing schematics and laying out PCB. I’m going to share with you more of the most important tips and tricks for using EAGLE CAD, which make my work much easier and faster.


Easier PCB Design: EAGLE CAD Tips and Tricks

Easier PCB Design: EAGLE CAD Tips and Tricks

Most hobbyists and many professionals use EAGLE CAD as a daily tool in designing schematics and laying out PCB. You're going to learn some tips and tricks for using EAGLE CAD, which will make your work much easier and faster.


C-BISCUIT Power: Crowbar Protection Circuit for 5V Regulator

C-BISCUIT Power: Crowbar Protection Circuit for 5V Regulator

Over-voltage and over-current protection circuit for use with the C-BISCUIT platform's main computer, the Wandboard.


Projects Mar 09, 2016 by Patrick Lloyd
Make a PWM Driver for FPGA and SoC Design Using Verilog HDL

Make a PWM Driver for FPGA and SoC Design Using Verilog HDL

An FPGA is a crucial tool for many DSP and embedded systems engineers. However, the learning curve when getting started can be fairly steep. This project introduces the Quartus II and ModelSim software suites as well as a background on FPGA design flow for system on chip development. The development board used was a Terasic DE1-SoC, which has the Altera Cyclone V SoC chip. This IC contains an FPGA and an integrated ARM Cortex A9 as a hard processor system.


Implementing a Finite State Machine in VHDL

Implementing a Finite State Machine in VHDL

Impress your friends and family by learning how to implement a finite state machine in VHDL


Build a PICAXE ESP-01 Wi-Fi Communicator

Build a PICAXE ESP-01 Wi-Fi Communicator

A PCB for a Wi-Fi communicator using a PICAXE 08M2 and an ESP-01 module driven by interactive code makes a handy setup for data collection and IoT reporting.


PCB Layout Style Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Design

PCB Layout Style Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Design

This article discusses style mistakes in PCB layout that can make assembly and debugging PCBs difficult. This is vital for designers!


Everything You Need to Know About Direct Digital Synthesis

Everything You Need to Know About Direct Digital Synthesis

Direct Digital Synthesis is used to generate precise analog waveforms that can quickly change frequencies. It's used in test equipment, spread spectrum techniques and to enable frequency sweeps.


Practical PCB Layout Tips Every Designer Needs to Know

Practical PCB Layout Tips Every Designer Needs to Know

This article contains practical PCB layout tips that can help your PCB projects work correctly and reliably.


Build 9 Simple, Low-noise Linear Voltage Regulators Using the Same PCB

Build 9 Simple, Low-noise Linear Voltage Regulators Using the Same PCB

What linear voltage regulator circuits lack in efficiency, they make up in simplicity and low noise. Here's a scheme for 9 voltages from 2.5V to 15V on the same PCB design.


How to Build a Robot - PCB Design

How to Build a Robot - PCB Design

Part two of a series of articles on building a robot that can follow lines or walls and avoid obstacles! This time we'll be covering PCB design.


Your Guide to Home PCB Fabrication

Your Guide to Home PCB Fabrication

Use a program like Kicad and a few cheap or common supplies to fabricate your own PCBs at home. Breadboarding is fine for testing a circuit, but it never looks good to have fifty wires coming out of a circuit.


Build a Thermocouple Amplifier and Custom KiCad Libraries

Build a Thermocouple Amplifier and Custom KiCad Libraries

Building on skills developed in the introductory KiCad tutorial, this article will focus on creating custom parts and adding them to a local library, expanding the default libraries to include community repositories, and contributing parts back into the open source ecosystem. The end product will be a MAX31855 K-type thermocouple amplifier which can be used for a huge array of temperature sensing projects.


Projects Aug 10, 2015 by Patrick Lloyd
Basic Circuit Simulation with LTspice

Basic Circuit Simulation with LTspice

LTSpice is a versatile, accurate, and free circuit simulator available for Windows and Mac. This is an overview of AC and DC simulation, as well as how to analyze output signals.


Electronics Design on Linux

Electronics Design on Linux

Interested in using Linux for your everyday tasks, but worried about compatibility? This article will provide a brief overview of the new tools available to you.


Introduction to KiCad on Ubuntu

Introduction to KiCad on Ubuntu

Learn how to install the new and improved KiCad on Ubuntu 15.04 and then build a simple microcontroller board to blink an RGB LED.


Fritzing Takes Your Design from Concept to PCB

Fritzing Takes Your Design from Concept to PCB

Fritzing is an open-source software package that makes designing a PCB a more attainable reality.