Virtual Prototyping Versus Traditional Product Development Methods Best-in-Class companies who utilize simulation and virtual prototyping are notably outperforming their peers who continue to use more traditional methods of product development. By discussing the three primary methods used to predict product performance (physical prototyping, manual calculation, and virtual prototyping software) this article demonstrates how simulation software is the superior choice for successfully addressing the increasingly Read Article How to Optimize Your Design for Product Serviceability Have you ever gone into a situation thinking that you’re totally prepared, only to come out of it feeling like you are totally clueless? Unfortunately, I have experienced this more times than I would like to recount. This was especially the case when I started designing products for serviceability or design for repair. There are many factors to consider before you decide whether your product should be designed for serviceability, and you should Read Article The SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition: Growing the Next Generation of Electronics Designers In 2013, when Elon Musk unveiled the concept of the Hyperloop as a future form of transportation, he immediately challenged private industry and universities from around the world to develop the technology and pods. (After all, he has his hands full these days!) Since that time, SpaceX has hosted two Hyperloop pod competitions consisting of university teams at their headquarters in Torrance, CA. These events afford three lucky teams the chance to Read Article PCB Design Guidelines for Designing Solar Powered Embedded Systems Have you ever gone on a vacation and felt like you needed another one immediately after? I sure do, my last beach holiday was completely ruined by constant thunderstorms. Unpredictable weather always is always a dilemma when I’m planning ahead for my next vacation, especially if it involves outdoor activities. I take the same cautious approach when I’m designing solar-powered embedded systems intended for outdoor applications. It is a totally Read Article How to Find the Best PCB Layout Help for Your Specific Design Questions Have you ever heard stories about the gamblers in the Wild West pulling an ace out of their sleeve in order to cash in with the winning hand? Even though it’s not the most moral example I’ve ever used, the principle here is still a good one. Always make sure that you have something in your pocket that you can draw from when you need it. And this is just as important for us as designers as it is in everyday life. At some point, everyone needs help Read Article High Voltage PCB Design for Arc Prevention: How to Manage Pads and Traces Growing up, I’d work obsessively on jigsaw puzzles with my grandmother. Like, skipping dinner obsessively. She was a grandmaster of puzzles; you only got to look at the picture once when you took the pieces out. If you needed more than your memory and pattern recognition, that was cheating. Instead of facing the shame of looking at the box, I learned to focus on the shapes of the pieces, and how each fit with its neighbors. That way, not knowing Read Article How to Reduce Power Consumption in Embedded Systems With Deep Sleep SRAM Editorial credit: DFree / Shutterstock.com One of my favorite musical groups is the French DJ duo Daft Punk. One of the quirks of Daft Punk is that they pretend to be robots and perform all their shows in awesome robot costumes. In 2013 they released their album Random Access Memories, or RAM, to play on the robotic theme. However, they failed to specify exactly which kind of RAM. You and I know that in the world of embedded systems the type of Read Article 3D PCB Design: Why You Need It and How It Will Help You The other day I watched as a young father was entertaining his one-year old son on his shoulders. Securely held by his dad, the boy would constantly move from side trying to get different views of his father. In an overload of cuteness, he would first look at his dad over the left side of his face, then play with his hair, move over to the right side, then go back to where he started from. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this precious moment, but Read Article Are Fiducial Marker Placements on PCBs Still Necessary with Modern Manufacturing Capabilities? In PCB design, a fiducial marker is a rounded shape of copper that acts as a reference point for pick and place assembly machines. Fiducial PCB markers help machines recognize the orientation of the PCB as it passes through SMT. Based on the PCB orientation and the prior orientation of components on reels, the machine can be programmed to rotate components by specific amounts to ensure accurate placement on their land patterns. Placement of Read Article SpaceX’s Hyperloop Pod Competition: The Pod Flight Heard Around the World Judy Warner and Benjamin Kitzinger of Altium If I had any question I am a total geek, all doubt was dispelled yesterday when I entered the gates to the Hyperloop Pod Competition II held at SpaceX headquarters in Torrance, California. I felt exactly like a giddy 8-year-old clearing the turnstile at Disneyland for the first time. Then, when the WARR Hyperloop team set the new pod world speed record, at 324 km/h ( just over 200 mph), I nearly Read Article Why You Should Use PCB Assembly Variants for Multiple Design Configurations Years ago I was working on a design that had been copied from an existing board, but there was a problem. A few of the circuits on my layout didn’t match what the engineer had in his schematic. This generated a lot of confusion. We eventually tracked the problem down to some edits that had been made to the board after the design had been approved and sent to fabrication. An inadvertent change to the board while creating an assembly variation had Read Article How to Prevent Silkscreen Placement Errors in PCB Manufacturing Make sure to leverage the DRC system in your CAD software to catch and solve PCB silkscreen errors. Read Article 3D Printing versus Real Time, Pre-Build Clearance Checking 3D printing has been revolutionizing the manufacturing industry. Once you have your completed design, just feed it into your printer and press a button, and it can be fabricated automatically. 3D printing is used for fast and easy prototyping of all sorts of complex and intricate items. So why not use it to fabricate your completed printed circuit board designs? Well, because when it comes to PCBs, there’s a better way. The Problem with 3D Read Article PCB Design Process: The EDA Design Approach - OnTrack In this episode, Chris Carlson gives an overview of the process flow of PCB design. An expert in PCB design, Chris discusses the toolchain a product needs to go through during development. What are the limitations of typical processes and is there a better way? Get the most effective information on PCB design and Electronic Design Automation. If you find this video interesting, please like and share with your fellow PCB designers. Read the Watch Video Top 5 Money Saving Techniques for PCB Design “It can be done fast, it can be done cheaply, or it can be done well. Pick any two.” A lot of engineers use this maxim to explain why their project is behind schedule or over budget. And there is some degree of truth to it. If you want a high-quality design, it’s either going to take a lot of money or a lot of time to figure out how to do it for less. However, if you know a few money-saving techniques ahead of time, they can help you keep your Read Article Need to Keep Your PCB Project Under Budget? Use a PCB Design Tool that Helps You Do That When you design a printed circuit board, you tend to design it for ideal conditions. You figure out how things should work together and engineer a solution that works perfectly on paper. Unfortunately, when you go to manufacture that PCB and apply it for its intended use, you very rarely come across ideal conditions. What works on paper doesn’t always match up with reality. As a result, you often have to do what you can to salvage the design and Read Article A Comparison of Active Cooling Techniques for Electronic Equipment Cooling of electronic equipment is pretty important. I know this because part of my laptop’s motherboard melted once. I bought a new top-of-the-line computer back in 2010 to try out a new graphics-intensive video game. It came with an amazing graphics card, but an undersized thermal management system to hang. I should have known there was a problem when the keyboard got too hot to touch when I started playing games. Soon afterward, my computer Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page172 Current page173 Page174 Page175 Page176 Page177 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More
