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Get Design for Manufacturability (DFM) tips from Jay Colognori, Director of Business Development at Electronic Instrumentation & Technology (EIT). DFM and Design for Assembly (DFA) are important to engineers who know you can’t just design a PCB and throw it over the wall to manufacturing. Early and proactive optimization of all the manufacturing functions from fabrication to assembly of the final system is key. Listen to Jay and Judy discuss...

I loved building models when I was a kid. Whether it was airplanes, cars, ships, or tanks, it didn’t matter as long as I was gluing pieces together. You can imagine my disappointment then when none of my sons shared the same interest. In fact we just discovered a couple of old models tossed in a box that they had started and then given up on. The really sad thing is that the instructions for these kits are missing, and I have no idea now what...

I grew up in the era before PlayStation ever existed. Back then, generic consoles reigned alongside premium counterparts like Super Nintendo and Sega. I first discovered my stubborn streak while playing Super Mario, a game where a funny looking character starts shooting fireballs after getting power-ups from mushrooms. I lost count of how many times I repeated the entire game even though I was always ultimately defeated at the last level. As...

One of the occupational hazards of being a hardware is a growing belly size that is proportional to age. That’s why I try to keep myself fit with a regular workout at the gym. Power bars are indispensable in helping me get through my workout routine by keeping my energy levels high during the entire session. In electronics, the power transistor is equivalent to the power bar. It handles high current components, such as hundreds of LEDs drawing...

The digital world is an evolving place. Just yesterday file formats were abundant for text and graphics. Or was that today? Sending a file to a friend can turn into disaster if their device doesn’t recognize the extension. Clicks occur rapidly while trying differing file formats to see if they will save and send. It gets a little trying and soon the search turns to a more elegant app. Designing circuits, iterating parallel ideas, and releasing...

When it comes to creating a schematic I want the tools to work for me and not the other way around. I want easy access to, I want to place and connect those, and I want to be able to do all of this without having to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Sadly many PCB design CAD systems don’t seem to share my opinion. I’m looking for an easy right-click menu solution while most CAD systems appear to want me to memorize a of ancient texts...

Your PCB layout needs to be an accurate reflection of your final design and should follow a specified unit scale. Inside Altium Designer, there are simple ways to set units as you work on the PCB layout, as well as in the schematic where circuits are being created. The short guide below shows how to switch from mm to mil in the Schematic Editor and in the PCB Editor. Users can do this live (while working on the PCB layout) or from the Preferences...