PCB Components

Build Your Next LED PCB Design in Altium's Unified Environment

Build Your Next LED PCB Design in Altium's Unified Environment LED driver boards can be challenging designs when running at high power and high voltage. Power systems for driving devices like LED panels need careful planning and layout for power supply sections, and the LED PCB board design itself needs to be laid out to ensure low-temperature operation. These objectives can be difficult to balance without the best PCB LED circuit design software features and DC analysis tools. When you need to create a high Read Article

PCB Developing: Preparing Your Circuit Board for a PCB Etching Service There are times where you don’t need to produce a finalized, silk-screened board at high volume, and you may only need to use a blank PCB with no components or silkscreen. Blank PCBs can be useful for prototyping, breadboarding, experimenting with components, and accessing external traces. These boards do not need to go through a special production process, they only need a limited documentation package to begin fabrication. ALTIUM DESIGNER^® The Read Article

Transition from Hobby PCB Maker to Professional Designer with Altium

Transition from Hobbyist PCB Manufacturer to Professional Designer with Altium Most new designers start off with freeware when they need to create their first PCB designs, but free PCB design software lacks many features required to create real circuit boards. Hobbyist PCB designers and makers need a range of tools to create high-quality circuit boards and eventually create real devices. Instead of using free PCB layout software and other programs to help get designs into production, hobbyist PCB makers need professional Read Article

Model Train Circuits in the Best Electronics Design Software

Model Train Circuits in the Best Electronic Model Railroad Design Software Model train circuits include multiple elements that hobbyists might find in other common electronics. LEDs, buzzers, alarms, motors, and much more can be found in model train circuits. Designing train circuit boards takes a great schematic editor and component library with real and generic components for use in a circuit board. Use the best circuit board design software to create your model train circuits and start your PCB layout in a single Read Article

Underwater ROV Design and Component Selection

Underwater ROV Design and Component Selection Underwater ROVs need to obey the same reliability standards as other high-performance, high uptime products like aerospace and military systems. High reliability is all about component selection and designing boards that are fully manufacturable while keeping a system safe. The DFM features, supply chain tools, and design verification engine in Altium Designer give underwater ROV builders a complete package for electronics design and fabrication Read Article

How to Prepare Your Project for PCB Cart Manufacturing with Altium Designer

How to Prepare Your Project for PCB Cart Manufacturing with Altium Designer The electronics industry is massive and there are plenty of PCB manufacturers to choose from for your next order. When you need to prepare your next board for fabrication and assembly, how can you quickly generate deliverables for manufacturers like PCB Cart? Instead of generating all manufacturing documentation manually, designers need an easy way to create deliverables for fabrication and assembly. If you plan to work with PCB Cart to produce Read Article

The Best High Voltage PCB Design Software Package

The Best High Voltage PCB Design Software Package Of all the different boards a designer can create, a high voltage PCB design can be complicated and requires strict attention to safety. If not laid out correctly these boards can be safety hazards or can fail to function on first power up, leaving a designer with wasted time and effort. In the best case, the board will function reliably for a long period of time thanks to correct layout practices. When you’re planning your next high voltage PCB Read Article

Stay Productive When You Switch to Altium Designer

Upgrade from AutoCAD PCB Design Software to Altium Designer's Unified Environment Most designers are familiar with AutoCAD electrical PCB design software for mechanical or construction drafting, and for making important engineering diagrams. AutoCAD PCB design is great for many tasks involved in electrical or mechanical engineering, but PCB designers need more than mechanical drafting tools to make advanced electronics. To get your designs to the next level, you need the best set of ECAD tools on the market, rather than using Read Article

Design Your Small Circuit Board in Altium Designer

Design Your Small Circuit Board in Altium Designer Large circuit boards, small circuit boards, and anything in between might seem like they need separate sets of PCB layout features. In reality, your PCB design software shouldn’t delineate your PCB design based on size. Whether you need to design a large or small circuit board, a design application with high-quality CAD tools will help you get the job done quickly and prepare your board for production. Small circuit board designs are much easier Read Article

Working Through Circuit Simulation Free Often Won’t Work, Try Altium Designer

Working Through Circuit Simulation for Free Often Won’t Work, Try Altium Designer Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software provides the tools that support the design and analysis of electronic devices, systems, and printed circuit boards. Within this broad definition of EDA software, some companies offer free PCB design programs while others focus on schematic capture, mixed-signal simulation, Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) circuit design, and customizable design rule checking. While many EDA software applications Read Article

Altium’s Parameter Table Editor Lets You Control Your Project Settings

Altium’s Parameter Table Editor Lets You Control Your Project Settings There’s a lot of data that goes into any PCB design project. The design files and project files all have their own parameters, and these can be customized to provide plenty of useful information for data management. ECAD software users need a simple way to keep their parameter sets organized within their project files, component libraries, and much more. Parameters can appear in all types of objects in your ECAD software, as well as in any type Read Article

Altium Designer Beats Any OEMSTrade Electronics Part Search

Altium Designer Beats Any OEMSTrade Electronics Part Search Finding and sourcing new components for your design should be an easy process. Parts specifications can get very detailed, and there are many component options and part browsers on the market (e.g. Ultra Librarian, SamacSys, DMS, etc.). How can designers narrow down to the components they need and source components from authorized distributors? Using an OEMSTrade electronics part search and other distributor websites only gives you a partial view Read Article

Build a Comprehensive Electronic Symbols Library in Altium Designer

Build an Electronic PCB Schematic Symbols Library in Altium Designer Electronic symbols are the basis for the CAD documents you’ll create before you prepare a circuit board layout. An electronic symbols library contains basic symbols and figures that are used in electrical drawings, and they need to be linked to the PCB footprints that will appear in your PCB layout. When you need to prepare and organize clear PCB layouts and electrical drawings, you need a reliable source of CAD symbols and PCB footprints, and it Read Article

Design and Simulate Any Low Pass Filter Circuit for Your PCB

Low Pass Filter Simulation for Your PCB Design Many engineers will do some basic calculations by hand in order to understand their filter and amplifier circuits. However, for complex circuits that do not obey standard series and parallel rules, or that use nonlinear components like diodes and transistors, more sophisticated methods are needed. As such, designers need an easy-to-use but powerful simulation application to aid filter design and simulation. Some programs make simulations Read Article

Save Money and Keep PCB Costs Down with Consistent Documentation Tools

Save Money and Keep PCB Pricing Down with Consistent Documentation Tools Calculating PCB costs requires professional PCB drawing tools with mechanical and electrical standards incorporated intelligently for aggressive pricing. But how to reduce PCB cost? ALTIUM DESIGNER PCB design tools are capable of tracking costs and keeping production expenditures within the budget. Produce low-cost instructions with elegant drill files Calculating printed circuit board fabrication and assembly costs requires knowledge of the Read Article

Include IC Pin Numbers in Your Altium Designer Parts Data

Include IC Pin Numbers in Your Altium Designer Parts Data When you create components, you’ll really be creating 3 different CAD models: a schematic symbol, PCB footprint, and 3D model. Integrated circuits need multiple pieces of information, including courtyards, IC pin numbers, designators, and electrical simulation models to be most effective in your PCB design and analysis tools. If you’re working with most CAD tools, you won’t have the features you need to perform all of these tasks. Enter Altium Read Article

Quickly Replicate Circuits with a Connection Room in Your PCB Layout

Quickly Replicate Circuits with a Connection Room in Your PCB Layout Modern PCB designs can get very complex, and designers need tools to help them stay organized. Schematic sheets are a great start, but simply organizing different circuit blocks into different schematics is not enough to ensure your designs are organized. Altium Designer unifies your schematic design and PCB layout tasks into a single program, and it includes a PCB connection rooms feature to keep your circuit blocks synchronized. Here’s how you Read Article