Design Libraries

PCB Design BOM Planning: A Balancing Act

PCB Design BOM Planning: A Balancing Act The balancing act of knowing how much or little info is needed when designing your BOM is often convoluted and muddied. If done incorrectly, you could be stuck in a communication loop with a confused manufacturer, frustrated engineer, or a designer. This will inevitably cost you money, time and effort that otherwise would have been avoided. In order to assist us, today we’ll assume that you’ve begun to wrap up the final stages of your design, and Read Article

Optimizing PCB Panelization Can Reduce Costs and Increase Yield

Optimizing PCB Panelization Can Reduce Costs and Increase Yield Once you have finished designing your board, you are probably ready to move on to the manufacturing stage. Back in my research days as a grad student, our group always looked at ways to get the most out of our fabrication processes. But how do you maximize your device yield while still working within tooling and client constraints? The most efficient way to do this is to optimize your board arrangement during panelization. An analogue of Read Article

Get the Help you Need Selecting PCB Components with Bill of Materials Software

Get the Help you Need Selecting PCB Components with Bill of Materials Software I’m in the middle of replacing the electric motor in my bathroom fan, but, unfortunately, I have no idea what to purchase. A 30-year-old ventilation fan part replacement is proving to be a real chore. I am amazed at how many different types of motor and fan combinations there are to choose from. One has the hardware bolts on the correct side, but the fan turns the wrong direction. The next turns correctly with the wrong shaft length. You may have Read Article

PCB Fabrication and Assembly Processes and Where Wave Soldering Fits In

PCB Fabrication and Assembly Processes and Where Wave Soldering Fits In Growing up, I sometimes felt like an Army brat. My dad was in the Air Force, not the Army and we only moved a couple of times. Nevertheless, every time we relocated to a new city I had the same issues to struggle with. Basically, trying to fit into a new environment with new people. From a PCB designer’s perspective, trying to learn about the PCB fabrication and assembly and what role certain processes play can be similar. It is advantageous to Read Article

Manually Creating Component Footprint

4 Steps on How to Create a Component Footprint in Altium Designer When laying out your printed circuit board, it is critical that you know how to create footprint for your design components. Some components are quite common or they come in standardized packages, making footprints easy to find. In some cases, footprint generation may need to be done by yourself, and you’ll need to use information directly from the component’s datasheet. If the footprint is incorrect, the part pins may not align with PCB pads or Read Article

Automating Your BOM System for PCB CAD Library Quality and Compliance

Automating Your BOM System for PCB CAD Library Quality and Compliance Some years back I was helping my son organize his finances, and he was explaining to me how he didn’t need to track anything because all of that information was available to him online. The benefits that online banking provides are fantastic for sure, but they don’t quite cover everything. I asked him how he was tracking the checks that he had written which hadn’t cleared yet, and he dismissed me with a wave of his hand. These days, after several Read Article

Using a BOM Tool Enables You to Create Your Design with Confidence

Using a BOM Tool Enables You to Create Your Design with Confidence My dog is so old that he sleeps 20 hours a day and naps the other four. Therefore it was with great surprise the other day when he attacked another dog while we were out on a walk. This other smaller dog had simply come over to say “hi,” and my dog suddenly lunged at him. Fortunately, his bark really is bigger than his bite and the other dog wasn’t hurt in the least. I’ve got to admit though that I admire his confidence because at his age a Read Article

Put the Power of a BOM Template to Work for You

Put the Power of a BOM Template to Work for You One of the dictionary definitions of the word “template” is; anything that determines or serves as a pattern or a model. Without realizing it, I bet that we all rely on a lot of templates in our lives. I have certain document templates that I use for work, and my wife has hundreds of patterns that she uses when sewing. I even have a designated pattern set for my Christmas decorations so that I can quickly put them up and then easily take them Read Article

Remote BOM Access Makes Work as Easy as Hitting a Button

Remote BOM Access Makes Work as Easy as Hitting a Button It seems like you can’t purchase any electronic device anymore without it coming with a remote control. TVs, radios, and computers all have them, and you can even find them on fireplaces and air conditioners. This is not a complaint, I love having the ability to control things remotely. I have enough years behind me that I remember having to get up and walk over to the TV to change the channel. In my opinion the more remote control the better off Read Article

Single-Sided Versus Double-Sided PCB Costs Are Necessary Comparisons

Difference Between Single-Sided and Double-Sided PCBs: Necessary Costs Comparisons Duck hunters cherish their favorite call. With hundreds of available calls at our fingertips, choosing the right call can challenge anyone. Single and double reed duck calls perform differently and vary in cost. Conventional wisdom might conclude that “double” translates into “more value.” Yet, professional and experienced duck callers prefer single reed calls. Since many beginners don’t have time to practice, many choose a double reed duck call Read Article

BOM Control: Setting up your PCB Documentation for Success

BOM Control: Setting up your PCB Documentation for Success Years ago I ventured into the world of remote control helicopters. Not the ready-to-fly-out-of-the-box drones that they sell today, but a gas-engine, Bell-Hiller mix, remote-controlled helicopter. What the salesman didn’t tell me though was about all the other items that I would need to purchase in order to complete it. I was going to have to purchase the engine, muffler, radio components, servos, starter, battery, as well as much more. As you Read Article

Bill of Materials Management Strategies: Automation is Your Friend

Bill of Materials Management Strategies: Automation is Your Friend When I was a boy I really enjoyed reading the “Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators” mystery books. These books were a contemporary to “The Hardy Boys” mystery books and I filled a lot of my free time reading about “The Secret of Terror Castle”, “The Mystery of the Screaming Clock”, and many other frightful enigmas. A few years ago I ran across some of these books, and now I collect as many as I can find. Another avid fan I know said it Read Article

How to Create a Bill of Materials That Meets Your Needs

How to Create a Bill of Materials That Meets Your Needs Sometimes when pressed to answer a question that I’m not prepared for like, “what do you want for your birthday”, I’ll respond flippantly; “small stacks of hundreds please!” I don’t even remember where I got this quote from, but I tend to use it a lot. It often kills the conversation and in the case of my wife, it earns me an immediate “annoyed wife glare” in response. Wouldn’t it be nice though if just for once someone actually honored my Read Article

Putting Constraints to Work for You in Your Circuit Routing Software

Putting Constraints to Work for You in Your Circuit Routing Software When I was a kid, my parents had a 1955 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday. What a great car. As an eight year old though, the main thing that stood out to me was that it had a decorative rope that stretched horizontally across the back of the front seat. Sitting in the back with my brother one day, we informed our parents that with the fancy rope in place we no longer needed to use our seat belts. I saw my dad wink to my mom, and then at a very slow Read Article

Optimizing Your BOM for Rapid Prototype Manufacturing

BOM Optimization for Rapid Prototype Manufacturing Your BOM can make your manufacturing speeds, especially if you want your prototyping to be done quick and smooth. Read Article

Create a BOM That Works for Everyone

Create a BOM That Works for Everyone For me, socks have always been about utility: they keep my feet from getting blisters. Yet for years I have spent far too much time sorting and organizing my socks to match up the colors. Browns with browns, blues with blues, and yellows with… well, to tell the truth, I would just throw those away. Yellow socks were just too weird for me. Then one day I decided to simplify my life and I replaced all my colored socks with plain black socks Read Article

Pass The Baton Well to PCB Design Successors

Pass The Baton Well to PCB Design Successors Have you ever walked into a new job, first-day energy rolling through your shoulders, only to sit down and look at the notes left from the person who last had your job and know exactly what the problem was: poor organization. Poor organization is usually pretty noticeable in any work process; however, it takes on its most detrimental final form when you are trying to train someone based on the poorly organized leftovers of someone else. Early in Read Article