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    Home Altium Live The Connected Future of PCB Design

    The Connected Future of PCB Design

    October 22, 2018

    most recent articles

    LTE + GNSS Asset Tracker Part 2 This is Part Two of my LTE GNSS Asset Tracker project. In part one, I identified the right components for the project and captured the schematics. In this part, we are going to finish the project up with the PCB layout and routing. In the last article, I had stated my goal of making this board as small as possible with the intention of making a high density board, expecting I’d need 6 layers for the routing. However, a board’s total size is Read Article
    The Great PCB Layout "Rules of Thumb" Debate Rages On To this day, I still see many PCB layout “rules of thumb” that first became common nearly 20 years ago. Do these rules still universally apply? The answer is a firm “maybe.” Many of the conversations you’ll see on forums regarding PCB design rules devolve into an always/never discussion, causing some designers to use or ignore common design rules in situations where they may not apply. In some cases, this will not cause a board to fail. As some Read Article
    GNSS + LTE Asset Tracker Project, Part 1 In this week’s project, I’m building an LTE based asset tracking system that could be used for a range of objectives, such theft prevention (and recovery), delivery or transit vehicle tracking, as well as predictive maintenance if data that is collected is paired with a suitable machine learning service. All of my previous projects have been two layer boards without any space constraints, but I miss building really compact high density circuit Read Article
    Altium DbLibs and Electronic Components in the Cloud with Altium Designer 20.1 Industry expert Davide Bortolami discusses what DbLibs are, how they work, what they can help you achieve, and how to integrate them with Altium 365. Spoiler alert: it’s disgustingly easy. Read Article
    Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing: An Introduction If you do a search for “Hardware-in-the-Loop” testing, you will frequently find examples of complex, real-time systems. This article from National Instruments, for example, gives a nice explanation and background on what hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) is, and provides an example of testing electronic control units within an automobile. In this article, we will be focusing on a smaller, more bite-sized version of HIL testing concepts. What is Hardware Read Article
    Figure of Merit: A Way to Score Your Opinions Metrics are data, and statistically backed measures. It is always expedient to base decisions on data and metrics. But what if a metric doesn’t exist? Then you can create the next best measure: the Figure of Merit. The problem with opinions is that they are difficult to defend, and when used in conjunction with producibility, they often they vary from person to person. That is why the Figure of Merit process is so popular. For a small amount of Read Article
    Lane Recognition and Tracking with NVIDIA Jetson Nano Autonomous vehicles are slowly becoming an important part of the automotive industry. Many believe fully autonomous vehicles will soon be driving alongside humans, and technology companies are in a race to deploy fully autonomous vehicles. In December 2018, Waymo, the company that emerged from Google’s self-driving car project, officially started its commercial self-driving car service in the suburbs of Phoenix. Companies like May Mobility, Drive Read Article
    Thermal Pads vs Thermal Paste: The Best Choice for Mounting Your Heatsinks I used to work as a construction assistant where my primary responsibility was as a leveler of properties prior to the heavy concrete trucks laying down a level foundation. It was a tedious and taxing job, but something that is quite crucial for a building in order for it to withstand years of use and abuse. I would run through a spit of land with nothing more than a shovel ensuring that the ground is flat and level within an inch tolerance. One Read Article
    A Schematic Tutorial in Altium Designer: The Journey of a Thousand PCBs Here you are: you’ve upgraded your PCB design software to Altium Designer after four years working in OrCAD, PADS, or another design program. It’s an exciting change, and you’ll likely encounter challenges while you learn about Altium Designer’s unified design environment. You might find yourself resorting to old processes out of habit, only to discover that Altium Designer can streamline every step of design and layout. There’s an important step Read Article
    Circuit Design Tips: PCB Moisture Protection for Humid Environments I pride myself on being meticulous when I check my designs. I can spend hours checking schematics, footprints and the proper values of components before finalizing the design. Unfortunately, the same zeal and perfectionism cannot be said with my housekeeping skills. A cleaner would have been horrified by the accumulated dust in the corners of my house. It was particularly embarrassing when I forgot to wash my dish tray and it became the home to a Read Article
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