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PCB Design

Should You Use Thick or Thin FR4 for Your PCB Substrate?

Should You Use Thick or Thin FR4 for Your PCB Substrate? If you’ve ever made a pie with your kids, you know that the thickness of your crust is important. Too thin, and the pie falls apart into a mess of filling. Too thick, and you might as well be chewing on a loaf of bread. Getting the thickness just right is what makes a pie worth eating. Even though PCB substrate materials are non-conductive and do not carry current, the thickness of your FR4 PCB substrate determines the board's structural strength Read Article

Design for Easy Processes: Create and Link Supplier Data to Any Component

Design for Easy Processes: Create and Link Supplier Data to Any Component If you’ve spent any time with Altium Designer, you’ll already have some familiarity with the ease and simplicity behind such a powerful library platform. There are times, however, when these libraries will require you to get your hands dirty. Whether it be a simple part number change, or re-engineering some key parameters, your edits can be simplistically updated in a matter of moments. In this specific example, we’ll take a look at a common Read Article

The PCB Design Advantages You Can Expect with Altium Designer 3D Viewing

The PCB Design Advantages You Can Expect with Altium Designer 3D Viewing I read once about a test pilot during World War II who complained about how a new fighter plane’s engine quit on him when he rolled the plane on its back. This is a pretty basic maneuver for a fighter, but because the engine wasn’t designed for inverted flight it couldn’t perform as it was expected to. I remember that story because I have had a similar experience with many of the PCB CAD systems that I have used over the years. Because those Read Article

EMI Reducing PCB Shielding Techniques to Incorporate in Your Designs

EMI Reducing PCB Shielding Techniques to Incorporate in Your Designs I spent most of my twenties producing and mastering music for local artists. As much as I love older consoles, it gets annoying to listen to audio from one channel bleeding over to other channels. Newer consoles are built with proper EMI shielding and crosstalk reduction measures, and the analog signals in these newer consoles are much cleaner. Digital devices are not immune either. Modern computers and smartphones continue to pack more silicon Read Article

Let Your Designs Talk for You: Export Altium 3D Layout Artwork to Adobe® PDF

Let Your Designs Talk for You: Export Altium 3D Layout Artwork to Adobe® PDF It wasn’t long ago that getting to new places around town required talking and writing down verbal instructions from another. I’d pull out my city map and study the route, having to note each street and intersection where I’d turn. It worked, but it took concentration and good map-reading skills. Today, I use my smart phone’s map feature and audio capabilities to get where I’m going. Assembly instructions for printed circuits contain the same Read Article

PCB Design Software Upgrades: Progressive Releases Build Confidence

PCB Design Software Upgrades: Progressive Releases Build Confidence There is pain and pleasure when anticipating new technology. All of us have been through steep learning curves that wear down the elation to use technology that’ll do something cool. Soon we abandon newly-adopted technology given its lack of delivery on the promise. There are some gadgets, however, that not only perform but are easy to use. Ease of use with powerful features is a pleasure. When powerful features evolve we’ve got a home run! Each Read Article

Smart Self-Check Process to Optimize Power-Up for Embedded Systems

Smart Self-Check Process to Optimize Power-Up for Embedded Systems I’ve been obsessed with morning routines ever since I started sending my son to kindergarten in the morning. From making breakfast to ensuring that his schoolbag is properly packed, I rarely mess up, except for a rare occasion where I forgot to place his water bottle in his bag. Despite the rarity of that occurrence, my son wasn’t impressed with my forgetfulness even though I promised it wouldn’t happen again. Now, when checking through his Read Article

Augment This! How AR is Changing PCB Design

Augment This! How AR is Changing PCB Design If you’ve yet to play with an AR or VR experience, you should! The emerging technology is quickly becoming a game changer for industries such as entertainment, healthcare, education, military, and the list goes on. Providing, quite literally, an infinite amount of potential applications, it’s no wonder that so many industries are affected by and are embracing the new tech. While VR places the user inside an entirely manufactured environment, AR Read Article

52:00 Expert in High Speed Digital Design, Lee Ritchey [OnTrack Podcast] Watch Video

Easy PCB Routing Board Layout with Altium Designer

Easy PCB Board Layout Routes with Altium Designer There are not too many things better than a good road trip to a new location. The excitement mixed with anticipation is like a perfectly proportioned libation. However, I always have the same apprehension in looking at a new map and wonder how I will ever become familiar with all the streets. Yet, somehow I always manage to learn them. A map is just a layout which is just the realization of a plan and underneath every plan are patterns to be Read Article

What's New In Altium Designer 18 Webinar Recap May 17, 2018

What's New In Altium Designer 18 Webinar Recap May 17, 2018 In case you missed our Altium ^® live webinar, no worries. You can catch up here with the video recording and presentation slides. If you’re not a fan of videos I’ll try my best to summarize in the webinar notes below. The key takeaways will be the same as the April 19th webinar but do take a look at the questions as they’ll be different. Also for next month's Altium webinar I plan to show more, I’m thinking ActiveBOM^® but if you all have Read Article

CircuitStudio 1.5 Is Available Now

CircuitStudio 1.5 Is Available Now We’re happy to announce an update for our PCB design software CircuitStudio^® 1.5. Although this is not a major feature-packed release -that's on its way- it's still important and admittedly much needed. CircuitStudio is alive and still being developed. What this means is more regular updates, we even have planned another update by the end of this year. I’m sure you guys want to know what’s new and what’s coming, so let me just jump into it Read Article

Why You Need BOM Management Tools for PCB Design

Why You Need BOM Management Tools for PCB Design Although, I do not drive as much as I once did being on the road is still one of my most favorite activities. Not many things can equal the thrill and freedom that comes from being behind the wheel. Yet, there can be a great deal of difference in the experience depending on the vehicle you are driving. Almost any vehicle will perform the basic function of getting you from point A to point B, but there comes a time when basic is not enough. Moving Read Article

The Fundamentals of Programming a PIC Microcontroller

The Fundamentals of Programming a PIC Microcontroller One thing I’ve learned from parenting: it can be incredibly difficult to teach a child something. While they might be very interested, and they might have all the time and resources in the world, if the child isn’t ready to learn or is missing some crucial building block, they might just not get the skill or lesson. Thankfully, programming a PIC microcontroller unit (MCU) is considerably easier. With the right programming tools, circuit, and Read Article

Rotate and Flip Components in Altium Designer

How Do I Flip and Rotate Components in Altium Designer and Other Schematic Functions In this article, we'll give a brief overview of how to flip or mirror components in Altium Designer, as well as how to rotate components in different design documents. The functions in the schematic are slightly different than in the PCB layout, so follow along if you are a new user and want to learn these basic functions. These functions can be accessed in multiple places: from the main menu at the top of the application window, using a hotkey Read Article

What PCB Designers Need to Know About Conductive Ink Printing With 3D Printers

Conductive Ink Printing for PCB Designers: What You Need To Know When you’re a father, there are many things that you have to get really good at doing really quickly. While I could take some time in prototyping to work out all the kinks in my designs, I don’t have that luxury when trying to decipher why my kid is crying at 3 in the morning. As a result, I’ve developed some skill at making milk formula and changing diapers quickly. If only I could’ve developed that sense of god-like speed in printed circuit Read Article

What’s the Future of WiFi for the Internet of Things?

What’s the Future of WiFi for the Internet of Things? I’ve come to adopt several different modes of communication between the different social circles in my life. Slack, messenger, texting, calling, letter writing and various other messenger services - all of which are unique to particular people or friend groups. Most of the time, I can barely keep track of them all and more often I end up sending the right text to the wrong person. IoT protocols are just as diverse, and new options come out Read Article