Project Management

Managing Your Audio Power Supply Designs: Tips for Circuit Design

Managing Your Audio Power Supply Designs: Tips for Circuit Design As I get older, I suspect I’m gradually getting deafer. My hearing was pretty sharp during my teenage years but these days, I miss out on conversations and need to frequently ask people to repeat themselves. Perhaps my hearing ability is deteriorating due to age; however, when I hear static noise creeping out of an amplifier, I know to trust my ears. In electronics, the power supply of audio circuits can mean the difference between perfect audio Read Article

Old Software Doesn’t Need a Leash for New Supplier Parts Updating

Old Software Doesn’t Need a Leash for New Supplier Parts Updating Keeping track of component updates is a big job, what with change announcements coming in from vendors and distributors in random announcements and emails throughout the year. Keeping track of random notices and having a good process for implementing them is also difficult. Using schematic and PCB editors, along with local and global libraries in an organized manner helps keep component information organized and available. Use of component Read Article

Expedite Cost Savings with Continually Updated BOM Pricing

Costed BOM: Expedite Cost Savings with Continually Updated BOM Pricing Knowing your market and providing supply for your customers is an art. Purveyors of commodities have long been negotiating with their clients to plan supply chain needs. Stock becomes more desirable as supplies diminish, especially if demand grows and the need is great. If need and demand remain robust, pricing holds and suppliers make money while offering fair deals to their customers. Electronic component vendors carefully plan their offerings Read Article

Use Unique ID EEPROM in Your Embedded System to Prevent Design Counterfeiting

Use Unique ID EEPROM in Your Embedded System to Prevent Design Counterfeiting There’s a saying that smart people don’t always finish the race first. In college, I remember some classmates copying my assignments, only to end up getting better scores than I did. Being smart didn’t necessarily guarantee me the top grades in college and watching others achieve success based on my ideas became demoralizing. The business world is similar; it isn’t uncommon for companies to copy concepts that work well for their competitors and Read Article

Internal Versus External Surge Protection: What’s Best for Total PCB Protection

Internal Versus External Surge Protectors: What’s Best for Total PCB Protection Whether its internal or external surge protection, your electronics device needs something to keep it healthy throughout the lifespan. Read Article

Small Electronic Circuit Design Demands Large Amounts of Attention

Small Electronic Circuit Design Demands Large Amounts of Attention With new taxes regularly introduced to the rising costs of living, it’s only a matter of time before consumers suffer from chain effects. It gets to my nerves when my favorite local restaurants increase prices or resort to reducing their serving size. Of course, I would prefer for things to stay the same but I can at least satisfy my hunger by paying a little extra. In electronics, PCB designs are also getting smaller, just like my favorite plate Read Article

How to Use Testpoints on a PCB Design in Altium Designer

How to Use Test Points on PCB | Altium Designer Maybe it’s because of the old memories of pop quizzes in grade school, but it seems like no one really likes the idea of “testing”. Just as the school children in “A Christmas Story” reacted badly to having to write a theme, people all over the world usually react just as negatively to the idea of taking a test. And yet, if you are going to be a circuit board designer, you are going to have to learn how to use a PCB test point. The good news is Read Article

Don’t Worry Over Your PCB Layout Files ASCII Dance, Waltz with Unified Tools

Don’t Worry Over Your PCB Layout Files ASCII Dance, Waltz with Unified Tools Although competitive partner dancing looks complicated, the technique behind the art is precise. It is nothing like the PCB layout files ASCII dance. Dancers move their feet uniformly in intricate patterns set to the musical beat. If the technique is flawed, steps are missed, and feet collide, ruining the dance. Error messages are indications of missing steps in PCB layout software. When placing and routing components in the software, error Read Article

Checklist to Troubleshoot a Faulty Embedded System in Your PCB

Computer Fault Finding Checklist: Troubleshoot a Faulty Embedded System in Your PCB Kids these days are much smarter than we were. When I was six, all I cared about was watching Sesame Street every evening. My son, on the other hand, regularly searches for his favorite cartoons on Youtube and asks for the correct phrases to type in to receive the exact results he’s looking for. Even at such a young age, he understands that asking smart questions leads to quicker, and more efficient, solutions. Although finding the right terms to Read Article

Ducks in a Row: Process Control and Document Traceability in One Place

Ducks in a Row: Process Control and Document Traceability in One Place Louis Pasteur captured the essence of complicated endeavors when he stated that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” Don’t miss opportunities for excellence when faced with complex tasks. Designing and building printed circuit boards and their assemblies is a complex task, made up of many meticulous endeavors. You could say that unified PCA documentation and communication favors successful outcomes when building products. Document types and Read Article

Obsolescence Management of Electronic Components Throughout Product Lifetime

Obsolescence Management of Electronic Components Throughout Product Lifetime I know what you’re thinking. Why can’t my manager automate a process for obsolescence management of electronic components? It would be nice to have one database compatible with each user’s software. Until then, I’ve set up weekly meetings so stakeholders can collect germane information about components into a common spreadsheet. It has been working but I would like to automate with software that all departments can use effectively. Let’s face it Read Article

Collaborative Design Software: Create a Schematic Symbol for any Component

Collaborative Design Software: Create PCB Schematic Symbols for any Component We’ve all been knee deep in a schematic capture session when we are suddenly hard-walled by a missing component in our project library. You check other libraries to see if the part exists but find everything except success. What do you do? Thankfully, these situations are mitigated by Altium Designer’s software solutions. With tools designed for you to work as intuitively and efficiently as you can, you will be cruising in no time. Creating your Read Article

3D PCB Editor Simplifies Concurrent ECAD/MCAD Modeling

3D PCB Editor Simplifies Concurrent ECAD/MCAD Modeling Spending my weekends contending with powerful, yet non-intuitive modeling software is getting old. It is a shame we’ve come so far from the first CPU and its promise of computing power to still struggle with endless menus, and setting intricate parameters just to get started. The learning curves continue to suck precious hours from engineers and PCB designers, leaving many to give up new functions, such as 3D, in favor of reliable 2D environments Read Article

Cave Markings and Circuit Boards: How to Read PCB Layout Assembly Drawings

Cave Markings and Circuit Boards: How to Read PCB Layout Assembly Drawings “The devil is in the details.” Ever think about the meaning of that phrase? It tells us about the importance of details and that overlooking details will cause problems. Such a brief sentence also speaks to us about how to read a PCB assembly drawing and how to read a circuit board. Accurate component placement makes the PCB layout easier. If we gloss over the small details, many different problems can damage circuit performance. PCB assembly Read Article

3D Printing and PCB Design: Good Things Come in Three

Introduction of 3D Technology in PCBs: 3D Printing and PCB Design Early experimental jets from the design table to wind tunnel tests of models to actual piloted flight at a rapid rate. During the 1950s, aircraft designers relied on slide rules and blackboard mathematics rather than computer processing and virtual simulations. When a test pilot climbed into a cockpit, he climbed into an untested prototype. Some flights went very well and set speed and altitude records, while other flights… didn’t. As with Read Article

With RF Circuit Impedance in Mind Your Designs Won't Look Bird-Brained

With RF Circuit Impedance in Mind Your Designs Won't Look Bird-Brained Several years ago, scientists compared the aerodynamic characteristics of several bird species with different species of bats. Feathered bird wings become inactive during the upstroke and maintain lift. Every downstroke increases thrust, lift, and flight speed. In contrast, bats have membranous wings that produce lift during the upstroke. Regardless of their methods, birds and bats overcome weight and drag to achieve flight efficiency. Two Read Article

Milling Artwork in Copper: PCB Router Bit Diameters Get the Job Done

Milling Artwork in Copper: PCB Router Bit Diameters and Other Tools to Get the Job Done Spring is a busy time of year in the garden. The yard brings chores, but with the right tools, time passes easily and pretty soon I’m enjoying my lawn chair. One of those chores is picking up all the dead leaves left from Autumn that remain in places they fell, blanketing areas of shrub beds and cement patio. For shrub beds, I use rake and hands to pick up leaves and throw them in the compost. For the patio, I fire up the pressure washer and Read Article