Learn PCB Design By Designing an Arduino Nano in Altium

In this lecture you will learn how to create the component symbol for the Atmel Atmega328 IC. This is the starting point of creating your own Arduino component library.

In this lecture the you will complete the creation of your Atmega 328 component library. This is the first component that we shall make. Im going to show you how to create the PCB footprint of this component and then add a generic 3D body to the component. In a later lecture I shall show you how to get a more realistic 3D body of the components.

In this lecture, Im going to be showing you how to create a Schottky diode component library in Altium Designer. This is one of the components that we will be using in our Arduino Design.

Learn how to create a PCB library of the headers in Altium Designer. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me in the discussion area of this course.

If you would like to have a more accurate 3D model of your custom Arduino Nano, then we can add a realistic 3D model which we can get all from 3D Content Central. I will show you how to import these .step files into Altium and then how to place and align the component on the pads.

A place where you can download all the all the latest Altium Designer Libraries.

Other places to find Altium Libraries

After creating the component library, we can now start with the schematic design in Altium. I will show you in this lecture on how to place components from this library onto the schematic sheet. Placing components are as simple as drag an drop. We take our Arduino library in Altium and select all the components according to the reference schematic that is shown in the resource section of this course.

This is part one of three on how to wire components in Altium Designer. I will show you how to use net labels for a clean routing of wires.

This is one of the important lectures of the course since you will be connecting the components together which will also allow you to connect the components in PCB mode. That is why it is crucial to get the wiring correct in the schematics and also that it visually makes sense as well.

Electrical connectivity between schematic component pins can be created by placing a wire between those pins. This is called physical connectivity, as the pins arephysically connected with a wire. Connectivity can also be created logically by using suitable net identifiers, such as net labels. As well as providing a human-friendly identifier for a net, a net label allow you to connect points on a circuit without actually physically wiring them together.

This is part two of three on how to wire components in Altium Designer. We are going to continue with using net labels to wire up our components in schematic view.

Instead of memorising all the keyboard shortcuts, you can print these quick list of Altium Shortcuts to speed up your PCB development

If you would like to be more efficient in your Altium Designing Experience, then go ahead and download this document to see specific keyboard shortcuts that you can use within the Altium Designer UI. This document also specifies the keyboard shortcuts for schematic view as well as for PCB view. I suggest you study this document and underline the keyboard shortcuts that you see yourself using often. Through out this course I highlight the main shortcuts that I use.

This is part three of three on how to wire components in Altium Designer. We will be finishing the wiring of the components on the schematic sheet.

Things can get quite messy in PCB design. I will show you how to keep things neat so they are legible for the next person who reads your schematic design.

To eliminate errors and to avoid duplicate designators. We use the automatic tool which can name all the component designators all in one go. Designators are the identifiers for the component on the board and make referencing easier.

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One of the key ideas in electronics is the printed circuit board or PCB. It's fundamental to the point that individuals regularly neglect to clarify what a PCB is. This lecture will delve into what makes up a PCB and some of the common terms used with PCB lingo.

Before we can place components onto the circuit board, we first have to define the board shape and size. We are going the make the shape similar to that of the Arduino Nano board shape.

Okay so now you are done with schematic design. In this lecture, I will be showing you how to place those components automatically in PCB view.

Once we have all the components on the board and placed, we then proceed to route the components and then also we auto-route the board to save time and effort routing.

In electronic design, wire routing, commonly called simply routing, is a step in the design of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and integrated circuits (ICs). It builds on a preceding step, called placement, which determines the location of each active element of an IC or component on a PCB. After placement, the routing step adds wires needed to properly connect the placed components while obeying all design rules for the IC.

This is the most challenging part of the course but also the most important part. This is where we perform design rule check so that our manufactured board does not have any errors that may cause the board to be faulty. This allows us to reduce board iterations and speeds up the prototyping phase.

Part two of Design Rule Check.

Part thee of Desgin Rule Check... Finally!! This is a short lecture to finish up the Design rule check process.

Once we have eliminated all the hardware bugs. We will clean up the PCB and make it look a little cooler than the original Arduino Nano.

Finally in this lecture, we shall generate the Gerber files which will be sent to the manufacturer as well auto-generate the Bill of Materials (BOM) so that you can order the components.

The bill of materials which you can use to send to your local suppliers to procure the components for the Arduino

There has been many rumours and myths flying around about right angled tracks on PCB being bad for PCB. You may hear people say that they are bad for EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) and reflections...