Fritzing PCB ‘Concept to Design to Fabrication’ – with Lots of TIPS! (And Lessons Learned)
Let me just start by saying this is about one of my favorite type of blogs out there. I love reading and watching others learn, while sharing their own experiences and tips with software and/or the lessons they learn along the way. This post by Allan Schwartz for the whatimadetoday blog has all of the above, using one of the maker community’s prized pieces of open-source software, Fritzing.
I have been having loads of fun designing boards and having these boards fabricated for next to nothing. Let me explain how.
In a previous blog post — My First Homemade PCB (or: Why Next Time I’m Ordering My PCB Online) — Amir wrote about his experience learning Eagle, the preferred ECAD tool for professionals. Since Eagle requires an expensive licensing fee, I researched other options.
Because it’s free and designed for hobbyists, I decided on Fritzing. Fritzing lets you go all the way from breadboard design, to schematic design, to board layout, and even to board fabrication. In addition, I’ve found a board house that fabricates 10 small boards for $5 — pcbway.com.
With this new found knowledge, I now am ready to take many of my breadboard designs and “complete” them by fabbing a PCB.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
