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KiCad Design Workflow
The steps for designing PCBs using an open-source and free ECAD tool
The steps for designing PCBs using an open-source and free ECAD tool
Designs created in an ECAD program may be electrically correct on the screen, but are ultimately constrained by the capabilities of your fabrication equipment. This tutorial walks through how to use the program DFM Now to verify that a design is able to be manufactured by the LPKF ProtoMat S63 in PRLTA 109.
Design Rules Check (DRC) is a tool that looks for a limited set of errors in PCB designs, and generates error messages to help you identify and fix the problem(s). A design that passes a DRC is not necessarily error-free, but rather has passed the limited set of tests that DRC conducts. You can (and should) run a DRC in both Design Entry CIS and PCB Editor, and they will look for different types of errors.
Before exporting your schematic to create a PCB, you must verify the design and fix errors in the schematic 1. It is significantly more difficult to fix errors later (either during the PCB layout stage or after manufacturing) than to spend time double-checking the schematic first.
Many sensors have an analog output that must be digitized using an Analog to Digital converter (ADC) in order to use them in a microcontroller. The PIC’s ADC subsystem is the peripheral used to read analog values and convert it into a digital number for use in your program. It can be configured in a variety of ways. In this assignment, you will create an ADC subsystem and program your microcontroller to transmit the result of reading an analog voltage measured at an input pin, using the ADC subsystem in one of its simplest configurations.
A finite state machine (FSM) is a way of modeling a system such that there are a limited number of finite “states” that a system can be in, and that it can only be in one of those states at a time. Events (e.g., pushing a button) cause the system to change from one state to the next. Unexpected events do not cause the system to change states, which is useful for ignoring spurious inputs. Rather than coding for every possible input, you can instead code only for inputs that matter at the given time. The following resources provide a solid conceptual framing and implementation examples:
This method involves applying solder paste to the pads on the PCB, manually placing your surface mount components into the solder paste, and baking the board in a special oven to solder the entire PCB at once. This method is not really easier than hand soldering for one-off PCBs; you are trading one set of challenges for a different set. If you are interested in using solder paste and the reflow oven to solder your components, please contact Osama Jameel in PRLTA 109.
These distributors are often used by professionals in industry, and provide the most complete selection of different parts.
Serial Communication - SPI & Shift Register Tutorial
Getting familiar with the SPI serial communication protocol using MCC under the MPLAB X programming environment to program the PIC16F18446 Curiosity Nano development board and control a shift register to drive 8 LEDs on and off. In this tutorial, you will learn to set up the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), Shift Registers, and 3 of the major numeral system (decimal, binary, and hexadecimal).
