That’s why on the first revision, an important ground connection (!) was left out. Fritzing has no ERC, no DRC, doesn’t complain about unrouted signals, etc. If you mess up such a simple PCB to need a respin, even as a beginner, then your tool is probably really bad. The PCB looks absolutely horrible, and looks do tell the part here, as the first version of it wasn’t working. This is even more problematic as Fritzing is tailored to beginners, who probably don’t know many of the intricacies of PCB manufacture.Īt the very least, Fritzing needs a reasonable grid for PCB tracks, with bent corners. However, schematic and layout are just lacking basic quality assurance features.
Posted in Arduino Hacks, how-to Tagged arduino shield, breadboard, fritzing, pcb, schematic Post navigationįritzing is an interesting project because it does offer some kind of seamless transition from breadboard to printed circuit board. Regardless, as a hobbyist found real value in using Fritzing for his project from beginning to end he documented both the process and his observations in order to help others, and that’s wonderful. had previously taught himself to use Eagle and etched his own PCBs via the toner transfer method, but decided to use Fritzing instead this time around and found it helpful and easy to use.Ībout a year ago we saw Fritzing put through its paces for PCB design, and at the time found that it didn’t impress much from an engineering perspective. starts with a basic breadboard design, draws a schematic, prototypes the circuit, then designs the PCB and orders it online, followed by assembly and testing. The PCB in question has two shift registers, eight LEDs, eight buttons, and fits onto an Arduino it’s just complex enough to demonstrate useful design features and methods while remaining accessible. Anyone who is curious or has been looking for an opportunity to get started will find ’s process useful to follow.
Decided to document his experience using Fritzing to design, fabricate, and test a custom Arduino shield PCB, and his step-by-step documentation makes the workflow very clear.