Designing Circuit Boards with EAGLE: Make High-Quality PCBs at Low Cost

by Matthew Scarpino

Overview

"Matt Scarpino has provided a great tool for the hobbyist starting out in the circuit board design world, demonstrating all the features you’ll need to create your own circuit board projects. However, the experienced engineer will also benefit from the book, as it serves as a complete reference guide to all EAGLE software configuration settings and features. His insightful guidance helps simplify difficult tasks, and his handy tips will help save you hours of trial-and-error experimentation."
-- Rich Blum, author, Sams Teach Yourself Arduino Programming in 24 Hours and Sams Teach Yourself Python Programming for Raspberry Pi in 24 Hours

Powerful, flexible, and inexpensive, EAGLE is the ideal PCB design solution for every Maker/DIYer, startup, hobbyist, or student. Today, all open source Arduino designs are released in EAGLE format: If you want to design cost-effective new PCBs, this is the tool to learn.

Matthew Scarpino helps you take full advantage of EAGLE’s remarkable capabilities. You won’t find any differential equations here: only basic circuit theory and hands-on techniques for designing effective PCBs and getting innovative new gadgets to market.

Scarpino starts with an accessible introduction to the fundamentals of PCB design. Next, he walks through the design of basic, intermediate, and complex circuit boards, starting with a simple inverting amplifier and culminating in a six-layer single-board computer with hundreds of components and thousands of routed connections.

As the circuits grow more complex, you’ll master advanced EAGLE features and discover how to automate crucial design-related tasks. Whatever your previous experience, Scarpino’s start-to-finish examples and practical insight can help you create designs of stunning power and efficiency.

• Understand single-sided, double-sided, and multilayer boards
• Design practical circuits with the schematic editor
• Transform schematics into physical board designs
• Convert board designs into Gerber output files for fabrication
• Expand EAGLE’s capabilities with new libraries and components
• Exchange designs with LTspice and simulate their responses to input
• Automate simple repetitive operations with editor commands
• Streamline circuit design and library generation with User Language programs (ULPs)
• Design for the advanced BeagleBone Black, with high-speed BGA devices and a 32-bit system on a chip (SoC)
• Use buses to draw complex connections between components
• Configure stackups, create/route BGA components, and route high-speed signals

eagle-book.com provides an archive containing the design files for the book’s circuits. It also includes EAGLE libraries, scripts, and User Language programs (ULPs).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780133820010
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	03/27/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	408
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Matthew Scarpino is an engineer with more than 12 years of experience designing hardware and software. He has a Master’s Degree in electrical engineering and is an Advanced Certified Interconnect Designer (CID+). He currently resides in Massachusetts where he develops software for embedded systems. In his spare time, he uses EAGLE to design accessories for his Android smartphone and the Google Glass.

Table of Contents

Preface     xi
Acknowledgments     xiv
About the Author     xv
Part I: Preliminary Introduction
Chapter 1: Introducing EAGLE     1
1.1 A Whirlwind Tour of EAGLE     2
1.2 Obtaining EAGLE     6
1.3 Licensing     7
1.4 Organization of This Book     8
1.5 More Information     10
1.6 Conclusion     11
Chapter 2: An Overview of Circuit Boards and EAGLE Design     13
2.1 Anatomy of a Printed Circuit Board     14
2.2 Overview of Circuit Design with EAGLE     22
2.3 Conclusion     28
Chapter 3: Designing a Simple Circuit     31
3.1 An Inverting Amplifier     31
3.2 Initial Steps     33
3.3 The Inverting Amplifier Schematic     35
3.4 Board Layout     44
3.5 Routing     48
3.6 CAM Processor     52
3.7 Conclusion     55
Part II: Designing the Arduino Femtoduino
Chapter 4: Designing the Femtoduino Schematic     57
4.1 Initial Steps     59
4.2 The Reset Switch     61
4.3 Voltage Regulation     65
4.4 The ATmega328P Microcontroller     67
4.5 Header Connections     71
4.6 Net Classes     73
4.7 Electrical Rule Check     74
4.8 Generating the Board Design     76
4.9 Framing the Schematic     76
4.10 Attributes and Assembly Variants     77
4.11 Conclusion     79
Chapter 5: Layout and Design Rules     81
5.1 Layers     81
5.2 Board Layout     84
5.3 Design Rule Check     90
5.4 Conclusion     100
Chapter 6: Routing     101
6.1 An Overview of Routing     102
6.2 Manual Routing     103
6.3 Follow-Me Routing     108
6.4 The Autorouter     109
6.5 Home PCB Fabrication     113
6.6 Conclusion     118
Chapter 7: Generating and Submitting Output Files     119
7.1 Jobs and the CAM Processor     119
7.2 Viewing Gerber Files     125
7.3 Drill Files     126
7.4 Submitting Design Files     130
7.5 Conclusion     140
Part III: Advanced Capabilities
Chapter 8: Creating Libraries and Components     141
8.1 Creating the Library     142
8.2 Creating the SIMPLE-TQFP16     143
8.3 Creating the VACUUM-TH     149
8.4 Creating the TW9920     153
8.5 Conclusion     160
Chapter 9: Simulating Circuits with LTspice     161
9.1 Introducing LTspice     161
9.2 Designing a Schematic     163
9.3 Simulating the Circuit     170
9.4 Exchanging Designs with EAGLE     174
9.5 Conclusion     176
Part IV: Automating EAGLE
Chapter 10: Editor Commands     177
10.1 Introducing Editor Commands     177
10.2 Schematic Editor Commands     180
10.3 Commands for Board Designs     187
10.4 Commands for Library Interface     192
10.5 The Assign, Change, and Set Commands     202
10.6 Configuration Scripts     207
10.7 Conclusion     208
Chapter 11: Introduction to the User Language (UL)      209
11.1 Overview of UL     209
11.2 Simple Data Types and Functions     211
11.3 Builtins     214
11.4 Control Structures     219
11.5 The exit Statement     221
11.6 Conclusion     222
Chapter 12: Examining Designs with the User Language     225
12.1 UL-Specific Data Types     226
12.2 Schematic Designs (UL_SCHEMATIC)      227
12.3 Board Designs (UL_BOARD)      243
12.4 Conclusion     256
Chapter 13: Creating Dialogs and Menu Items     257
13.1 Predefined Dialogs     257
13.2 Custom Dialogs and Widgets     264
13.3 Dialog Layouts     275
13.4 The Menu Command     278
13.5 Conclusion     279
Part V: The BeagleBone Black
Chapter 14: Schematic Design for the BeagleBone Black     281
14.1 Overview of the BeagleBone Black     282
14.2 Advanced EAGLE Schematics     284
14.3 AM3359 Memory/JTAG Connections     286
14.4 AM3359 I/O Connections     290
14.5 System Memory     293
14.6 Power Management     295
14.7 Ethernet and the Universal Serial Bus     297
14.8 Graphics Display     300
14.9 Conclusion     301
Chapter 15: Board Design for the BeagleBone Black     303
15.1 Configuring the Stackup     304
15.2 Creating and Routing Ball Grid Arrays     307
15.3 Trace Length and Meander     313
15.4 The BBB Board Design     316
15.5 Conclusion     321
Appendix A: EAGLE Library Files     323
A.1 Anatomy of a Library File     323
A.2 Settings, Grid, and Layers     325
A.3 Overview of Library Elements     327
A.4 Symbols     329
A.5 Packages     336
A.6 Devicesets     340
A.7 Conclusion     346
Appendix B: The Gerber File Format     347
B.1 Introducing the Gerber Format     347
B.2 Setting Global Properties     349
B.3 Aperture Definitions     353
B.4 Drawing Shapes     356
B.5 Custom Apertures     361
B.6 Conclusion     368
Index     369

Editorial Reviews

"Matt Scarpino has succeeded where scores of others have failed--he’s managed to make the formidable EAGLE software understandable and, more importantly, useable. His presentation is not only approachable and logical, but it’s complete. When you’ve finished his book, you’ll be able to do something meaningful with EAGLE. This book belongs on every engineer’s bookshelf or tablet."
--Bryan Bergeron, Editor, Nuts & Volts Magazine

"Matt Scarpino’s Designing Circuit Boards with EAGLE is a great resource for electronics enthusiasts who are ready to get serious and produce their own circuit boards. Matt’s sensible instructions take readers through the steps to design simple and not-so-simple circuit boards, and you can really tell that he’s been using EAGLE for 10 years and loves it. I’m recommending this book to all my maker friends."
--John Baichtal, Author of Arduino for Beginners: Essential Skills Every Maker Needs

"With the rising popularity of open source hardware projects, the EAGLE circuit board software has become a vital tool for both hobbyists and professional engineers alike. Designing Circuit Boards with EAGLE provides all the information you’ll need to get up to speed with the EAGLE software, and to start creating your own circuit board designs. Matt Scarpino has provided a great tool for the hobbyist starting out in the circuit board design world, demonstrating all of the features you’ll need to know to create your own circuit board projects. However, the experienced engineer will also benefit from the book, as it also serves as a complete reference guide to all the EAGLE software configuration settings and features. His insightful guidance helps simplify difficult tasks in the EAGLE software, and his handy tips will help save you hours of trial-and-error experimenting in your circuit board designs."
--Rich Blum, Author of Sam’s Teach Yourself Arduino Programming in 24 Hours and Sams Teach Yourself Python Programming for Raspberry Pi in 24 Hours

From the Publisher