John Tiernan – Blog

Use Arduino or another platform and want to make your own PCBs? Even if you don’t and want to use create your own for another purpose?

The first step is to design the board. One popular way for hobbyists is to use a program known as EAGLE. The free version provides the ability to design simple boards to a specification suitable for professional production. At a glance the program can be a bit confusing for new users, however help is at hand.

element14 and TinkerLondon have got together to help out. On Saturday 15th May 2010, the two companies are working together to put on a workshop in London. For £10, you get a full day introduction to the tool.

More information can be found at http://tinkerlondon.com/what-we-do/workshops/introduction-to-eagle-for-advanced-arduino-users

Its taken a while, but I’ve finally got round to designing my first PCB specifically for public consumption.

It is a very simple design, but I’ve not seen anything similar recently. While working with I2C devices I’ve found a need for a simple bus board, specifically for prototyping as some times breadboards just arn’t big enough. For this reason, hopefully rather soon a new board may be available (Maybe even a kit type affair). Leave a comment if you are interested and tell your friends! More details to follow.

A much delayed post here (Mostly thanks to current unnamed projects ;)), but after a minor prompt from the folks over at Maplins, heres a few images of a couple of minor projects and maybe a sneak preview of another.

I2C Breakout board

EAGLE File image for the hopefully soon to be PCB version.

Of course, there is always the spinoff of the altoids tin extractor. Also featured is a mini part built 74HC595 adapter and button, the chip and perf board both from maplin.

A rather interesting shot of the 595 in action in the early testing stages.

Of course, there is always a sneak preview of upcoming projects. Half these parts came from Maplin, the rest from a few other places.

Still not enough for you?

How about this just to be sure!

Till next time, don’t burn your fingers 😉

EDIT:

Due to recent changes to the previous service I used for this blog, I have had to move to a new system. Below are the comments that were attached to it:

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