Week 5 Readme

Before we get started with the last week of tedium, I thought it might be a good idea to review where we've been and where we're going. The goal of the course is to walk you through all of the steps needed to create your own printed circuit board, so you have a high chance of success on your first independent project.

We started with a block diagram that we turned into schematic blocks. The blocks had parts that we added to a preliminary BOM. We then created the footprints for the parts in the BOM.

Now we are going to create the schematic representations for the parts. It's not boring, and it's not exciting, it's just...tedious.

At the end of this week, you should have a library of parts ready to use in a schematic. For those of you who are ready to throw up your hands, and walk deep into the wilderness to live amongst the trees, I encourage you to hang in there one more week. Life gets exciting in one more week. I hope that we have contributors who are willing to share their work with classmates who might need it.

Prerequisites:

At this point you should have:

Read everything in the Week 4 Readme
Read Custom Land Pattern Creation
Created the Land Patterns for the parts used in our Project

This Week

You should complete your library of parts.

Activities

Read Component Creation
Review your EDA Software Documentation related to component creation and library management.
Ask and Answer Questions in the Component Creation Forum

Roadmap

This is the last week of boring activities. Next week we will capture the schematic. And then we lay out the PCB!

Goals

EDA Program

Create a Parts Library inside your EDA.

Create component diagrams for all parts in the BOM.
Add all parts from the BOM to your parts library
Attach manufacturer part numbers to all parts in the library
Attach datasheet links to all parts in the library

Resources you Might Have Missed (or I forgot to share)

Free PCBs! (Anywhere in the World)

Tell your friends that are trying to save the world that Royal Circuits, Advanced Assembly, and Digi-Key Electronics are here to help! If you are educational institution or a non-profit, we will make your boards for free!

https://www.royalcircuits.com/blog/nonprofits/

https://aapcb.com/new-blog/support-for-nonprofits/