Fritzing, an open source program to create schematics and diagrams for the hobbyist

[William Gaatjes]

I was looking for a way to turn down the annoying loud volume of the door bell from my door intercom in my apartment. In my search for some documentation, i came upon a German website that had some nice project about automating a similar door intercom and used this interesting software. As it turned out, there was inside my intercom a potentiometer to lower the doorbell volume. And so i did. The previous renter must have been deaf or something.

If you have not heard of it or read about it before : Fritzing.
If you are an electronic hobbyist and you want to make a schematic and a pcb but do not have the money for a real program. This program can help you out.
It also support prototyping on a breadboard. Meaning it has a schematic mode where you can insert components and draw wires in a neat fashion. They also support arduino boards and a lot of sparkfun components and have a growing library. I do not think you can do real complex stuff with it. But for some relatively complex home projects it could be fine.

After decompressing the file, it is about 189MB in size. There is no need for installation. Pressing the executable is sufficient.
I tested the 64bit version and it works.
It is available for windows 32bit and 64bit. For Linux and Mac.

The developers ask a few dollars/euros for donations, if you can spare, please do.

http://fritzing.org/home/

 

[William Gaatjes]

It seems that the forum they have is not well protected against spam messages.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Looks interesting will have to try it. Wonder how it compares to KIcad. It looks more intuitive for basic designs.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Looks interesting will have to try it. Wonder how it compares to KIcad. It looks more intuitive for basic designs.

I think KIcad is meant to be used for serious pcb design. But for home hobby use, Fritzing seems nice. Especially for starters new to the electronic world.

http://kicad-pcb.org/
I looked at the website. That program looks very nice and interesting.
I had a quick glance and it seems to have features only found in professional software such as trace length matching and a 3D view of the pcb design to see how the design will end up and if it will fit.
The interesting things will be how it supports the different formats in gerber files and idf files and dxf files. With IDF and DXF files, you can export and import mechanical drawings.
This eases the physical design of the pcb. But also of the mechanical housing for the pcb to be designed.

The Gerber files are files that you can send to a pcb manufacturer to produce actual physical pcb.
I think the program does have all these features. A quick google seems to show that importing and exporting of idf files is possible.
There is a free open source program called freecad that allows for 3D modelling of mechanical stuff and this program exports and imports idf files.
http://www.freecadweb.org/

I do not know how good it works, but it does seem to allow the user to create what professional programs such as cadence and solidworks allow the user to do. I do not know about bugs or support, though.

 

[John Connor]

Cool! I shall check this out!

The Gerber files are files that you can send to a pcb manufacturer to produce actual physical pcb.

I didn't know this could be done! I have a schematic I would love to etch, but I'm not sure how to etch the board onto copper. How would I trace it to the copper clad board? I even bought a radio shack copper clad board maker to do this. But if a manufacture can do it I would like to go that route. What manufacture does this?

 

[William Gaatjes]

Cool! I shall check this out!






I didn't know this could be done! I have a schematic I would love to etch, but I'm not sure how to etch the board onto copper. How would I trace it to the copper clad board? I even bought a radio shack copper clad board maker to do this. But if a manufacture can do it I would like to go that route. What manufacture does this?

I plan to go here, since (work related) we have good experience :
http://www.v-ps.com/default.aspx?lang=EN
or here :
http://www.eurocircuits.com/
Because it is close to home in Europe.

For North America, South America and Asia, try this site :
http://pcbshopper.com/

Best is to order 5 and the longer the arrival time, the cheaper it gets. For example, if you want the pcb within 5 workdays you have to pay more than when you wait 25 workdays.

More layers increases price as does size.
So, thinking over your design with respect to cost and design functionality is a must.

 

[William Gaatjes]

For those interested :
I was reading various sites about the raspberry pi.
I just found out that Fritzing also supports making wiring diagrams with the raspberry pi, as can be seen here :

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/raspberry-gpio

I tested it, and it actually has boards from various suppliers.
^_^

 

[John Connor]

For North America, South America and Asia, try this site :
http://pcbshopper.com/

Thanks. Looks expensive, even for 20 days. I just have a simple design for an analog poor mans bug detector. I do have a copper clad board kit, but I don't know how to get the diagram onto the copper cald board so I can etch it.

Also, what is surface finish? I chose chipset. Not sure what to use. And the solder mask color? Is that just the trace path?

 

[Jeff7]

Thanks. Looks expensive, even for 20 days. I just have a simple design for an analog poor mans bug detector. I do have a copper clad board kit, but I don't know how to get the diagram onto the copper clad board so I can etch it.

Also, what is surface finish? I chose cheapest. Not sure what to use. And the solder mask color? Is that just the trace path?

Any circuitboard is going to be fairly pricey in small quantities.

Here's a good half-hour video by Eurocircuits that shows how boards are made.
(It shows their logo periodically throughout, since it was originally a bunch of short videos that got mashed into one. The first 2.5 minutes talks about their company a bit. There's also a section about "inner layers," which only applies to boards with more than 2 layers of copper. The rest of the process is still the same. You'll only need that many layers if you've got to cram a lot of parts into a very small amount of space. Not all facilities are as automated as theirs is. Smaller PCB shops do a lot of things manually, including simple actions like carrying panels to the various manufacturing stages.)


The reason for high cost on small quantities is the tooling:
- Setup and creation of plastic films for copper layers.
- Setup and creation of films for soldermask.
- Driller setup.

Tooling for a new panel might be $250, and then you start paying for the circuitboard service and the materials. A single panel for prototyping will have several different designs on it, so the tooling does at least get spread across the various designs, so you're not stuck paying all of it.
The more you make of a single design, the more parts there are to amortize that tooling cost across.



- Surface finish: This deals with the metal pads that are exposed for soldering.
HASL: Hot-air surface leveling. Before this, the board has plain copper pads. During HASL, the entire board is put in a machine that dips it into molten solder. Air knives that blast hot air then blow extra solder off of the boards, leaving a thin coating of solder behind. This can be leaded or lead-free. Typically you get the type that matches the solder you'll be using. If you're not doing a production board and just something for home prototyping where long-term reliability isn't an issue, go for cheapest. If you select "cheapest," they'll give the entire panel the same thing. Otherwise, they'd have to make two panels: One for lead-free, and one for leaded, which means more cost.

Sometimes this can leave a small meniscus or bump on each pad. If you're soldering big parts or through-hole things, this doesn't matter. If you're working with tiny TSSOP or TQFP parts, then that little bumpiness can lead to solder bridging. The pads are so damn small that that little bit of solder left behind after the air knife is actually all the solder you'd need - a dab of flux would get the job done.

ENIG: Electroless nickel immersion gold. The board's pads get a plating of nickel, followed by a plating of gold. This gives very flat pads, but also costs more.


Soldermask: This is usually green. It's a hard lacquer finish that helps protect the metal, and also reduces solder bridging. Solder doesn't want to stick to the mask, and instead prefers to bead together and stay wicked to pads and leads.
The cheapest boards at ExpressPCB don't have soldermask or silkscreen. What's unfortunate about their service is that you must use their software for the design of the schematic and board, the software can't import files designed in other packages, and you can't export from the software. You also can't send them industry-standard Gerber files for processing. I guess it helps them keep their costs down - trying to get good Gerbers from people who don't know what they're doing is likely an expensive proposition. But it's decent if you've got a simple little board that you want done fairly cheap.

Other colors are available, but most of the machines are going to be set up for green. If you request another color, that means the manufacturer will need to clean up a machine, set up for that color, process the panel, then clean up the machine and load green back on it.

Silkscreen: Also called the Legend. Usually white. Some places still use a stencil for this, others use a type of inkjet printer to reduce setup costs. This is the text and outlines to tell you where to put parts, and also to label inputs, outputs, power, and so on.

 

[sm625]

I was looking for a way to turn down the annoying loud volume of the door bell from my door intercom in my apartment.

It's called duct tape. Seriously. If you're worried about aesthetics then you can paint over it or use white masking tape. If it is too quiet then you just poke holes in it until it is just right.

 

[freeskier93]

Looks like a great visual program, for something a little more serious Eagle is pretty much the go to for free software. You mentioned Sparkfun, Eagle is what they use and they have a library for every component they sell.

Advanced Circuits also has a free schematic/layout software, they also have really good prices on high quality boards. They do $33 full spec 2 layer boards, minimum quantity of 4 boards, unless you're a student then no minimum.