What schematic SW to use?

Hello all -

I am a hobbyist who tinkers with electronics, mostly interfacing sensors and displays with various PIC microcontrollers, maybe sending the data to the PC, etc. I'll work on a project for a few weeks in my spare time, debug it and get it working, then take the parts off the protoboard and find another project that interests me and start over. My code is pretty well-documented (IMO!), and I try to scribble the circuit schematic in a notebook, but as the complexity of the things I work on increases, I have found I need a cleaner and neater way to document my hardware. So, I don't need to layout a PCB or do any SPICE modeling, but I would like some software that allows me to plop down a 28-pin part for example, resistors, caps, etc., and hook up wires to them so that I end up with a neat image that I can save or print out so I can recreate my project later. Don't need an IC library; as long as the pins are numbered and the SW lets me edit the part number, I can live with that. My projects usually have less than 20 ICs.

Any suggestions for this?

Thanks much, Bill

Reply to
Bill Turnip
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Free program eagle from cadsoftusa.com works on Winders and Linux.

It CAN do PCB layout, but just don't use that part.

Reply to
Alan Kilian

There's the gEDA project for Linux users

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A pretty complete set of tools.

In the Windows environment, I like to recommend the free "Lite" version of BeigeBag spice

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There's a link to a chart listing the capabilities and limitations. Might be enough to do the schematic capture. Could also come in handy for simulating this or that piece of the project.

Reply to
Rich Webb

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It's free and easy to use too.

Reply to
Earl Bollinger

Thanks to everyone for the feedback and ideas. Here is what I have learned. I downloaded both "PCB123" and "ExpressPCB" for Window$. Both of these - from PCB vendors- are for schematic capture as well as PCB layout, and they even estimate your board price. When you finish your layout and check it, send them the design via the web and it arrives at your place within a few days. Or so they say. Anyway, I just wanted a schematic layout and editing tool for documentation purposes, and both of these were suggested to me.

Well, the PCB123 GUI looks pretty spiffy. And the components you grab from the library and place on the schematic are pretty colorful. I also downloaded some additional libraries from their website. The documentation regarding the libraries is really poor. (All the documentation is pretty poor). Anyway, not a single component I needed was in any of their libraries. Not even Microchip EEPROM. Sure, you can build and add your own, but that takes quite a bit of time. And their library manager software stinks. Adding a component to a library doesn't seem to work, and I found a FAQ that says "they are working on it."

OK, so then on to ExpressPCB. Not as fancy looking as PCB123, but virtually every part I wanted was in their libraries. PICs out the wazoo! They have Parallax Stamps and an Analog Device accelerometer! I needed the Maxim MAX7221 display driver and the didn't have it, so I modified the existing MAX7219 and had the MAX7221 in less than a minute. Fifteen minutes with ExpressPCB was more fruitful than the 3 hours I spent screwing around with PCB123.

Thanks.

Reply to
Bill Turnip

Thanks to everyone for the feedback and ideas. Here is what I have learned. I downloaded both "PCB123" and "ExpressPCB" for Window$. Both of these - from PCB vendors- are for schematic capture as well as PCB layout, and they even estimate your board price. When you finish your layout and check it, send them the design via the web and it arrives at your place within a few days. Or so they say. Anyway, I just wanted a schematic layout and editing tool for documentation purposes, and both of these were suggested to me.

Well, the PCB123 GUI looks pretty spiffy. And the components you grab from the library and place on the schematic are pretty colorful. I also downloaded some additional libraries from their website. The documentation regarding the libraries is really poor. (All the documentation is pretty poor). Anyway, not a single component I needed was in any of their libraries. Not even Microchip EEPROM. Sure, you can build and add your own, but that takes quite a bit of time. And their library manager software stinks. Adding a component to a library doesn't seem to work, and I found a FAQ that says "they are working on it."

OK, so then on to ExpressPCB. Not as fancy looking as PCB123, but virtually every part I wanted was in their libraries. PICs out the wazoo! They have Parallax Stamps and an Analog Device accelerometer! I needed the Maxim MAX7221 display driver and the didn't have it, so I modified the existing MAX7219 and had the MAX7221 in less than a minute. Fifteen minutes with ExpressPCB was more fruitful than the 3 hours I spent screwing around with PCB123.

Thanks.

Reply to
Bill Turnip

Thanks, Bill! It's people like you who share what they have learned that saves us all a bunch of time.

Reply to
Guy Macon

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