A History of Copper Pours
If you compare a modern PCB with a typical 1980s PCB, you might notice — like [lcamtuf] did — that newer boards tend to have large areas of copper known …read more Continue reading A History of Copper Pours
Category Archives: ground plane
Internal Heating Element Makes These PCBs Self-Soldering
Surface mount components have been a game changer for the electronics hobbyist, but doing reflow soldering right requires some way to evenly heat the board. You might need to buy …read more Continue reading Internal Heating Element Makes These PCBs Self-Soldering
Drill Thrice, Solder Once
If you design printed circuit boards, then you will have also redesigned printed circuit boards. Nobody gets it right the first time, every time. Sometimes you can solder a scrap of 30gauge wire, flip a component 180°, or make a TO-92 transistor do that little pirouette thing where the …read more
Inductance in PCB Layout: The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly
When current flows through a conductor it becomes an inductor, when there is an inductor there is an electromagnetic field (EM). This can cause a variety of issues during PCB layout if you don’t plan properly, and sometimes we get burned even when we think we have planned for unwanted inductance and the effects that come with them.
When doing high speed logic we need to be able to deliver sudden changes in current to the devices if we want to have proper switching times and logic levels. Unfortunately inductance is usually not a friend in these circumstances as it …read more
Continue reading Inductance in PCB Layout: The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly
Putting a Poor Man’s Vector Analyzer Through Its Paces
If anything about electronics approaches the level of black magic, it’s antenna theory. Entire books dedicated to the subject often merely scratch the surface, and unless you’re a pro with all the expensive test gear needed to visualize what’s happening, the chances are pretty good that your antenna game is more practical than theoretical. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — hams and other RF enthusiasts have been getting by with antennas that work without really understanding why for generations.
But we’re living in the future, and the tools to properly analyze antenna designs are actually now within the …read more
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