hey guys
i'm waldosan, i'm mostly interested in the mathmatics of electronics, to me whenever i've tried to build an actual ciruit i've always either run up against constraints like money or ability, so i've been studying the mathematics and all around knowledge behind the actual hobby.
fritzing has allowed me to start designing circuits in a way that not only makes sense but has made me confident in my ability to make the circuits work.
right now i'm working on an LED cube, but what sets it apart is that each led is one of those 3 color LEDs. to make a row connection for wach color i've designed 3 different boards that when assembled correctly looks like the corner of a cube.
until i can get the general idea down i only designed it for 2 by 2 by 2, but eventually i want to make it big enough and make the resolution small enough to eventually make my own 3d display for like a tv or a computer.
one question i did have is how i could make machine screw mounting holes to place on the pcb.
Hi Waldosan,
Thanks for the kind words--we are very happy to hear that "idea" of Fritzing worked well for you.
I am not sure this will answer your question, but it's a place to start. You can place a hole in your PCB by using a hole part. Once the hole part is in your sketch you can select or type in the hole diameter and copper ring thickness by using the Inspector Window. The part can be found at the bottom of the Parts Bin, in the PCB View section--it's the fifth icon.
If that's not what you're asking, please post again.
Cheers,
- j
thanks Johnathan, just what i wanted to hear! i've been playing around and now i've gotten a single side of the 3d display to a 16 by 16 square, i've brought the resolution all the way down to just .25 inches between each "pixel" though i'm thinking that the actual size of the led itself wouldn't allow for this resolution lol!
one of the other restrictions i've run into is that any square that i make that is over 16 by 16 i find trouble routing the wires all the way to the center section of the headers. i'm thinking about pioneering a small technique that i've been thinking about which is to marry two different pcbs togethor so instead of having only two layers to run traces i could have three, i thought i'd do this by running the bottom layer of a pcb and then copying it to the top layer of another, once i did that i would finish connecting everything using the third layer. the restriction came up when in a four lane section of the pcb i could only trace about 8 lines, which is fine for just a small 8x8 square but it isn't so nice when trying to upgrade to a 16 by 16 or higher.
also i've noticed the little autoroute button, i think it's a pretty cool feature and that you can actually choose between proffesional and other when it comes to the persistance of the traces. however one thing i've noticed is that it's very easy to outdo the autoroute function to where it can't get any kind of trace to certain areas. i was wondering if there was a way to increase the persistence or the mutation of the auto route function or if it'd be simpler just to use it as a guide and do the rest by hand and mouse.
Hi Waldosan,
Interesting thought about the extra layer. A couple of points: Fritzing 0.74 does not support multiple boards in a single sketch. However Fritzing 0.7.5 will.
That being said, Fritzing (and our Fab process) only supports two-sided boards--you would wind up with two PCBs that would have to be hand-wired together. What you might be able to do is use Fritzing's Gerber export to generate files for two boards, but then maybe you could somehow submit these files to another manufacturer who could actually produce a three or four layer board. However, I have no idea whether this would work--you'd have to do the research.
Also a nice idea about the "mutation rate" of the autorouter. However, for now your best approach is indeed to try the autorouter and then hand-route.
- j
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