General Eagle Help Thread

[luvdunhill]

Hi all!

I just stumbled on Tangent's new tutorials, which include three Eagle walk-throughs! Hurray! I was so inspired, that I'm trying my hand at building a PCB. I looked through the two pages or so of Eagle help posts here and figured that I'd try and make a general thread we can all post to. Either this will work, or I'll be the only one to post and you'll have an easy way to filter out my questions

I'll keep this top post for adding helpful links:

http://tangentsoft.net/elec/movies/

 

[luvdunhill]

ok, well, my first questions. I had a portion of my PCB all done and ready to share, but I noticed at the last minute a big problem. I blindly used the TO-92 PNP transistor without checking the pin out. Of course, my part is a ECB pinout, so not compatible. I tried the obvious "gate" and "pin" swap functions, but it did not work. Do I need to create a custom part?

Also, I used the ground and voltage symbols in the supply1 library but noticed that they did not add any pads for me when I switch to the board view. Should I not use these symbols?

I had a bunch more questions, but I'll wait until I can post my layout (or a part of it).

Thanks again to Tangent for the cool videos!

 

[AndrewFischer]

Good idea for a thread. Eagle is quirky.

Quote:

Originally Posted by luvdunhill /img/forum/go_quote.gif Do I need to create a custom part?

You should be able to find a TO-92 with the correct pattern. If not, you will need to create one.


Quote:

Also, I used the ground and voltage symbols in the supply1 library but noticed that they did not add any pads for me when I switch to the board view. Should I not use these symbols?

Add wirepads where you need them.
I use a modified version of the wirepad library. I don't like the one that comes with Eagle. I changed the wire pads to display the value and not the part name. That way multiple wire can share the same text. Useful if you want more than GND pad, for example.
The GND symbol renames the connected net to GND. Very useful as that way all your grounds are connected even if you don't draw it on the schematic.

I'm sure everyone is getting tired of looking at this schematic, but it does illustrate what I'm talking about:

This example uses Eagle's wire pad library. Each pad has a unique name and that is what Eagle puts on the silk screen. Not good if you want to label multiple pads with the same name. Gnd, +12V... Note that I had to label the right hand 'GND' V-. Next post -- the solution

 

[AndrewFischer]

Here is the same bit using the modified wire pad library

And here is how the board looks:

 

[Fresno Bob]

AndrewFischer would you mind posting your modified version of the wire pad library?


luvdunhill great thread idea.

 

[tangent]

Requests accepted for new videos.

Already in the queue: ground planes and parts creation.

 

[Fresno Bob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangent /img/forum/go_quote.gif Requests accepted for new videos. Already in the queue: ground planes and parts creation.

What about one on point to point soldering?

 

[luvdunhill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangent /img/forum/go_quote.gif Requests accepted for new videos. Already in the queue: ground planes and parts creation.

The first videos were great! The only thing I might have added was a bit about multilayer traces.. I haven't quite figured that out, so I'm just sticking with a single-sided layout until forced to do otherwise

 

[dsavitsk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by luvdunhill /img/forum/go_quote.gif I looked through the two pages or so of Eagle help posts here and figured that I'd try and make a general thread we can all post to.

This may be generational, but I still prefer newsgroups. Check out eagle.support.eng for an additional good place to get help.

 

[AndrewFischer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fresno Bob /img/forum/go_quote.gif AndrewFischer would you mind posting your modified version of the wire pad library?

No problem. I need to clean it up first. I copied the Eagle library and then modified only the pads I use. About half of the symbols are still 'broken'.

 

[Pars]

Andrew,

How did you do the Danger! warning?

Chris

 

[AndrewFischer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pars /img/forum/go_quote.gif Andrew, How did you do the Danger! warning? Chris

It is in one of the symbols libraries in the Cadsoft download area.

 

[DaKi][er]

My guide on how to make custom parts

 

[tomb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsavitsk /img/forum/go_quote.gif This may be generational, but I still prefer newsgroups. Check out eagle.support.eng for an additional good place to get help.

Most people probably don't even know what that means, but NNTP pre-dates HTML and the world-wide-web.

 

[Joshatdot]

I just watched some of those videos afew days ago. I am inspired to make a custom CMoy =)