Class Description:

Learn how to design your own circuit boards, and prepare them to be manufactured with Eagle CAD. Eagle CAD is a popular PCB design software used extensively in the Open Hardware community. You will be taught by Jimmie Rodgers, a full time hacker who has been using Eagle for the past four years to design open source hardware kits as part of his business.

You will learn how to create a schematic in Eagle, and then how to turn that into a circuit board. You will learn how to create and modify parts and libraries, and to modify your soldermask and silk screen to include images and text of your design.

You will also learn some best practices for both prepping a board for manufacturing, as well as prepping it for self-manufacturing. The final step will be to generate the gerber files, which are used by fabrication houses to create your PCBs. You will then have the boards made, and we will test them in class.

Class Goals:

Teach students all the steps required to design and manufacture circuit boards, leading to manufacture and testing of student boards.

Prerequisites:

Required: A basic familiarity with electronics, and ability to read  a schematic.

Useful (but not required): A laptop with Eagle CAD 5.10 installed. The lite version is free, and can be downloaded here: http://www.cadsoft.de/download.htm. The lite version will be sufficient for everything that will be covered in this class.

Materials:

A schematic or project you have in mind that you will want to turn into a PCB. If you do not have your own design, then examples will be provided that you can use.

Instructor Biography: Jimmie Rodgers

Jimmie Rodgers is a full-time hacker, circuit bender, and artist. He designs open source hardware kits and travels around the world teaching people how to solder and make things. For nearly a decade Jimmie worked as a desktop, and then systems administrator at various companies. In his spare time he tinkered with electronics, building things, and teaching others to do the same. In September of 2009 he quit his full time job to become a full time hacker, and has been supporting himself with kit sales and workshops while continuing to travel around the world. His most popular kit has been the LoL Shield, which is a 14x9 LED matrix that you attach to an Arduino micro-controller.

Class Times:

Session 1: 10/17/2010, 11 AM - 1 PM @ 561 Windsor St, Somerville MA

Session 2: 10/24/2010, 11 AM - 1 PM @ 561 Windsor St, Somerville MA

Session 3: 10/31/2010, 11 AM - 1 PM @ 561 Windsor St, Somerville MA

Session 4: 11/7/2010, 11 AM - 1 PM @ 561 Windsor St, Somerville MA