Book - PCB Layout for Musical Effects

[casey73]

I'm getting ready to buy RG Keen's book on PCB layout. I've check into several PCB layout and schematic programs, and they tend to be a real headache. I end up doing my own schematic by hand and am spending way too much time trying to do schematics and PCB layout via software.

I've done simple PCBs in the past, but now I've come up with an original design with 45 components and I need to do a PCB for it. I'm hoping RG's book will help me in that endeavor. Anyone have experience with it?

[Techknowman]

I don't
But I use Eagle for making schematics and PCB layouts.
After routing and cleanup I turn them into Gerber's and send them out to be made.
I do everything, make models of the parts used, if they arn't already in there database, layout PCB dimensions and layers etc.

[doctor]

I don't
But I use Eagle for making schematics and PCB layouts.
After routing and cleanup I turn them into Gerber's and send them out to be made.
I do everything, make models of the parts used, if they arn't already in there database, layout PCB dimensions and layers etc.

Personally, I’m not too trust such specialized handbooks.

What “PCB layout for musical effect” means?
It reminds me of something like “Medicine for headache for blonds”.

There are layout rules and tricks for analog and digital circuitries,
low frequencies and RF, ADC/DAC and power supplies and so on.

I’ve never heard of special PCB layout for musical effects.

For my professional goals I use products of Cadence, namely
OrCAD for schematic drawing and Allegro for print layout.

[Ronsonic]

DIY Layout Creator is an extremely easy to use and friendly piece of software for producing a PCB layout or for drawing plans for a perf or vero layout. It's output can be laser printed onto press n peel for etching your own boards, or reversed for photo transfer. I've done a number of boards with it and it's great for relatively simple single sided FX. The learning curve for this is about nil. Place components and run traces, boom.

EAGLE is sort of the standard for schematic and pcb layout at low cost. I've been using it without problems beyond its well-known quirks. Free or relatively inexpensive it can export Gerbers for the board houses or PDF for printing yourself. Many board houses can work directly with the Eagle files which makes life simpler for you and reduces the chance of translation errors. Much steeper learning curve than DIYLC, but way more powerful.

What “PCB layout for musical effect” means?
It reminds me of something like “Medicine for headache for blonds”.

True enough, but if you've got a headache do you really want a course in organic chem or just some advice on whether this is a job for aspirin, ibuprofen or tylenol.

[Steve Conner]

I also use Eagle and hate Cadence.

Eagle is quirky, but it's cheap. I've designed about 20 boards for commercial production with it, some up to 6 layers.

It's really best for smaller projects that have just one person working on them. At the moment I'm doing schematic capture in Eagle, using a Perl script to convert the netlist to PADS format, and sending that to another guy who does the layout in PADS. We just finished a 6 layer board the size of a tea tray with 18 A3 sheets of schematics, but it's a bodge.

The book would probably better be titled: Introduction to PCB layout for Musical Effects builders.

[casey73]

Thanks to all for input. Layout Creator seems to do the trick. Been looking around a while, not sure how I missed it. I've looked at the others mentioned too, but this is by far the easiest to use. I'm building a simple once sided board. Spent the weekend doing a perf board prototype and it made me crazy. A board is a must.

[jstbrowsin]

I have this book and its great!
R.G Keen makes it really easy to understand by breaking down everything on the board into blocks and real world examples of layouts makes it a hell of a lot lot easier to understand than most information you will find online. It's number one for me and always not far from my workbench, although YMMV.

[R.G.]

Thanks, jst. Glad it is some help.

"PCB Layout for Musical Effects" is very much more about how to think about converting schematics to PCB than about any particular software or program. It's deliberately software-neutral; it's not how to use Eagle versus PCB Artist versus whatever else. Even a drafting/drawing program or tape-on-mylar can be used, and that's mentioned in the book. I've used half a dozen layout programs/suites as well as tape-on-mylar and rubylith back in the day. I find that programs can help you express your thinking easily and efficiently, but they cannot tell you what or how to think. They also enable you to make more mistakes faster if you're not careful.

It could properly be titled "Introduction to PCB Layout" in general. I threw in the "Musical Effects" because that's the audience I was addressing, and because the examples are done with simple effects. The focus is on double-sided layouts with through-hole parts. Multilayer is a simple step once you get past two layer thinking, and SMD is a natural next step, although neither more than two layers nor SMD is covered in the book.