Here is my first board I designed in Altium as a trial. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: thomasb9511
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 08:50:12 am
content: Hey everyone,I use Eagle for pcb work for school but I was advised to try Altium Designer for some of my more advanced circuits. Things are different but this ain't Eagle, and I enjoy Altium Designer much more for some reason.This is a board I designed as an FTDI FT232RL breakout, any input would much appreciated. Nothing was auto-routed or auto-placed:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxflnOkuXYUQOTRqQ2lhMFBkNTA/view?usp=sharingOne question, the fact that USB is a differential signal in this design, is it OK if the lengths aren't terribly matched? I did try to routed the differential as short as possible and length matching isn't happening when I try to use on those traces(it because of the shortness of the traces?)P.S. the Google drive link is due the file size limits of the file uploader

author: Fortran
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 10:31:16 am
content: Looks pretty good.D1 and D2 are backwards, and I'm not sure if the reset pin can be floating.Push some traces so they don't come off the pads in an angle.No you don't need the USB to be length matched in this case.The reason you can't get it to work is either that it's too short and constricted, or it's not properly set up. Length matching in Altium is black magic. It only seems to work when I don't know why.You could however make those tracks 10mil too. Wider then the pads looks kinda off.

author: thomasb9511
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 11:00:28 am
content: RESET# can be tied to VCC or left unconnected if not being used. - per the manualWould it still a good idea to tie up to VCC even though?

author: Fortran
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 11:27:59 am
content: If the datasheet says unconnected is fine, then it's just fine as is.Not all IC's like floating resets though, so a mindset of always pulling it to its intended state might save you some headache in a different project.

author: thomasb9511
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 12:18:10 pm
content: On a side note, if something is active low like the reset pin on most ICs it means low effectively turns on the the reset circuit, right?Also here is an updated zip:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxflnOkuXYUQSlFrbGtubm1ZcVk/view?usp=sharing

author: Fortran
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 12:47:26 pm
content: Correct.Active low are usually typed as #RESET, RESET# or with an overline.In Altium, you can do the overline by putting \ after each letter, R\E\S\E\T\

author: Fortran
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 01:03:25 pm
content: Quote from: thomasb9511 on December 25, 2016, 12:18:10 pmYes that looks a lot better.You could also move the VCC33 a bit further from VCC to connect the ground. (Between DSR and RTS)

author: thomasb9511
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 01:31:58 pm
content: Quote from: Fortran on December 25, 2016, 01:03:25 pmThis? Where the arrows are?or the island?

author: thomasb9511
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 01:47:29 pm
content: And is this better? :https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxflnOkuXYUQQTBsMFdGam5aWEk/view?usp=sharing

author: Fortran
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 25, 2016, 02:21:51 pm
content: Yes the last one is what I meant.

author: technotronix
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 14, 2017, 10:29:52 am
content: Yes, It is true. Nice design.

author: stefanh
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 18, 2017, 03:31:00 am
content: The fiducials and polygon clearance are a bit small.I would generally make the pad 1mm in diameter and allow 1mm clearance all around. Also I would only put three of them on the PCB corners to help prevent the board being rotated 180 degrees assuming it was to be machine loaded.There are many other fiducial best practices that can be searched for.

author: richardlawson1489
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2017, 11:49:17 am
content: I like your design.

author: Paulvanavesaath
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 05, 2017, 02:06:32 pm
content: Nice design,Very good for a first try!Just as a small addition to the already told items, you should check the layerstack at this moment you have a very thin PCB.But that is probably not a concern right now.you should try and avoid spikes in the top layer polygon like between the DTR and RTS signal. but again this is not an issue here.Keep it up!kind regards,Paul