Fritzing for Inventors: Take Your Electronics Project from Prototype to Product

Fritzing for Inventors: Take Your Electronics Project from Prototype to Product

by Simon Monk
Released August 2015
Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill Education TAB
ISBN: 9780071844642

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Book description

In this TAB book, bestselling electronics author Simon Monk shows maker-entrepreneurs how to use Fritzing’s open-source software and services to create electronics prototypes, design and manufacture printed circuit boards (PCBs), and bring professional-quality electronic products to market.

Fritzing for Inventors: Take Your Electronics Project from Prototype to Product explains how to use this set of free, open-source electronics prototyping tools to lay out breadboards, create schematics, and design professional-quality printed circuit boards (PCBs). No engineering skills needed! Whether you’re a hobbyist, artist, inventor, or student, you’ll be able to develop a product from schematic to prototype to professional-quality printed circuit board, all from one easy-to-use software package. Fritzing works well with prototyping boards such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and BeagleBone.

This DIY guide covers the whole lifecycle of product development for a hobbyist entrepreneur. It takes you from initial concept, to prototyping, to PCB production, to distribution. Along the way, it examines the sourcing of components, product testing, and even how to price products for wholesale and retail.

  • Simon Monk is a bestselling TAB electronics author and popular presenter at MakerFaires
  • Well-illustrated tutorial with screen captures, easy-to-follow instructions, and step-by-step projects
  • Describes an up-to-date contemporary approach to PCB design, including surface-mount designs
  • Explains how to become a maker entrepreneur by using crowdfunding and indie marketplaces for technical products

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. 1 Introduction to Fritzing
    1. Fritzing
    2. History
    3. Installing Fritzing
    4. Examples
    5. Documents and Designs
    6. Going All the Way
    7. Using Views
    8. The Programming Window
    9. Autorouting
    10. Summary
  8. 2 Quick Start
    1. Starting a New Project
    2. Drawing the Schematic
      1. Finding a 555 Timer Part
      2. Adding the Resistors
      3. Adding the Capacitors
      4. Adding the LEDs
      5. Connecting Things
    3. Breadboard Layout
      1. Change the Breadboard
      2. Placing the Parts
      3. Batteries Not Included
      4. Build the Breadboard
    4. Designing the PCB
      1. Position the Parts
      2. Run the Autorouter
      3. Run the Design Rule Checker
    5. PCB Manufacturing
      1. Sign Up for an Account with Fritzing
      2. Upload the File and Pay
    6. Summary
  9. 3 Electronic Invention
    1. The Idea
    2. Breadboard Prototype
    3. PCB Prototype
      1. Design Decisions
      2. A First PCB Prototype
    4. Product Design
      1. Enclosures
      2. PCB Manufacture
    5. Summary
  10. 4 Breadboarding
    1. How the Breadboard Works
    2. Components for Breadboarding
      1. Resistors
      2. LEDs
      3. Switches
      4. Diodes
      5. Transistors
      6. Capacitors
    3. Fritzing Tricks
      1. Labels
      2. Parts Bin
    4. Summary
  11. 5 Schematic Design
    1. Reading Schematic Diagrams
      1. Component Symbols
      2. Schematic Versus Breadboard
      3. Conventions
    2. Tidying a Schematic in Fritzing
    3. Creating a Schematic in Fritzing
      1. Design Calculations
      2. Drawing the Schematic
    4. Advanced Schematic Drawing
      1. Net Labels
      2. Frames
    5. Datasheets
    6. Summary
  12. 6 PCB Layout
    1. Printed Circuit Boards
    2. Cycle Light Example
    3. Advanced PCB Layout
      1. Moving Traces Between Layers
      2. Changing Trace Widths
      3. Placing Components on the Bottom Layer
      4. Vias
      5. Icons Revisited
      6. Fills Revisited
      7. Board Shapes
    4. SMD PCBs
      1. SMD Components
      2. Semiconductors
      3. Making a Surface-Mount Version
      4. Summary
  13. 7 Fabrication
    1. Checking the Design
      1. Paper PCB
      2. PDF Files
      3. Gerber Viewers
    2. PCB Fabrication
      1. Choosing a Service
      2. Fabrication with Fritzing.org
      3. Fabrication with Other Services
    3. Parts and BOMs
    4. Soldering
      1. Prototyping Services
      2. Tools
      3. Through-Hole Soldering
      4. SMD Hand Soldering
      5. SMD with Hot Air Gun
      6. Using a Reflow Oven
      7. Populating the Board
      8. Baking the Boards
    5. Summary
  14. 8 Fritzing Arduino (and Other Boards)
    1. Breadboarding with Microcontroller Boards
      1. Arduino
    2. Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone Black
    3. Protoshield Design
    4. Off-Board Arduino
      1. Removing the ATmega IC
      2. Arduino Bootloader
      3. Shrimping.it
    5. Making an Arduino Shield
      1. Breadboard Layout
      2. Add the Other Channels
      3. Layout of the PCB
    6. Summary
  15. 9 Custom Parts
    1. Generic IC Parts
    2. Finding Parts on the Internet
    3. Modifying Parts
    4. Creating a New Part
      1. Breadboard View
      2. PCB View
      3. Icon
      4. Metadata
      5. Get Someone Else to Do It
    5. Summary
  16. 10 Example Projects
    1. Henhouse Door
      1. Stripboard
      2. The Stripboard Layout
      3. Using Stripboard on the Breadboard View
      4. Perfboard
    2. Example: Breakout Board
      1. Schematic Design
      2. PCB Design
    3. Examples on Fritzing.org
    4. Summary
  17. 11 Testing
    1. Reliability
      1. Guidelines
      2. Capacitors
      3. Transistors
    2. Design for Testability
    3. Functional Testing
    4. Electrical Testing
    5. Automated Testing
    6. Summary
  18. 12 Funding and Distributing
    1. Secrecy Versus Openness
    2. Open-Source Hardware
    3. Kickstarter
    4. Seeed Studio and Sparkfun
    5. Summary
  19. Appendix: Resources
    1. Bare PCB Manufacturers
    2. Prototyping Services
    3. 3D Design and Printing Services
    4. Component Suppliers
    5. Common Resistor and Capacitor Values
  20. Index

Product information

  • Title: Fritzing for Inventors: Take Your Electronics Project from Prototype to Product
  • Author(s): Simon Monk
  • Release date: August 2015
  • Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill Education TAB
  • ISBN: 9780071844642