Tag Archives: pcb

My First 8-Layer PCB

May 21, 2013 by jboone

I recently completed my first 8-layer PCB design, for Michael Ossmann’s Daisho project. Among the challenges: a 780-pin Altera Cyclone IV FPGA, a USB 3.0 chip with 0.8mm ball spacing, very high-speed parallel and serial buses, tight power constraints, and … Continue reading →

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Patching and Building KiCAD on Mac OS X Lion

May 21, 2012 by jboone

How to build KiCAD schematic and PCB layout software for Mac OS X Lion, and add multi-touch scrolling and zooming support. Continue reading →

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Software Radio Baseband Digitizer PCB

November 7, 2011 by jboone

I’m plugging away at building an inexpensive, high-bandwidth software-defined radio receiver. I built a bunch of PLL+VCO boards, filter boards, and quadrature mixer boards. But I still don’t have a good ADC to sample the signals I’m receiving. No longer! … Continue reading →

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ADF4350 VCO+PLL Breakout Board

October 25, 2011 by jboone

I’m a software radio freak. When I first heard about the Analog Devices ADF4350, a PLL+VCO that can tune between 137.5 and 4400 MHz, I was obsessed with getting one and building it into my projects. Naturally, the first step … Continue reading →

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PCB stencils on the cheap (kinda)

January 11, 2011 by jboone

How to apply circuit board solder paste if the only fancy tool you have is a low-power laser cutter — using Avery adhesive mailing labels! Continue reading →

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Don’t Trust Solder Flux

December 23, 2010 by jboone

Clean the solder flux from your circuit board prototypes, or suffer the bitter consequences! Continue reading →

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EAGLE CAD Version Rollback

December 26, 2009 by jboone

How to move your EAGLE CAD designs from 5.x back to 4.x without too much pain. Continue reading →

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Boards Are In!

December 5, 2008 by jboone

The boards have arrived and look good! I will solder a couple this evening. If they work well, I’ll start packing kits for shipment on Monday and open the store for orders!

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Chronulator 2.0 Number 1

November 26, 2008 by jboone

So here it is, Chronulator 2.0 number 1, photographed on the ShareBrained trademark kitchen tablecloth. It went together well, with just a couple of tweaks. First, I forgot/neglected to connect power between the ISP port and the AVR chip. That’s … Continue reading →

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