Part Two
After quite some time to get used to eagle and understand it a little better I've managed to revise the schematic from part one and also get started on the board layout.
Instead of laying out the pins in long rows like in the first schematic I've decided to instead put the pins in groups of three. You can see that on a nano breakout board the pins are arranged in groups as well. It's also much easier to find parts for in Eagle, which does in fact make a huge difference. I also realized that the board footprint for male pin headers is exactly the same as that for female headers. That one had me stumped for a while. I'm now also using an arduino pro mini template. This means I now have exact measurements for the dimensions of the pro mini, this will be very useful when it comes to laying out the board. I also changed all the LEDs resistors and caps to be the 0805 size. This is a common size used in board design and will be easy to find components for, unfortunately surface mount soldering is difficult at the best of times and this will make the components smaller and even harder to deal with. I also added an extra two A6 and A7 female headers, these are connected together in series. I added them because depending on which pro mini you are using, the analogue pins A7 and A6 may be in different locations. In the board layout below you can see the two different locations commonly used by the pins.
I made a start at laying out the board, I'm still learning and this draft has errors. I found it really interesting but also frustrating. Its so great this board project is actually coming together and if I can keep this momentum up I plan to actually have it manufactured and it will be for sale on tindie.com . If you haven't heard of tindie its a website where independent hardware developers can sell products. Check it out.
Anyway, that's all for this update. I've got more Eagle tutorials to watch! Thanks and until next time.
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