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From what I understand all the designs will be officially released when the Pyra ships, but Nikolaus has released some of this information to some of the devs that needed an understanding how the hardware works.
S
sulu
Guest
Not sure about the Pyra, but the Neo900 project uses(/used?) Eagle [1] for the PCB design. Since Nikolaus is involved in both projects I wouldn't be surprised if it were used for the Pyra too.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAGLE_(program)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAGLE_(program)
hns
Well-Known Member
Yes, design is done with EAGLE (plus some special tool, but the results are EAGLE XML files. There had been a screen shot video here on the forum long time ago).
I don't know if we will publish the raw EAGLE files or PDF schematics. Have to discuss with EvilDragon.
Anyways, they are not yet tidied up for publication.
The reasons for that are that there are several late changes which might confuse external people more than helping anyone.
And for making a working PCB layout, only the components and netlists must be 100% correct. But it does not need to look nice. The time to make it nice from the beginning can be better spent on testing hardware, writing software, improving PCB layout etc. So cleaning it up for publication can and will be done later.
So please do not expect such documents to be available earlier than the first devices...
I don't know if we will publish the raw EAGLE files or PDF schematics. Have to discuss with EvilDragon.
Anyways, they are not yet tidied up for publication.
The reasons for that are that there are several late changes which might confuse external people more than helping anyone.
And for making a working PCB layout, only the components and netlists must be 100% correct. But it does not need to look nice. The time to make it nice from the beginning can be better spent on testing hardware, writing software, improving PCB layout etc. So cleaning it up for publication can and will be done later.
So please do not expect such documents to be available earlier than the first devices...
Neo900 used it, but (fortunately) moved away from proprietary Eagle to free KiCad, according to
https://neo900.org/news/migrating-away-from-eagle-to-kicad#feature
In my company, we used to use Eagle for smaller and medium size projects, but phased it out in favour of KiCad, too. For really big projects, we still depend on proprietary software, unfortunately: Altium Designer.
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Well Nikolaus (HNS) who designed the circuitry for the Pyra as well as the neo900, just posted prior saying it was done on eagle.
hns
Well-Known Member
Both of you are correct 
I did start Neo900 protoypes in EAGLE as well, but now the Neo900 team has taken over and they converted to KiCAD for their future work.
With KiCAD I never became warm with. And for Altium I would have to switch to Windows (I even tried to run it in a VM, but it is too slow and breaks user interface habits).
And finally it is right that for bigger projects EAGLE lacks some visualization methods, so you get lost in the knot of copper traces. This is why I use my own tool (inspired by Altium) for layout editing and export back to EAGLE for design rule checks and data exchange.
I did start Neo900 protoypes in EAGLE as well, but now the Neo900 team has taken over and they converted to KiCAD for their future work.
With KiCAD I never became warm with. And for Altium I would have to switch to Windows (I even tried to run it in a VM, but it is too slow and breaks user interface habits).
And finally it is right that for bigger projects EAGLE lacks some visualization methods, so you get lost in the knot of copper traces. This is why I use my own tool (inspired by Altium) for layout editing and export back to EAGLE for design rule checks and data exchange.
S
sulu
Guest
I have absolutely no idea about the PCB design workflow.
Can one of the experts give a short dumbed-down summary of what's different between working with EAGLE and Kicad? I can only imagine that it might be like switching between Photoshop and Gimp or between MS Office and Libreoffice, so the basics stay the same but the pathes of how you get to your results differ.
Can one of the experts give a short dumbed-down summary of what's different between working with EAGLE and Kicad? I can only imagine that it might be like switching between Photoshop and Gimp or between MS Office and Libreoffice, so the basics stay the same but the pathes of how you get to your results differ.
@hns: KiCad evolved a lot in the last ~2 years or so, probably the CERN funding helped a lot. If you didn't like it some years back, maybe it is time to give it another chance. One of my colleagues who did also like Eagle much more than KiCad some years ago, changed completely their mind. YMMV :~)
@sulu: Yes, it is a little bit like switching between Photoshop and Gimp. The concepts are different between programs, as well as feature sets.
@sulu: Yes, it is a little bit like switching between Photoshop and Gimp. The concepts are different between programs, as well as feature sets.
skeezix
Internal Development
Eagle has a terrible UI, but is pretty scriptable; one of these days I need to find out how to have it identify dangling traces .. like, if you tear up a component, it leaves the traces leading up to it (should you want to drop something else in, or etc..) -- but after doing some big ripups on a complex board, it seems near impossibly to easily identify traces that just go wiggling around and end up nowhere I've seen some little scripts to help identify them, but never really worked for me (running linux build.)
I keep meaning to check KiCad and a few others, but Eagle has generally been pretty handy - low cost/free for hovbbyists, and highly supported in the various open hardware space and so on, that it wasn't a big priority. Course, Eagle just got bought again and who knows what'll happen to it....
jeff
I've seen some little scripts to help identify them, but never really worked for me (running linux build.)I keep meaning to check KiCad and a few others, but Eagle has generally been pretty handy - low cost/free for hovbbyists, and highly supported in the various open hardware space and so on, that it wasn't a big priority. Course, Eagle just got bought again and who knows what'll happen to it....
jeff
