The Maker Movement is huge and grows larger every day. Many individuals and small businesses would like to design their own circuits, but many professional design tools are prohibitively expensive. EAGLE, the Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor, by Cadsoft provides a complete set of features for designing circuit boards at a price that makes it accessible to students, individuals, and small-to-medium businesses.The goal of this book is to ease the process of learning EAGLE. The book walks through the process of designing circuits, starting with a simple circuit (a noninverting amplifier), proceeding to an intermediate circuit (the Arduino Femtoduino--the Arduino circuit boards are very popular among hobbyists and entrepreneurs, and to allow others to construct similar boards, the Arduino developers release their designs in the EAGLE format), and finally reaching an advanced circuit (the BeagleBone Black). During the course of the presentation, it describes both the EAGLE interface and the general process of designing circuit boards.In addition to point-and-click design, a significant portion of this book is devoted to automation. EAGLE has a rich command language that can be accessed through scripts and User Language programs, or ULPs.
This book also includes a great deal of material to help readers understand the fundamentals of circuit boards and the theory behind the example circuits.Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the topics of EAGLE and circuit board design. The primary purpose of these chapters is to familiarize the reader with both topics and present the terminology that will be used throughout the book. Chapters 3 through 7 provide a tutorial-based presentation of designing circuit boards with EAGLE. Chapter 3 breezes through the entire design process for a trivially simple circuit. In contrast, Chapters 4 through 7 present more detail as they walk through the design of the Femtoduino circuit.Chapters 8 through 13 discuss an assortment of topics related to EAGLE circuit design. These include circuit simulation, the process of creating custom components, and the all-important subject of design automation.
Design automation is one of the most powerful aspects of EAGLE, but it''s also one of the most overlooked. Chapters 14 and 15 present the book''s advanced example design: the BeagleBone Black. The name may be silly, but there''s nothing silly about the circuit. It has six board layers, hundreds of components, and thousands upon thousands of routed connections. Also presented are EAGLE''s advanced capabilities and ways to take advantage of design automation. "Matt Scarpino has succeeded where scores of others have failed--he''s managed to make the formidable EAGLE software understandable and, more importantly, useable. His presentation is not only approachable and logical, but it''s complete. When you''ve finished his book, you''ll be able to do something meaningful with EAGLE.
This book belongs on every engineer''s bookshelf or tablet." --Bryan Bergeron, Editor, Nuts & Volts Magazine "Matt Scarpino''s Designing Circuit Boards with EAGLE is a great resource for electronics enthusiasts who are ready to get serious and produce their own circuit boards. Matt''s sensible instructions take readers through the steps to design simple and not-so-simple circuit boards, and you can really tell that he''s been using EAGLE for 10 years and loves it. I''m recommending this book to all my maker friends."--- John Baichtal, author of Arduino for Beginners: Essential Skills Every Maker Needs "With the rising popularity of open source hardware projects, the EAGLE circuit board software has become a vital tool for both hobbyists and professional engineers alike. Designing Circuit Boards with EAGLE provides all the information you''ll need to get up to speed with the EAGLE software and to start creating your own circuit board designs. Matt Scarpino has provided a great tool for the hobbyist starting out in the circuit board design world, demonstrating all of the features you''ll need to know to create your own circuit board projects. However, the experienced engineer will also benefit from the book, as it also serves as a complete reference guide to all the EAGLE software configuration settings and features.
His insightful guidance helps simplify difficult tasks in the EAGLE software, and his handy tips will help save you hours of trial-and-error experimenting in your circuit board designs."--Rich Blum, author of Sam''s Teach Yourself Arduino Programming in 24 Hours and Sams Teach Yourself Python Programming for Raspberry Pi in 24 Hours.