Hello,
I’m having trouble with Eagle again. I’m almost done with my board, but for some reason, there’s a few air wires left. I poured a ground plane and I think I did that successfully. I added some solder pads to the design. 4 VCC and 4 GND. The four VCC pads make a cross across the whole board and one of the traces run into a trace that goes to a UV LED (as it’s supposed to). I want them to become one trace like that. But for some reason, there’s still an air wire from the VCC pad to the UV LED. Almost as if Eagle doesn’t realize the traces come together as one. Any idea how I can fix this?
I have similar problems with the GND pads. There’s air wires going from each pad in each section to a component in another section of the cross that the VCC pads make. I changed the value in the schematics for the VCC pads to VCC and I’ve changed the pads values for the GND pads to GND. Just not sure what I need to do. I’m still very knew to making circuit boards and I still have a lot to learn. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve attached a picture so you can see what I’m talking about.
Thanks.
Did you click the Ratsnest button after you added those components?
Thank you for the reply Darrellg. I did click the Ratsnest button. The originally designer of the board provides schematics and board layouts for it via PDF files. I copied his design but modified it a little bit. I created the schematic based off of his schematic. I can upload the Eagle files if it would help. I’m still very knew to all of this. I am still learning (slowly mind you) how to build and understand circuits. I find it very fun but I don’t have a lot of time right now to dedicate to it.
I wonder if the GND pads are connected to the components that the air wires show but because of how it’s designed, Eagle doesn’t realize it. If not, then I might need to use VIAs to connect the various “islands” together. What do you think?
It’s hard to tell what’s going on based on your screenshot. If you want to upload your Eagle files, there are several people on the forum that might be better able to help.
It’s hard to see on the tiny image you uploaded. Zip the Eagle files and attach them to a reply. Looks like there are a few issues going on.
Yes, I believe you’re right, there are a few issues going on and it is hard to tell from the picture. I will attach the files but I think I got rid of most of the actual air wires. For the mounting holes, I used the wrong part number and they weren’t actually attached to the GND net like I thought they where. I couldn’t find away to attach them. I picked another mounting hole and was successfully able to attach them to the net. After doing so, I reran the ratsnest and most of the air wires disappeared. I don’t think my schematics right though. When I run ERC, I get 32 warnings. Anyway, here’s the zip file… Thanks for helping guys!
Ok, on the schematic, you have all the nets named the same. Which translates to them all being connected on the board. That is why you are getting air wires between the leads on the LEDs. Yellow circle on the attached image. All nets should be named differently unless you know they should be connected board side. Instead of renaming all of them, just delete the nets and reconnect them. Eagle will give a default name to each one.
On the board, you routed a VCC trace over another VCC trace without actually connecting it (running the trace and clicking on the other VCC trace). Eagle doesn’t recognize this as a connection. Yellow circle in the attached image. Unroute one of them and route to the trace, then to another LED.
The bottom edge of the board is being outlined with the Unrouted layer. Needs to Dimension.
Thank you so much for helping! You guys are awesome! And thanks for being so patient with me.
Ross Robotics:
Ok, on the schematic, you have all the nets named the same. Which translates to them all being connected on the board. That is why you are getting air wires between the leads on the LEDs. Yellow circle on the attached image. All nets should be named differently unless you know they should be connected board side. Instead of renaming all of them, just delete the nets and reconnect them. Eagle will give a default name to each one.
So just delete the lines for the LEDs in the schematic? The ones that go from the VCC to the LEDs and from the LEDs to the resistors and from the resistors to the GND? Or do I also need to delete all the other ones as well, like the ones for the mounting holes, the GND pads and the VCC pads?
Ross Robotics:
On the board, you routed a VCC trace over another VCC trace without actually connecting it (running the trace and clicking on the other VCC trace). Eagle doesn’t recognize this as a connection. Yellow circle in the attached image. Unroute one of them and route to the trace, then to another LED.
I fixed this. Thanks for showing me how to fix it. I'll be sure to remember that. I don't think I would of figured that one out on my own.
Ross Robotics:
The bottom edge of the board is being outlined with the Unrouted layer. Needs to Dimension.
I think I understand. Does that mean the bottom part of the white box is missing? I just need to redraw it? Thanks!
So just delete the lines for the LEDs in the schematic? The ones that go from the VCC to the LEDs and from the LEDs to the resistors and from the resistors to the GND?
Correct. Just those. Others are fine.
I just need to redraw it?
No, just right click on the 'yellow' line click Properties and change the layer from "Unrouted" to "Dimension".
Oh shoot, I didn’t get your message in time about the “Unrouted” to “Dimension”. I went to Wire and selected the Dimension layer and then redrew the line. Is that fine or should I delete that line and do it the way you described? Here’s a new zip file with everything fixed (only it has my hand drawn line instead of your easier fix)…
I wanted to thank you again for helping me. I would of never of found all those problems. Now there’s no errors and those little air wires between the LEDs that I thought where supposed to be there are gone! Thanks!!!
The Unrouted line is still under the dimension line. You can just delete it.
Now you can clean up the board. Use the smash tool (button with the IC chip) and click on every component. This will allow you to move the lettering around and also change it’s size and ratio. You do not need the values on the board so you can delete those. Leave the name there so you know what component goes where. On more complex boards where there are more than a few dozen different parts, you would make a BOM from the schematic and print that off to reference what goes where when you start assembly.
Most board houses don’t like going under 0.032" for the size. A good size is 0.04" or 0.05". Yours is 0.05", so they’re good.
Other than that, looks good.
Thank you for all the help! What do you mean by most board houses don’t like going under 0.032" for the size? The size of what? The width of the traces?
Thanks for the tip on the smashing! I see what it does now. It adds a little cross and I just click that. Still gotta find out how to change the size of the wording though. Thanks!
I figured out how to change the text size and I believe when you where talking about board houses not liking to go under 0.032", you where referring to the size of the text, correct? I got all the values deleted and I move the words around a bit so they looked nice. I’ll try doing the BOM from the schematic so I know how to do it. There’s more to this project then just the UV LED PCB. There’s a power supply as well and a digital count down timer. I’d like to combine the digital count down timer with the power supply PCB so they’d be on the same board instead of having separate boards.
you where referring to the size of the text, correct?
Correct
Just post a new topic for help on the PSU.
One last quick question here. For the schematics, should I net all the VCC’s and net all the GND’s together? So there’s only one VCC and only one GND? Thanks.
When you place the symbol for VCC and GND, they are already connected. The Nets that you place on them are automatically named respectively.