Advice on starting out with Eagle

Hi all,

I've just put together a simple Arduino-like circuit on a breadboard, and have tested everything is working correctly. It's so basic it consists of just the ATMega328P, a 16Mhz crystal, a voltage regulator, reset switch, DC jack and a few various caps.

I thought it would be fun to mock up a schematic/board design in Eagle and have a go at etching a board.

I found some informative video tutorials for Eagle, though they seemed to miss some important points. I'd be taking my power input from the DC jack (12v), but I couldn't seem to figure out how to tell Eagle that the jack is my power source (so that I can route correctly in the board editor). I ended up creating a custom DC jack which is probably where I went wrong (I wanted to ensure the dimensions/holes were exact). I think as far as Eagle is concerned, the pins don't provide power or GND.

I wouldn't ask anyone to go through the hassle of explaining it to a noob such as myself, but if anyone could recommend a good guide for Eagle that actually covers the whole process from drawing the schematic (which I have little experience of), to arranging the board (though this is the easier part I believe), I'd be really grateful. Especially if it's a simple circuit as I'm still new to schematics.

thanks

Been playing around with Eagle some more and I seem to have cleared up some of my initial confusion. Thanks to anyone who read it anyway :slight_smile:

Look at my link to Eagle tutorial in the bottom of this message.

Also sparkfun electronics has some good tutorials.

cyclegadget:
Look at my link to Eagle tutorial in the bottom of this message.

Also sparkfun electronics has some good tutorials.

Your tutorials are excellent.
I`m sure you are very busy, the only thing I would ask is to do one more about creating a component that not in the library.
Just a simple example like taking the resonator or crystal datasheet measurements and making an Eagle library component from them.

Thanks!

Your tutorials are excellent.

Sorry, I was in a hurry and didn't mention that those tutorials are not mine. I thought they were good and important to share with other people.

Here is a site that shows how to make an new Eagle part,
http://myhome.spu.edu/bolding/EE4211/EagleTutorial4.htm

Thanks for the link. :slight_smile:

You tube, rpc electronics. Very good how to vids from 1-12

mhastie1234:
You tube, rpc electronics. Very good how to vids from 1-12

+1 That is the link in the bottom of my posts.

New video`s from RPCElectronics - Creating a Part Library

I learned how to make eagle parts some time ago but I keep getting this problem with my own parts library. To signify the fact it is not a included parts lib, I created a sub folder and stored my parts lib there. Every time I start eagle that parts lib is not selected/used. I click to select/use it (green dot) but next time I start eagle it is again not selected/used. How to fix?

liudr:
I learned how to make eagle parts some time ago but I keep getting this problem with my own parts library. To signify the fact it is not a included parts lib, I created a sub folder and stored my parts lib there. Every time I start eagle that parts lib is not selected/used. I click to select/use it (green dot) but next time I start eagle it is again not selected/used. How to fix?

I too have a similar problem. When I set libraries to "don't use," Once I restart Eagle it makes all libraries visible...

liudr:
I learned how to make eagle parts some time ago but I keep getting this problem with my own parts library. To signify the fact it is not a included parts lib, I created a sub folder and stored my parts lib there. Every time I start eagle that parts lib is not selected/used. I click to select/use it (green dot) but next time I start eagle it is again not selected/used. How to fix?

I had the same problem with the SparkFun library and Adafruit library. I just found the solution, you have to take the .lib files out of the folders and put them with the rest of the .lib files.

When you leave the files in sub-folders Eagle doesn't automatically include them.

I used to have these libs with all other libs (standard) but it's a hassle to look for them among hundreds of other libs. Now they are in their own folders. It's pretty easy to look for them but eagle won't use them unless I click every time I load eagle. Some sort of trade off.

One way to make the files easier to find is name them with a letter "A" like, A_filename. Then, they will appear at or near the beginning of the list of names. I do this with some of my Arduino sketch names to make them easy to find.

Thanks. I will do it with my libraries then.