On Wednesday 23 February 2005 04:53 pm, Olin Lathrop wrote:
> Julian Kain wrote:
> > With the knowledge gained, I believe I've finished up my schematic. This
> > is my very first schematic-through-PCB design, and there's a lot riding
> > on its success (like, for example, my graduation). I don't know if it's
> > "proper" to solicit reviewing help on this list, and please accept my
> > apologies if it's not. With that said, if anyone would be willing to
> > _quickly_ glance over my schematic and point out any _obvious_ errors or
> > suggestions, I would be so grateful. It's located at
> > http://www.juliankain.com/schematic_20050223.pdf
> >
> > Thanks a lot for any specific design or otherwise general advice any of
> > you may have to lend.
>
> There was way too much crammed onto one sheet.  I couldn't read it, even
> though I have a 19" monitor set to 1600 x 1200 pixels.

I like to see a fair bit all at once, but I have to agree that quite a few 
lines are quite a-"maze"-ing <yuck, yuck, yuck>  ;-)

You may want to put the chips closer together so we don't follow the maze of 
wires so much.

You appear to have made use of the gnd symbol
  |
----
\  /
 \/

See if you could several power lines to similar symbol connectors such as:
+12v
----
  |

or other similar common voltages like +5v, etc.

another possible reduction if you can know how to work it is the "bus" line.
If a technician is to follow the path from your compact flash d0x to your PIC 
pins PTxx they could easily lose their way and end up pointing at the wrong 
pin when they point at the other chip.

The "bus" looks similar to:
-\   /-
-\   /-
-\___/-

bus lines should clean up your page fairly fast.
U1B.RH6,RH2,RF7/RF5 could be 2 buses, or you can group them as 2 wires closer 
together separated by a bigger space, then 2 wires close together, example 
see grid point Q1...Q10 so that the reader sees something in-common versus 
what appears as 5 wires running in parallel.
If you can put those connections on the right-side of U1B and the left side 
of U6, it further reduces the maze of wires.

The "No-connections" is best placed on the side or near the edges instead of 
in the center of the page. We usualy try to group items and put important 
stuff in the middle.

Your page identification is going to look very small plus you have a lot of 
blank area towards the right.
"Radio Frequency...."
If you make use of the blank wasted space you could enlarge a fair bit of the 
text within the box.
This box is best placed along an edge such as the bottom edge or right edge.

Are you actually running 2 separate gnds on your circuit board?
Just asking, because you appear to have made use of both symbols, and looking 
at the way they are being used, I don't think you seem to understand the 
reasons for separating gnds.  In any case, some of the gnds are being used 
incorrectly considering how you have wired some of the VCCs, so check with 
your teacher.

Few people like reading data that crosses over or under drawings, for example 
see R25, R27, R30.....etc. Turn the writing 90degrees if it doesn't fit.

Unless you have a super-duper-regulated power supply, I would probably add a 
10uf or better behind J2, otherwise you're going to have problems.

U1D.INT1 and U1D.INT2 could probably be used for something else, but you need 
to verify that, not me.

Hopefully that should get you started.
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