>>In general it looks fine, only thing I could see is on the power jack >>input the LED seems to be the wrong way round. Also the part no (SFH482) >>looks to be for an IR part? Thanks for catching that, I didn't notice the LED was backwards. I have no idea if it's IR or not, I just found that it had the footprint I needed so = I used it.. >>You've got to be kidding! You are always judged by the examples of your >>work you let others see. The fact that you're not sufficiently embarrassed >>by this says a lot about what kind of engineer you are (or aren't in this >>case), even more than the mess itself. I'm not embarrassed, and you're right, I'm not an engineer. I'm a student who has only had one "real" electronics course (basic DC circuit analysis). I appreciate your bluntness, though. I know my work isn't professional at all, which is because I haven't had much experience. But the only way for m= e to improve is to ask the advice of experienced engineers like yourself and to learn from my mistakes. So, thank you! >>>1 - The pins of IC1 are in pin number order! That may save you a few >>minutes making the symbol once, but wastes many times that over the life of >>the schematic as people have to figure out what's where. I grabbed the symbol from the Microchip Eagle library I found online. Are you suggesting I put the pins into "groups"? (like all the power pins next to one another, separating the different ports, etc..?). >>2 - Do you really need all those big fat circles with Xs thru them to sho= w >>no connections (if that's what they indeed are)? Just don't connect >>anything to a pin and it will be obvious nothing is connected to it. Those are actually solder pads that I found in the SOLPAD library in Eagle. Is there a better way to show a solder pad connection? >>4 - Neatness counts, since it effects readability. It's even more important >>when you expect others to see your work. Since this is of course obvious= , >>it logically follows that not taking some care is either stupid or >>deliberately rude. So which is it? I'll go with ignorance, since I'm definitely not trying to be rude. What it really boils down to is that I don't know what I'm doing. I hope you recognize that I am making an effort to learn, however. >>5 - What's with all the polarized capacitors? I'm sorry, that was really stupid of me. Your right that almost all of the capacitors are ceramic; only one is polarized. I was lazy and just copied the symbol since all the caps have the same footprint. It was sloppy work and I'll change it. >> 6 - If I remember right, 20MHz crystal doesn't work with USB. I think it does actually. Page 28 of the datasheet lists it as one of the crystal frequencies. http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/devicedoc/39632e.pdf >> 7 - 330nF may be in spec for the Vusb cap, but it's definitely on the lo= w end. Wow, I had no idea! I believe the datasheet actually shows a 220nF capacito= r being used, but I put 330nF because I didn't have any of the other. I'll tr= y using a 1uF like you suggested. >>8 - Where is the power coming from? Again, I suppose this was laziness on my part. The power connector I'm usin= g is not in any of the Eagle libraries (that I could find), so I threw down three pads at the right spacing and labeled it as the power connector. I know how to make a part in Eagle, so I should have created the part in the library myself. >>9 - What's the point of this PIC if it's not connected to anything other >>than the USB? That's what all of the solder pads are for. I'm still a total novice when i= t comes to PICs, so I wanted to make a kind of "general purpose" board that I could use for different projects. >>10 - Do I see this right? You are using a QFN package for the PIC but th= e >>other parts around it are all thru hole!!? If that's true, it's really >>funny! Correct. I've never made a PCB with a SMD before and considering that I'm making this myself, reflowing the TQFP on a skillet no less, I decided to use through-hole parts - which I'm used to soldering - for the rest of the board. >>11 - It makes sense for external connectors to be thru hole for mechanica= l >>strength, but it looks like the pads on the USB connector short to each other. I don't know why the picture I exported from Eagle looks like that, I didn'= t notice when I uploaded it. In Eagle there is space between the pads. However, now that you mention it, there really isn't much space between the pads. I should change that. >>12 It looks like there is silkscreen writing over pads in a number of places I can't do a silkscreen at home. The gray text is just for my reference. Sorry for the confusion! >>13 - Daisy chained ground is a really bad idea. At least the local groun= d >>around the PIC should be locally connected. The PIC ground over by the >>crystal loops halfway around the board before connecting to the other sid= e >>of the PIC. Making a single ground plane and blindly connecting all grounds >>to it isn't the best, but it would be better than what you did. It appears >>everything is on one layer. Why not use the bottom at least for ground? It's a single layer board, so unfortunately I can't make a bottom ground plane.. Here's another picture of the board, this time with the ground traces highlighted. http://www.roboticsguy.com/images/misc/pic18f4550_tqfp_pcb2.png I only see two other ways to route the ground trace. One, go under the VDD trace under the ICD connector and up the right hand side of the board, or two, have a jumper wire cut across the center of the board (which would not look pretty). How do you think I should route it? Do you see a better option? >> Afaict there is no package of that name. Do you mean TQFP or QFN? I'm sorry, I meant TQFP. I've never used a SMD before so I find all the different acronyms confusing :-) >>Maybe he wants to make/have it made single sided (btw to the OP: if you >>are going to get the board made single sided remember SMT parts need to >>be on the same side as the tracks and through hole parts on the opposite >>side from the tracks!) I found that out the hard way! The few PCBs I've made had only through hole parts, so when designing them it was like I was "looking through" the board= .. When making this board, though, I forgot to mirror the PIC which created a mess later on. >>Do you really need to take such an accusatory tone when pointing such things out? >>As ususal you are being unessacerally accusatory. He probably didn't know that I'm a student, and if I were an engineer right now, I'd agree I'd be a pretty crappy one with my lack of knowledge and experience. I REALLY appreciate all of the advice everyone has given me, thank you!! --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .