Not sure why I like this funky PCB layout, but the kids I showed it to loved it (girls 🙂 ). Hope you like it too. If you want 100% freedom in your PCB designs, you should try out the tool Saar Drimer is developing over at boldport.com
I think it shows a very interesting trend with doing electronics “for fun” being more and more popular after many years of being completely out in the cold. That is a good thing for the industry, where we need more inspired young engineers in order to keep the productivity and creativity going up.
How is that for an interesting board layout? Can your layout tool do this?
Other interesting signs of this significant trend is exemplified by these phenomenal (in my mind) cases:
- An electronics hobbyist internet store with 130+ employees: SparkFun
- A simple ARM-based module (pretty much like a typical eval board) sells a million units in about a year (that’s more than any distributor has managed to give away ever): Raspberry Pi
- Low-cost PCB fabs now take both standard Gerber files AND job files from free design tools like Design Spark (you can now easily design and get a professional PCB manufactured with a total cost of tools and fab of about EUR 100).
- Schematics and layout can now be created using free tools right in the browser. One example is Circuits IO
The list goes on. And the really interesting thing happens when we manage to use this rapid change and impressive innovation in the professional electronics industry. To do rapid prototyping. To radically transform the way we work and do things. To help implement agile methods in hardware development. And… And… And…
How do you see this trend help transforming what you do – funky PCB layouts or not?
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