Unlike professional PCB tools and free open source ones that start with a schematic diagram view, the starting point on a Fritzing design is the image of a blank Arduino-like breadboard. Indeed, if a user of the Fritzing tool has created an Arduino design and wants his or her first Fritzing PCB to interface to it, the defaults are set to an “Arduino shield” to allow it to plug in to the Arduino platform. It is designed for non-engineers or first semester engineering students who are just the first couple of steps beyond an Arduino or other bread-boarding prototype platform.
If it is targeted at some sort of IoT application it is just too big. But as Arduino users eventually discover, that platform’s breadboard approach is too fragile to be practical in any sort of commercial end product. Although I am not abandoning Circuit Maker, the Fritzing site has a set of tools that are more helpful as I explore all the ins and outs of PCB design.Ĭreated by a team of engineering students at the University of Applied Sciences of Potsdam in Germany, the Fritzing PCB design approach draws its inspiration from the Arduino breadboard-based paradigm that is popular among hardware do-it-yourselfers. That’s why I was pleased to be introduced to the Fritzing open source tool and community web site. At the very beginning I like to just experiment, Tinker Toy constructor kit style, and see what works and what does not. For me – and I think for many beginners and students – it is more useful initially to work in an environment where I am able to putter around making mistakes and learning from them without being distracted by well-meant comments.
But while the CircuitMaker site will be useful to fairly sophisticated open source hardware design DIYers, it seems a big jump for students and other beginners as well as design dilettantes like me who are still at the kicking-the-tires and the moving-the-pieces-around stage of such design efforts.Īlso, even though the CircuitMaker site has a community willing to support fellow PCB designers in their efforts, it is almost too helpful, with constant comments from members when they see someone making a mistake.
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