Computers and modern gadgets

What program to open the lay file you can choose from the list below!



.lay extension What is the file format?

LAY files- are used to design electrical boards and circuits and are created in the Sprint Layout program.

All files that are made in the Sprint Layout program are automatically saved with the LAY extension. As a rule, they contain various electrical circuit diagrams.

Files with this extension can be used to transfer and store PCB designs. Files with this extension are well known to everyone who works with printed circuit boards. It is thanks to them that clear schemes are drawn up, according to which the assembly is then carried out.

Files with the LAY extension can be read by all versions of operating systems from the Windows family. Sprint-Layout is constantly being improved by developers, but the extension remains unchanged. Of course, in addition to Sprint Layout, there are many other software that open files in the LAY format. You will learn about them on the pages of this Internet resource and will be able to choose a program that will be convenient for you to use.

Did you receive an email in LAY format that is impossible to read? Does the computer's operating system report that such a document is not supported? Is access blocked? Then our site will be a godsend for you! Here you will find detailed information about programs that allow you to open files with the LAY extension.

Now you know how to open lay and what programs to use for this!

Updated: 04/27/2016

An excellent amplifier for the home can be assembled on the TDA7294 chip. If you are not strong in electronics, then such an amplifier is ideal, it does not require fine tuning and debugging like a transistor amplifier and is easy to build, unlike a tube amplifier.

The TDA7294 chip has been produced for over 20 years and still has not lost its relevance, and is still in demand among radio amateurs. For a beginner radio amateur, this article will be a good help for getting to know integrated audio frequency amplifiers.

In this article I will try to describe in detail the amplifier device on the TDA7294. I will focus on a stereo amplifier assembled according to the usual scheme (1 microcircuit per channel) and briefly talk about the bridge circuit (2 microcircuits per channel).

Chip TDA7294 and its features

TDA7294 is the brainchild of SGS-THOMSON Microelectronics, this microcircuit is an AB class low frequency amplifier, and is built on field effect transistors.

Of the advantages of TDA7294, the following can be noted:

  • output power, with distortion 0.3–0.8%:
    • 70 W into 4 ohm load, typical circuit;
    • 120 W into 8 ohm load, bridged;
  • mute function (Mute) and standby function (Stand-By);
  • low noise level, low distortion, frequency range 20–20000 Hz, wide operating voltage range - ±10–40 V.

Specifications

Technical characteristics of the TDA7294 chip
ParameterConditionsMinimumTypicalMaximumUnits
Supply voltage ±10 ±40 IN
Frequency response Signal 3 db
Output power 1W
20-20000 Hz
Long Term Output Power (RMS) harmonic distortion 0.5%:
Up \u003d ± 35 V, Rn \u003d 8 Ohm
Up \u003d ± 31 V, Rn \u003d 6 Ohm
Up \u003d ± 27 V, Rn \u003d 4 Ohm

60
60
60

70
70
70
Tue
Peak Musical Output Power (RMS), duration 1 sec. harmonic factor 10%:
Up \u003d ± 38 V, Rn \u003d 8 Ohm
Up \u003d ± 33 V, Rn \u003d 6 Ohm
Up \u003d ± 29 V, Rn \u003d 4 Ohm

100
100
100
Tue
General harmonic distortion Po = 5W; 1kHz
Po = 0.1-50W; 20–20000Hz
0,005 0,1 %
Up \u003d ± 27 V, Rn \u003d 4 Ohm:
Po = 5W; 1kHz
Po = 0.1-50W; 20–20000Hz
0,01 0,1 %
Protection operation temperature 145 °C
Quiescent current 20 30 60 mA
Input impedance 100 kOhm
Voltage gain 24 30 40 dB
Peak output current 10 A
Working temperature range 0 70 °C
Case thermal resistance 1,5 °C/W

Pin assignment

Pin assignment of the TDA7294 chip
Chip outputDesignationPurposeConnection
1 Stby-GND "Signal Ground" "General"
2 In- Inverting input Feedback
3 In+ Non-inverting input Audio signal input via coupling capacitor
4 In+Mute "Signal Ground" "General"
5 N.C. Not used
6 Bootstrap "Voltage Boost" Capacitor
7 +Vs Input stage power (+)
8 -Vs Front stage power (-)
9 Stby Standby mode Control block
10 Mute Mute mode
11 N.C. Not used
12 N.C. Not used
13 +PwVs Output stage power (+) Positive terminal (+) of the power supply
14 Out Exit Audio output
15 -PwVs Output stage power (-) Negative terminal (-) of the power supply

Note. The microcircuit housing is connected to the power supply minus (pins 8 and 15). Don't forget to insulate the heatsink from the amplifier case, or isolate the chip from the heatsink by installing it through a thermal pad.

I also want to note that in my circuit (as well as in the datasheet) there is no separation of input and output "lands". Therefore, in the description and on the diagram, the definitions of “common”, “ground”, “case”, GND should be taken as concepts of the same sense.

Differences in hulls

The TDA7294 chip is available in two types - V (vertical) and HS (horizontal). TDA7294V, having a classic vertical design of the case, was the first to leave the assembly line and to this day is the most common and affordable.

Protection complex

The TDA7294 chip has a number of protections:

  • protection against power surges;
  • protection of the output stage against short circuit or overload;
  • thermal protection. When the microcircuit is heated to 145 °C, the mute mode is activated, and at 150 °C, the standby mode (Stand-By) is activated;
  • protection of microcircuit outputs from electrostatic discharges.

Power amplifier on TDA7294

A minimum of parts in the harness, a simple printed circuit board, patience and obviously good parts will allow you to easily assemble an inexpensive UMZCH on the TDA7294 with clear sound and good power for home use.

You can connect this amplifier directly to the line output of your computer's sound card. the nominal input voltage of the amplifier is 700 mV. And the nominal voltage level of the line output of the sound card is regulated within 0.7–2 V.

Structural diagram of the amplifier

The diagram shows a variant of a stereo amplifier. The structure of the amplifier in a bridge circuit is similar - there are also two boards with TDA7294.

  • A0. power unit
  • A1. Control unit for Mute and Stand-By modes
  • A2. UMZCH (left channel)
  • A3. UMZCH (right channel)

Pay attention to block connections. Improper wiring inside the amplifier can cause additional noise. To minimize noise as much as possible, follow a few rules:

  1. Power to each amplifier board must be supplied with a separate harness.
  2. Power wires must be twisted into a pigtail (bundle). This will compensate for the magnetic fields created by the current flowing through the conductors. We take three wires (“+”, “-”, “Common”) and weave a pigtail out of them with a slight tightness.
  3. Avoid ground loops. This is such a situation when a common conductor, connecting the blocks, forms a closed circuit (loop). The connection of the common wire must go in series from the input connectors to the volume control, from it to the UMZCH board and further to the output connectors. It is advisable to use connectors isolated from the body. And for the input circuits also shielded wires in isolation.

Parts list for PSU TDA7294:

When purchasing a transformer, note that the effective value of the voltage is written on it - U D, and by measuring with a voltmeter you will also see the effective value. At the output after the rectifier bridge, the capacitors are charged to the amplitude voltage - U A. The amplitude and effective voltages are related by the following relationship:

U A \u003d 1.41 × U D

According to the characteristics of TDA7294 for a load with a resistance of 4 ohms, the optimal supply voltage is ± 27 volts (U A). The output power at this voltage will be 70 watts. This is the optimal power for TDA7294 - the level of distortion will be 0.3-0.8%. There is no point in increasing power to increase power. the level of distortion grows like an avalanche (see graph).

We calculate the required voltage of each secondary winding of the transformer:

U D \u003d 27 ÷ 1.41 ≈ 19 V

I have a transformer with two secondary windings, with a voltage of 20 volts on each winding. Therefore, in the diagram, I designated the power terminals as ± 28 V.

To obtain 70 W per channel, taking into account the efficiency of the microcircuit 66%, we consider the power of the transformer:

P = 70 ÷ 0.66 ≈ 106 VA

Accordingly, for two TDA7294, this is 212 VA. The nearest standard transformer, with a margin, will be 250 VA.

Here it is appropriate to state that the power of the transformer is calculated for a pure sinusoidal signal, corrections are possible for a real musical sound. So, Igor Rogov claims that for a 50 W amplifier, a 60 VA transformer will be enough.

The high-voltage part of the PSU (before the transformer) is assembled on a 35 × 20 mm printed circuit board, it can also be surface mounted:

The low-voltage part (A0 according to the block diagram) is assembled on a 115 × 45 mm printed circuit board:

All amplifier boards are available in one.

This power supply for TDA7294 is designed for two microcircuits. For more chips, you will have to replace the diode bridge and increase the capacitance of the capacitors, which will entail a change in the dimensions of the board.

Control unit for Mute and Stand-By modes

The TDA7294 chip has a standby mode (Stand-By) and a mute mode (Mute). These functions are controlled through pins 9 and 10, respectively. The modes will be enabled as long as there is no voltage on these pins or it is less than +1.5 V. To “wake up” the microcircuit, it is enough to apply a voltage of more than +3.5 V to pins 9 and 10.

To simultaneously control all UMZCH boards (especially important for bridge circuits) and save radio components, it makes sense to assemble a separate control unit (A1 according to the block diagram):

Parts list for control box:

  • Diode (VD1). 1N4001 or equivalent.
  • Capacitors (C1, C2). Polar electrolytic, domestic K50-35 or imported, 47uF 25V.
  • Resistors (R1-R4). Ordinary underpowered.

The printed circuit board of the block has dimensions of 35 × 32 mm:

The task of the control unit is to ensure silent switching on and off of the amplifier due to the Stand-By and Mute modes.

The principle of operation is the following. When the amplifier is turned on, along with the capacitors of the power supply, the capacitor C2 of the control unit is also charged. As soon as it is charged, the Stand-By mode will turn off. Capacitor C1 takes a little longer to charge, so the Mute mode will turn off in the second turn.

When the amplifier is disconnected from the network, the capacitor C1 is first discharged through the VD1 diode and turns on the Mute mode. Then the capacitor C2 is discharged and sets the Stand-By mode. The microcircuit becomes silent when the power supply capacitors have a charge of about 12 volts, so no clicks or other sounds are heard.

Amplifier on TDA7294 in the usual way

The circuit for switching on the microcircuit is non-inverting, the concept corresponds to the original one from the datasheet, only the component values ​​have been changed to improve the sound characteristics.

Parts list:

  1. Capacitors:
    • C1. Film, 0.33-1 uF.
    • C2, C3. Electrolytic, 100-470uF 50V.
    • C4, C5. Film, 0.68 uF 63 V.
    • C6, C7. Electrolytic, 1000uF 50V.
  2. Resistors:
    • R1. Variable dual with linear characteristic.
    • R2-R4. Ordinary underpowered.

Resistor R1 is dual because stereo amplifier. Resistance not more than 50 kOhm with a linear, not a logarithmic characteristic for smooth volume control.

The R2C1 circuit is a high-pass filter (HPF), suppresses frequencies below 7 Hz, not passing them to the input of the amplifier. Resistors R2 and R4 must be equal to ensure stable operation of the amplifier.

Resistors R3 and R4 organize a negative feedback circuit (NFB) and set the gain:

Ku = R4 ÷ R3 = 22 ÷ 0.68 ≈ 32 dB

According to the datasheet, the gain should be in the range of 24-40 dB. If less, then the microcircuit will be self-excited, if more, distortion will increase.

Capacitor C2 is involved in the OOS circuit, it is better to take it with a larger capacitance in order to reduce its effect on low frequencies. Capacitor C3 provides an increase in the supply voltage of the output stages of the microcircuit - "voltage boost". Capacitors C4, C5 eliminate interference introduced by wires, and C6, C7 supplement the capacitance of the power supply filter. All capacitors of the amplifier, except for C1, must be with a voltage margin, so we take 50 V.

The printed circuit board of the amplifier is single-sided, rather compact - 55 × 70 mm. During its development, the goal was to breed the "earth" with a star, provide versatility and at the same time maintain minimal dimensions. I think this is one of the smallest boards for TDA7294. This board is designed for the installation of one chip. For the stereo version, respectively, you will need two boards. They can be installed side by side or one above the other like mine. I'll talk more about versatility a little later.

The radiator, as you can see, is indicated on one board, and the second, similar one, is attached to it from above. Photos will be a little further.

Amplifier on TDA7294 in a bridge circuit

A bridge circuit is a pairing of two conventional amplifiers with some amendments. Such a circuit solution is designed to connect acoustics with a resistance of not 4, but 8 ohms! Acoustics is connected between amplifier outputs.

There are only two differences from the usual scheme:

  • the input capacitor C1 of the second amplifier is connected to ground;
  • added feedback resistor (R5).

The printed circuit board is also a combination of amplifiers in the usual way. The board size is 110×70 mm.

Universal board for TDA7294

As you have already noticed, the above boards are essentially the same. The next PCB option fully confirms the versatility. On this board, you can assemble a 2x70W stereo amplifier (conventional circuit) or a 1x120W mono amplifier (bridged). The board size is 110×70 mm.

Note. To use this board in a bridge version, you must install the resistor R5, and install the jumper S1 in a horizontal position. In the figure, these elements are shown by dotted lines.

For a conventional circuit, resistor R5 is not needed, and the jumper must be installed in a vertical position.

Assembly and adjustment

Assembling the amplifier will not cause any particular difficulties. As such, the amplifier does not require adjustment and will work immediately, provided that everything is assembled correctly and the microcircuit is not defective.

Before first use:

  1. Make sure the radio components are installed correctly.
  2. Check the correct connection of the power wires, do not forget that on my amplifier board the "ground" is not in the center between plus and minus, but on the edge.
  3. Make sure the chips are isolated from the heatsink, if not, then check that the heatsink is not in contact with ground.
  4. Apply power to each amplifier in turn, so there is a chance not to burn all the TDA7294 at once.

First power on:

  1. We do not connect the load (acoustics).
  2. We close the inputs of the amplifiers to the "ground" (close X1 with X2 on the amplifier board).
  3. We serve food. If everything is fine with the fuses in the PSU and nothing smoked, then the launch was a success.
  4. With a multimeter, we check the absence of direct and alternating voltage at the output of the amplifier. A slight constant voltage is allowed, not more than ± 0.05 volts.
  5. We turn off the power and check the microcircuit case for heating. Be careful, the capacitors in the PSU are discharged for a long time.
  6. Through a variable resistor (R1 according to the diagram), we give a sound signal. We turn on the amplifier. The sound should appear with a slight delay, and immediately disappear when turned off, this characterizes the operation of the control unit (A1).

Conclusion

I hope this article will help you build a high-quality amplifier on the TDA7294. Finally, I present a few photos during the assembly process, do not pay attention to the quality of the board, the old textolite was unevenly etched. As a result of the assembly, some edits were made, so the boards in the .lay file are slightly different from the boards in the photographs.

The amplifier was made for a good friend, he came up with and implemented such an original case. Photos of the stereo amplifier on the TDA7294 assembly:

On a note: All printed circuit boards are collected in one file. To switch between "seals" click on the tabs as shown in the figure.

list of files

We all love to assemble circuits, but not everyone wants and knows how to breed printed circuit boards. Most often, we look for a finished seal on the Internet and in most cases we find it. It would seem, go ahead, poison and solder! But not everything is so rosy, because often these found seals look like this:

No signed element. A complete puzzle, a riddle! And, it seems, turn on the “mosh” and stuff the elements, because the circuit is at hand. But the program was created to make life easier for us, and not vice versa.

Therefore, I will briefly, from the basics, tell you how to approach the layout of the board in Sprint-Layout, so that later you don’t have to guess what kind of detail I stuck here. Let's do it right now!

You won’t cover everything in one small article, I’ll go over some of the main points. So, we create a new project, set the name of the board and the estimated size (it is easy to correct it later).

Be sure to select the appropriate working grid.


For small projects with large elements, a 1.27 mm grid is suitable, for more advanced and dense 0.635 mm, and so on. Elements and tracks will be placed with reference to the nodes of this grid. You can make a grid for Soviet parts: 2.5 mm or 1 mm.

Be sure to understand the layer system in the program, understand how everything works, use the photo view.


Make inscriptions on layers for inscriptions, and tracks and polygons - on layers for copper, etc.
The archive has a help program in Russian.

Let's start adding details to the board. At this stage, you should not confuse the values ​​\u200b\u200bof “Type” and “Nominal”, later I will tell you why.


Enter the values, adjust the font size to taste, click OK.


We see the element with the marking. Now we can distribute and “compact” our marking.
Select the denomination and drag it with the mouse to the right place. Before that, you need to reduce the grid size to an acceptable level.


Here, it's better.

Now we move the element symbol closer. If necessary, you can rotate it by selecting it first.


Further, so as not to suffer like this with each element, we simply copy it and change the data in the element's properties.

Our board is already quite ready for fabrication, but why should we overload the solution with excess copper?
No need! We will minimize the area of ​​etched copper. To do this, select all the elements on the board and click the "Metalization" button at the bottom of the program window and change the value to an acceptable one, for example, 0.5 mm.


Everything is fine, but some legs can and sometimes even need to be planted on a metallized area. There is nothing complicated.


Select the desired legs and change the value of the plating indent to 0. That's it, now the leg is on the ground bus.

And if you need a thermal barrier to facilitate soldering on large polygons? We choose drawing tracks and draw a thermal barrier.


This is the simplest and most obvious way. But you can also use the built-in features of the program for creating thermal barriers. Select the desired pad and explore the menu on the right.


Check the box "Thermal barrier" and set the direction and width of the "bridges" of the barrier. It is very convenient that you can set up many sites at once. The thermal barrier function works only on the switched on automatic landfill. Not supported by all versions of Sprint-Layout. Use fresh.

Everything is drawn, we can admire the result by pressing the "photo view" button.

Nuance - you can edit the size of the labels of the elements individually, for this, select the "victim" and click the properties button on the right. The settings are quite extensive. However, it is better to set all labels in the same style.

It's time for cosmetics. So that all drawings of elements on the board have a uniform look and line thickness, we do the following:
1. select the layer with the marking of elements;
2. turn off the track layer;
3. select all (ctrl+A);
4. we adjust the thickness of the lines of all elements at the same time;
5. Activate the track layer again.



Beauty! By the way, do not forget to adjust the colors of the layers in the program to your liking, to whom my palette seemed gloomy.

Now let's remember the beginning of the article and find out why you shouldn't enter the value of the element in the field for its type. Everything is simple, it turns out that when adding elements, we have already formed a list of elements!

Of course, a more correct practice is the supremacy of the scheme in the project, then the creation of a list of elements is the business of the program for drawing schemes. In the software package from ABACOM it is sPLAN.
Editorial note



It remains only to purchase according to the list and end up with a beautiful home-made board. Yes, and people are not ashamed to show such a drawing on the forum, and there will be no extra questions about the board.

Files

And here is a Russian help on Sprint-Layout and an excellent free book by our comrade Mikhail Tsarev (Tsoy73):
🕗 27/12/16 ⚖️ 2.14 Mb ⇣ 168

Despite the simplicity of this program, I am often asked to write an article on it. But I had no time. Therefore, the role of Captain Evidence took over Sailanser. Having completed this titanic work. I just corrected and added some details.

Everyone probably has long known a program for the manufacture of printed circuit boards called Sprint layout, at the moment the latest version is proudly called 5.0

The program itself is very simple and does not require much time to master, but it allows you to make boards of a fairly high quality.

As I said, the program itself is quite simple, but it has a lot of buttons and menus to help us in our work. Therefore, we will divide our lesson in drawing a board into how many parts.
In the first part, we will get acquainted with the program and find out where and what is hidden in it. In the second part, we will draw a simple board that will contain, for example, a couple of microcircuits in DIP packages (and we will make these microcircuits from scratch), several resistors and capacitors, we will also see such an interesting feature of the program as Macro Creator and use it to make a chip package, for example TQFP-32.
I will also show you how to draw a board from a picture or photo.

Part 1: What and where we hide and how it helps us in drawing a printed circuit board.

After we found the program, downloaded it, unpacked it from the archive and launched it, we see such a window.

First, let's see what we have hidden behind the inscription File.

Click on this inscription, and immediately we have a drop-down menu.

  • New,Open,Save,Save as, Printer settings..., Seal…, Exit With this brethren, everything is clear. Tea is not the first day we sit in Windows.
  • Save as macro... This option allows us to save the selected fragment of the circuit or other details as a macro, which has the .lmk extension, so as not to repeat the steps to create them again in the future.
  • Autosave.. In this option, you can configure the autosave of our files with the .bak extension and set the required interval in minutes.
  • Export In this option, we will be able to export to one of the formats, i.e. save our scarf as a picture, as a gerbera file for further transfer to production, save as an Excellon drilling file and also save as contour files for subsequent creation of scarves using a CNC machine. Usually useful in preparation for factory production.
  • Directories… In this option, we can configure the parameters for working with the program, such as keyboard shortcuts for file locations, macros, layer colors, etc., etc.

Go to the next item Editor

The next item we have Action

Next on the list we have Options.

So, the first point, we have to configure the basic parameters. We can specify the units of length in our case, mm, specify the color of the hole in the pad, in our case it matches the background color and will be black, if later our background is red, then the color of the hole in the pad will also be red. You can also just set the color of the hole to white, and it will be white no matter what background we have.
The second item we have is Virtual nodes and traces, this item, if it is checked, gives a very interesting property in the program, it puts on the conductor that we draw several virtual nodes.

And the program will automatically add a few more virtual nodes in the sections between the real nodes and we have the opportunity to further edit our track. This can be very convenient when you have to drag, for example, a third track, between two already laid ones.

Mirrored macros and text on the back
If this item is activated, then when inserting text or a macro on a layer, the program will itself look to mirror it or not so that later the parts or inscriptions have the correct display on our finished board.

The next item we have is the Board Map, this item has one interesting trick, if it is activated, then a small window appears on the left side of our program.

It's like a smaller copy of our headscarf, whether to include it or not, it's up to everyone to decide for me personally. Fans of the RTS genre will appreciate it too :)

Pop-ups are basically all sorts of hints in the program - obviously.

Limit font height (min 0.15mm)
This is the checkbox that many beginners and not only users of this program are looking for, if it is worth it, then when we make inscriptions on the board or on the elements, then we cannot make the letter size less than 1.5 mm. So if you need to put text somewhere smaller than 1.5 mm, then I recommend removing it. But when sending to production, this must be taken into account. Not everywhere can print silk-screen printing of such low resolution.

We go further and see another interesting fad, namely Ctrl+ mouse to save the parameters of the selected objects, if this item is activated, then one interesting thing appears. For example, we drew two contact pads and laid a track between them, say, 0.6 mm wide, then we did something else and in the end we just forgot what the width of this track was, of course, you can just click on it and in the track width setting we will display its width

here, instead of 0.55, our width will become 0.60, but then twisting the slider, to the right of the number, in order to adjust the width by 0.6 is lazy, but if we click on the same track with the Ctrl button pressed, then our value is 0, 6 immediately be remembered in this window and a new track, we will draw already with a thickness of 0.6mm.

Using a step of 0.3937 instead of 0.4.
Of course, the translator is very clumsy in the original, this paragraph is written as HPGL-Skalierung mit Faktor 0.3937 statt 0.4 in general, this paragraph is responsible for creating an HPGL file for subsequent transfer to the coordinate machine, and indicates whether to use one decimal place or, depending on the machine, use four characters after the comma.

We have finished with the first point and now we will move on to the second point of our window, it is called Colors and we will see what is hiding there.

There is nothing special here either, we just indicate the paths where and what we have, this setting takes place if we install the program from the distribution kit downloaded from the official site, but since the program works great for us without any installation, then nothing can be changed and go further.

Here, too, everything is quite simple and we simply indicate the number by how much the program will be able to roll back the changes to us, if where something was screwed up when drawing our board, I set the maximum number to 50.

Let's move on to the next item, and we call it I max Showing movies in 3D

In it we see keyboard shortcuts for certain operations and if something we can change them, although I didn’t really worry about it and left everything as it is by default.

With the Settings item, we are done and let's see the rest of the options in the drop-down menu Options

Properties
If we select this item, then on the right in the program we will open a window

Which will allow us to control our drawn handkerchief, set limit gaps, etc. Archiconvenient and archinuzhnaya thing. Especially when sending boards for production, and in artisanal conditions it comes in handy. The point is. We set, for example, a minimum gap of 0.3mm and a minimum track of not less than 0.2mm, and during the DRC check, the program will find all the places where these standards are not met. And if they are not fulfilled, then there may be jambs in the manufacture of the board. For example, the tracks stick together or some other problem. There is also a check of hole diameters and other geometric parameters.

Library
When you select this item, we will see another window on the right side of the program.

A very interesting point, it allows you to put a picture as a background on our table in a program where we draw a scarf. While I will not describe it in detail, but I will return to it.

Metallization
When this option is selected, the program fills the entire free area with copper, but at the same time leaves gaps around the drawn conductors.

These gaps can sometimes be very useful to us, and the board with this approach turns out to be prettier and more aesthetic, where to adjust the gap width I will also dwell in more detail when we draw the scarf.

Whole fee
We select this option, the scale will decrease on the screen, and we will see our entire handkerchief.

All components
Similar to the top point, but with the only difference that it will scale down depending on how many components we have scattered over the scarf.

All selected
This item will adjust the screen size up or down depending on which components we currently have selected.

previous scale
Return to the previous scale, everything is simple here.

Refresh Image
The easy option just updates the image on our screen. Useful if there are any visual artifacts on the screen. Sometimes there is a glitch. Especially when copy-pasting large pieces of the circuit.

About the project…
If you select this option, you can write something about the project itself, and then remember, especially after yesterday, that I drew there, it looks like this.

Here we see that we need to drill 56 holes and we need to fit five of them so that the inner point on the contact pad is 0.6 mm.

Macro Creator...
A very, very, very, useful item in the program that allows us to draw a complex body, such as SSOP, MLF, TQFP, or some other one in a minute or two. When you click on this item, a window like this will open.

Here we can choose and customize the drawing of our case, looking at the data from the datasheet for a particular microcircuit. Select the type of sites, the distance between them. Type of location and oops! There is a ready-made set of pads on the board. It remains only to arrange them on the silkscreen layer (for example, circle it in a frame) and save it as a macro. All!

The following items, such as Registration and a question mark, i.e. I will not describe help, because there is absolutely nothing in them that will help us in the further drawing of our headscarves, although help will be useful to those who are friends with the German language.

Phew described the fads in the drop-down menus, but all these items have their icons in the form of pictures on the panel a little lower, that is, all the options necessary for work are placed there, this panel.

I won’t dwell on it in too much detail, because it duplicates menu items, but when drawing further, I will simply refer to these icons so as not to obstruct perception with phrases like, Select the menu item File, New.

As I said, I will describe these icons, I will move from left to right and simply list them. If there is some kind of setting in the icon, then I will dwell in more detail.
Let's go from left to right New, Open file, Save file, Print file, Undo action, Redo action, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Duplicate, Rotate and here we will make the first stop, and look at this item in more detail, if you choose which one then the component on our scarf and click on the small triangle next to the rotation icon, we will see the following.

This is where we will be able to choose at what angle we should rotate our part, as I said above, it was 90 degrees by default, and here it was 45 and 15 and 5, and we can even set our own, for example, as I set 0.5, i.e. half a degree.
And now let's have fun! We throw kits on the board, turn it around at random, at arbitrary angles. We breed all this with curved lines ala Topor and brag to our friends with stoned circuit boards with psychedelic wiring :)

I will also dwell on this point in more detail. The point is actually very good, it helps to give a beautiful and aesthetic look to the scarf so that in the future you can show off to your friends how everything is neat and beautiful with you, for example, we put SMD parts on our board, and they are all at random because of for snapping to the grid, and then select a few details and choose left alignment and everything looks neat with us.

Update, Template, Properties, Control, Library, About, and Transparency
Transparency is also quite an interesting item, which allows you to see the layers, especially useful when making a double-sided board and a lot of conductors on each layer, if you press this button, it will look something like this.

Let's go step by step from top to bottom.
Cursor This item, when you click on it, is simply a cursor that allows us to select some element on the board and drag it across the board while holding the left mouse button
Scale When you click on this icon, the pointer will change to a lens with a plus sign and a minus sign at the edges and, accordingly, if you press the left mouse button, the image will increase; if the right one, it will decrease. In principle, when drawing scarves, this item can not be selected, but scrolling the mouse wheel forward or backward, respectively, the scale will increase forward and decrease backward.
Conductor When this icon is selected, the pointer changes its appearance to a dot with a crosshair and allows us to draw a track from one pad to another. The track is drawn on the active layer, which is selected at the bottom.

If you select the line “with metallization”, then the contact pad will change color to bluish, with a thin red circle inside, this will imply that metallization is taking place in this hole and that this hole is transitional from one side of the board to the other. It is also very convenient to put such contact pads on double-sided boards, because during subsequent printing, these contact pads will be printed on both sides of our future board.
SMD contact When you select this icon, it becomes possible to place small smd contacts on our scarf.
Arc This icon allows us to draw a circle or an arc.

This is especially true for those who make their handkerchiefs using LUT technology and who, when printing on a laser printer, the printer does not make large filled areas perfectly black. In the settings, you can also choose the thickness of the border to control the roundness of the corners of our polygon.
Figure
If you select this icon, then a window opens from which you can draw either a figure or a thread, or you can depict a fancy spiral.

Compound
When you select this icon, the pointer becomes small and the “air” connection mode is turned on, just click on one contact pad and then on the other, and such a wonderful green thread will appear between them, which many people use to show jumpers on the board, which will then be needed solder. That's just jumpers, I would not advise her to do. The fact is that they do not give communication during electrical verification. It is best to make jumpers with tracks on the second layer, connecting them through metalized through holes. In this case, an electrical test will show a contact. So, IMHO, the connection is a useless thing.

Another useless thing :) However, maybe sometimes it will help to find a path in a tricky place. Yes, she walks on the grid, so if you want it to work better, make the grid smaller.

Control
Electrical control. Allows you to find all closed circuits. An archipelago thing when distributing. Especially when you have already done a lot of all sorts of chains and the eye refuses to perceive this mess. And so he poked with a tester - everything lit up. Beauty! Especially useful ground and power to calculate. In order not to forget to ask anything. The main thing is to make jumpers not through the “connection”, but along the second layer.

Photoview
In general, it’s a cool thing to see how the scarf will look like if it is made in production, or you need to put a prettier drawing somewhere on a forum or website. And it’s also good to look at the solder mask on it, where it is, and where it is not. Well, you can admire the silkscreen. In general, a useful feature. It also allows you to catch bugs with a mirror image of letters / components, or if something is mistakenly stuck on the wrong layer.

In this mode, you can delete or vice versa close the parts with a mask. Just poking through the wires. There is white - it means open.

Now let's get to the little tweaks.
The first item we have is setting the grid step, the first seven points of the grid step are clogged by the manufacturer of the program and you can’t change them in any way, you can only choose, but you can also add your sizes in the grid settings, just click “Add grid step ...” and enter your parameters that I and made by adding a grid step of 1mm, 0.5mm, 0.25mm, 0.10mm 0.05mm and 0.01mm

The currently active grid spacing is displayed with a checkmark and is now 1 mm

You can also delete the marked grid step or turn off grid snapping altogether by clicking on the corresponding line. And if you move with the Ctrl key pressed, then the grid step is ignored. It is convenient when you need to move something not on the grid.

The following three configurable items:

  • Setting the wire width is where we adjust the width of our wire.
  • Setting the size of the pad, here we adjust the outer and inner diameter.
  • And the last setting is to adjust the dimensions of the SMD pad horizontally and vertically.

You can also create your own line / pad sizes and save them so that you can later select from the list.

Now only the bottom panel remains:

Everything is simple here, on the left we have the cursor position and 5 working layers, the active working layer is currently marked with a dot.
Next we have a button, Metal plating of free areas of the board, this button covers the entire free area of ​​​​the board with copper and makes gaps near the conductors, and in this window the size of the required gap is adjusted. It should only be noted that the gap is set for each line separately! Those. it is useless to click this counter. It is necessary to select the entire board (or a specific posting) and only then adjust.

Below it is another icon, a shaded rectangle. It has one interesting property, if you click on it, then we can free the area that we select from the fill on the board.

There is really one subtlety here. The fact is that if we try to connect our fill with wires, then nothing will come of it. Because the fill will scatter in a panic to the sides. It is solved simply - we throw from the earth point to the fill and make the gap equal to zero for this conductor. All!

Here you can also make a negative inscription on the fill. It is also done simply - we put the inscription on the fill (the fill scatters from the inscription in different directions), and then in the properties we check the box “No gap”. Everything, the inscription has become in the form of slots in the fill.

Yes, I forgot about such a small hint that appears when you click on a small question.

This is where we will finish our first lesson, in it we learned what and where we hide and what is located and where it is configured.

Part #2
Let's draw a simple scarf, create a body TQFP-32 and learn how to draw a scarf found on the Internet.

In the last part, we got acquainted with the program, found out what, where, hides, what is configured and what is not, learned the small chips that are in the program.
Now let's try, after reading in the first part, to draw a simple board.

As a sample, let's take a simple diagram, I dug it up in one of the old magazines, I won’t say which one, maybe one of the site visitors will remember this magazine.


We see that the old circuit has gone through a lot of things, both pencil corrections and filling with alcohol-rosin flux, but for our purposes it is ideal because of its simplicity.
Before we draw our scarf, let's analyze the diagram for what we need from the details.

  • Two chips in DIP packages with 14 pins for each chip.
  • six resistors.
  • One polar capacitor and two conventional capacitors.
  • One diode.
  • One transistor.
  • Three LEDs.

Let's start drawing our details, and first we will decide what our microcircuits look like and what they are.

This is what these microcircuits look like in DIP packages, and they have dimensions between the legs that are 2.54 mm and between the rows of legs these dimensions are 7.62 mm.

Now let's draw these microcircuits and save them as a macro, so that we don't draw again in the future and we will have a ready-made macro for subsequent projects.

We start our program and set the active layer K2, the size of the contact area is equal to 1.3 mm, its shape is selected as “Rounded vertically”, the width of the conductor is equal to 0.5 mm, and the grid pitch is set to 2.54 mm.
Now, according to the dimensions that I gave above, let's draw our microcircuit.

Everything worked out as planned.

Then let's save our future fee. Click on the floppy disk icon and enter the file name in the field.

We have drawn the location of the legs of the microcircuit, but our microcircuit has some kind of unfinished look and looks lonely, we need to give it a neater look. It is necessary to make a silkscreen outline.

To do this, switch the grid step to 0.3175, set the conductor thickness to 0.1 mm, and make layer B1 active.

With this triangle we will designate where we will have the first output of the microcircuit.

Why did I draw this way?
Everything is very simple in our program by default, five layers are layers K1, B1, K2, B2, U.
Layer K2 is the soldering (lower) side of the components, layer B1 is the marking of the components, i.e. where to put something or a silkscreen layer that can then be applied to the front side of the board.
Layer K1 is the top side of the board if we make the board double-sided, respectively, layer B2 is the marking or silkscreen layer for the top side and, accordingly, layer U is the outline of the board.

Now our microcircuit looks more neat and tidy.

Why do I do it this way? Yes, simply because the boards made somehow depress me, and in a hurry it happens that you download some thread to a scarf from the network, and there are only contact pads and nothing more. You have to check each connection according to the scheme, what came from where, what should go where ...

But I digress. We made our microcircuit in the DIP-14 package, now we need to save it as a macro in order not to draw something like this later, but simply take it from the library and transfer it to the board. By the way, you are unlikely to find SL5 without macros just do. Some minimal set of standard cases is already in the macros folder. And whole sets of macroassemblies go through the network.

Now hold down the left mouse button and select everything we just drew.

And all our three objects will be grouped into one

Here it is the letter M on the chip.
And let's see in the macro window our newly created macro

Excellent, but it would not hurt to decide what size our board will be, I figured out how to scatter them approximately by the dimensions of the parts and calculated as a result I got the size 51mm by 26mm.
Switch to layer U - milling layer or board border. At the factory, this contour will be milled during manufacture.

We select the grid spacing equal to 1 mm

An observant person will say yes, the starting point of the contour does not lie directly at zero and will be absolutely right. For example, when I draw my boards, I always retreat from above and to the left by 1 mm. This is due to the fact that in the future the payment will be made either
using the LUT method or using a photoresist, and in the latter it is necessary that the template has negative tracks, i.e. white tracks on a dark background, and with this approach in board design, it is then easier to cut the finished template, make several copies on one sheet. Yes, and the board itself with this approach looks much more beautiful. Many probably downloaded boards from the network, and the most fun happens when you open such a board and there, a blueprint in the middle of a huge sheet and some kind of pancake crosses around the edges.
Now change the grid step to 0.635 mm.

And approximately put our microcircuits

And put two contact pads at a distance of 2.54 mm

And on it we will draw the approximate radius of our capacitor, for this we need the arc tool.

So we got our capacitor, we look at the circuit and see that it is connected to pins 4.5 and 1 of the microcircuit, so we’ll plug it in approximately there.
Now we set the track width to 0.8 mm and start connecting the legs of the microcircuit, we connect it very simply, first we clicked on one leg of the microcircuit with the left button of the microcircuit, then on the other, and after we brought the conductor (track) to where we wanted, we click with the right, after right-clicked the track will no longer continue.


Now, according to a similar principle, we build parts, putting them on our board, draw conductors between them, scratch in the back of the head when we can’t lay the conductor somewhere, we think, laying the conductors again and in some places do not forget to change the width of the conductor, thus gradually building the board, also when laying the conductors, press the spacebar on the keyboard, this button changes the bending angles of the conductor, I recommend trying a cool thing. Separately, I want to dwell on the grouping of objects. Several objects can be collected into one by clicking on them with the left button of the bear with the shift key pressed, and then pressing the grouping. So, draw, draw, As a result, we get this:

As a result, the board looks like this:

Now a few explanations about printing a mirror / non-mirror image. Usually a problem occurs with LUT, when, due to inexperience, you print an image in the wrong display. The problem is solved really simply.

In all board layout programs, it is customary for us that the textolite is “transparent”, so we draw tracks looking as if through the board. It's easier, in the sense that the pin numbering of microcircuits turns out to be natural, and not mirrored, and you don't get confused. So. The bottom layer is already a mirror. We print it as is.

But the top one needs to be mirrored. So when you make a double-sided board (although I don’t advise it, most of the boards can be separated on one side), then its upper side will need to be mirrored when printing.

Here we have drawn a simple scarf, there are only a few small touches left.
Reduce the overall size of the working area and print. However, you can simply print as is.

Let's set a few copies, you never know if we suddenly screw up:

All this, of course, is good, but it wouldn’t hurt to finish the scarf itself, bring it to mind, and put it in the archive, all of a sudden when it comes in handy, or it will have to be sent to someone later, but we don’t even have signed elements of what and where it is, in principle it’s possible and so we remember everything, but another person to whom we will give this will swear for a long time, checking according to the scheme. Let's make the last touch, put the designations of the elements and their denomination.
Let's switch to layer B1 first.

After we have placed all the designations of the elements, we can align them so that it looks more neat, after all these actions, our scarf looks like this:

And in the field we write our value of the resistor R1 according to the scheme, we have it 1.5K
We wrote, click OK and then if we bring the pointer to the resistor R1, then we will see its value.

Right on the inscription, right-click and select New Board from the drop-down menu. After we answer in the affirmative to the question, we will open the properties of the new scarf and call it TQFP-32.

Now we open the datasheet for the microcircuit that we are going to draw, for example, looking at the datasheet from ATmega-8.

We look at the datasheet at the microcircuit and see a square with a pancake on each side of the leg, well, it doesn’t matter, just select a different location in the top drop-down menu, namely Four-sided and click on the SMD contact. That's all now, looking into the datasheet, and in this window we look where to enter which parameter, as a result, we fill in all the fields, and we get the following result:

Now we have a very small touch left to zoom in on the image by turning the mouse wheel away from us, switch to layer B2, and draw the outline of the microcircuit and indicate where we will have the first leg.


That's all, our case for the TQFP-32 chip has been created, now if you can print something, attach the chip to a piece of paper and if it's not there a little, then slightly adjust the parameters, and then save it as a macro so that in the future you don't draw such a case.

Drawing a picture
And the last step of our lesson, I will tell you how to make a scarf from an image of a board found in a magazine or on the Internet.

To do this, create the following tab and call it Internet.
In order not to search for a long time, let's go to the Internet and type in the search engine "Printed circuit board", the search engine will throw out a bunch of links and pictures, we will choose something from them just like that.

After we have drawn, we take our image and, using a graphic editor, remove everything that we have on the left side, we basically don’t need it, and save the right side to a file with the extension .BMP. If we scan a scarf from some magazine, then it is better to scan with a resolution of 600 dip and save it to a file. After we have saved it in the program, go to the K2 layer, click on the TEMPLATE icon.

Click the Upload... button and select our file. After that, the screen will look like this

That's all now just outline the details of this picture. There are quite possible cases when the details may not fall from 100% to what is drawn in the picture, this is not scary. The main thing is that there is a picture on the background layer and a set of macros with a fixed size, and this is the most important thing. The Sprint-Layout program has an excellent set of macros, and gradually, when new details are drawn, it will also be replenished with its own.

If you click on the top one, then while we hold it, our tracks will become invisible, and if we press the bottom one, then while we hold it, our picture that we superimposed as a background will become invisible.

That's basically all about the Sprint-Layout program, I think for beginners to master it there is plenty of information, and of course you need to remember everything what and where to press, how and what to do. And at the end of the lesson about the Sprint-Layout program, you can download the file itself with these boards, on which the development of this program took place.

Happy board making!

A simple, but at the same time very effective software package for the design and manual layout of printed circuit boards of small and medium complexity. The program is very popular among Russian radio amateurs.

The main advantage of Sprint-Layout is an intuitive interface that includes only the most necessary tools for preparing printed circuit boards measuring 300 by 300 mm. The program allows you to work with two layers (conductors and markings) for each side of the board. Additional features - solder mask layer, metallization, SMD mask. The built-in tracer only helps route conductors, and is not automatic. The growing library contains the most common electronic components. Sprint-Layout has the ability to export the results of work to popular Excellon and Gerber formats, as well as create an HPGL file for PCB finishing on a software-controlled milling machine. The package is widely used for .

The program is unlikely to be suitable for professionals, since its capabilities are limited to small boards with a low density of elements. But, thanks to its logical and understandable structure, Sprint-Layout is very easy to learn and is recommended for beginner designers who do not want to spend their time learning more complex programs.

The language of the program is German or English. Domestic enthusiasts created a fully functional Russified version of the program, which received the name Sprint-Layout 6 on the network (but has nothing to do with the official version 6, released in 2013). The interface has been redesigned for greater convenience, a large number of electronic components have been added, and compatibility with all original versions of Sprint-Layout up to version 5 has been maintained.

You can read about the innovations of the 6th version of Sprint-Layout in the article:

The program works stably in 32-bit or 64-bit operating systems Windows 98 / ME / NT / 2000 / XP / Vista / Win 7 / Win 8

Distribution of the program: Shareware (paid), price - 40 euros

Official website of Sprint-Layout: http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/sprint-layout.html

Sprint-Layout file formats: LAY, LAY6, export to Gerber or Excellon

Download Sprint-Layout 6.0 (unofficial Russian version, actually 5.0)

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