Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

----- Original Message -----
From: "kilocycles" <kilocycles@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2006 2:19 AM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Power and Ground signals and Routing


> At some point in our discusssions on Eagle this week, and this
> probably applies to other CAD programs as well, not routing power and
> grounds was mentioned. On several boards, I've not used the supply
> device/symbol to tie the power connections together, as it adds
> considerably to the complexity of routing. I've just added solder pad
> components to power connection points, and I've run multiple power
> wires to the board, using the supply signal/device only once, with
> solpads added as needed at both the supply and supplied component
> networks.
>
> I could obviously do the same thing with signal grounds, but there
> would be several orders of magnitude more complexity in wiring by
> doing that.
>
> I've done some boards where the last step was adding the grounds to
> the schematic, after all components were added, making it easier to
> route the board manually as I added components, not having to deal
> with gnd in the ratsnest until the end.
>
> Unless I missed something, I think I read in one of the recent posts
> that grounds don't have to be routed??? They do have to be connected
> on the schematic to, say, a resistor, capacitor, etc. otherwise there
> will be an electrical rules check error for an unconnected pin.
>
> Can someone clarify this?

I always route the power and ground tracks first, as they are the most
critical ones.

Leon

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