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

Well, I tried Target 3001! for a few hours. It does come with a
limited number of basic components, as advertised, but the ability to
connect to the internet while inside the schematic editor's Add
Component function and download a transistor or whatever to the
library is interesting. I was successful on many searches. I
couldn't find the SA612 mixer chip, but I did find it's obsolete NE602
predecessor. No 2N5109, but I found the 2N3866 (RF transistors).

I added a few components to the schematic, and switched to the board,
and it was blank. Surprising, because the one-click switch as in
EAGLE is an advertised feature. Maybe the "wiring" has to be
completed first.

Also, I could not figure out a way to simply change the value of a
resistor, or any other component on the schematic. The Help contents
didn't give any easy-to-find clues. Maybe that can't be done easily
as in EAGLE and DipTrace because Target 3001! also does simulation,
and the integrity of the component must be maintained.

I saw enough of it to say "I don't like it". For those who say that
EAGLE is non-intuitive (including me, but I've gotten used to it), I'd
say this program goes an order of magnitude beyond that
characterization. Even for native German-speakers, I would think.
Those descriptions of components in the library web downloads are in
German, by the way.

Moving back and forth between EAGLE and DipTrace doesn't require
psychological reprogramming. I'm not sure I could say that regarding
Target 3001!. Maybe there's a Rosetta Stone or something I'm missing
that inhibits my ability to understand this program, but it would also
be obscured in German from us English-speakers. Even the translations
to English in the pull-downs and pop-ups are rather obtuse, to say the
least.

I'm not picking on Germans, the people, culture, or anything; no
agenda at all there. I've read and understand the works of the German
philosophers, from Leibniz to Kant, et al, but I can't quite figure
out the logic behind this software, and I don't think it's worth the
trouble, considering what else is available, and first-rate.

Regards,
Ted