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

FINALLY!

Somthing I can talk about that I actually know about! (this is
somewhat a joke between me and Stefan - he knows my abilities).

Livewire is cute and cheap. It is fun to play with to layout a very
basic circuit and see what happens when you press the "power"
button. It is also handy for making a quick schematic that looks
pretty good. Even though I am an absolute beginner with
electronics, I have already ran into limitations with the
software....

It only has a handful of components. In nearly every case so far of
using the software, I have had to "Fudge" in something to replace
what should be a chip or some other device. This could be ignorance
on my part, but, it may not be either. I would STRONGLY suggest
downloading the demo and give it a test drive. Depending on the
types of circuits you are working with, the included components may
be more than adequate.

I only have the PCB Wizard demo package and am considering buying
it, but frankly, I am leaning strongly towards one of the free
packages by the many circuit board manufacturers - they are very
capable.

For learning, Livewire is a very good tool to help me understand
where the electricity is flowing and what it is doing. It has been
a very helpful tool to get me through some of the more basic stuff
that I have a hard time understanding. I think I paid $50.00 for it
and it was well worth it based on what I learned from it so far.
But, if you already understand the basics, it may be $50.00 down the
toilet.

hope this helps a little!

Chris