PCB Design in the EE Lab

Making PCB's may be one of the most valuable skills you can have. This page is dedicated to helping you bring you ideas into reality. After these three steps you will be able to create your own custom schematics, design a PCB from your schematics and send your files to a PCB manufacturer or mill them on one of the electrical engineering's milling machines.

Step 1

Download and install the latest version (Win 32/64, Mac, etc.) of Autodesk Eagle Schematic / PCB design software. Choose the Student version which has a year free license. You will need to set up an account with Autodesk. The account can be used for all of Autodesk products. You will need to provide Autodesk with proof that you are a current student here.

Download Autodesk

Step 2

Download the Adafruit Zip file. Unzip the file and move the Adafruit.lbr file to the lbr directory underneath the Eagle main folder. This will help get you a lot of common parts. If eagle does not have a certain part you need, you can usually go to the manufacture's website and download the library file.

Download Adafruit

Step 3

Follow along with these 5 tutorials developed by Adam Argersinger for the UTA Electrical Engineering Labs.

This video covers what PCB are made out of and common PCB terms

This video show you how to download, install and activate the student version of Eagle

This video cover Eagle libraries and how to download ECAD models from Mouser. It also includes how to make custom footprints for non standard parts.

In this video you will follow along to design a simple schematic.

In this video you will place the part into the PCB design software and route the wires. You will also learn how to export the files into industry standard Gerber files which you can send to a PCB manufacturing web site



Mill your prototype in the EE Maker Space.

PCB Mill

Once your done with your PCB layout in Eagle, you can mill your PCB directly from Eagle to the Bantam Tools milling machine in the EE maker space. Please contact the EE lab staff or an IEEE Officer to access the PCB mill.

Location and Contacts

Mailing Address: Box 19016, Arlington, TX 76019 
Deliveries: Nedderman Hall, Room 518, 416 Yates St., Arlington, TX 76010 
Phone: 817-272-2671 

Administration

Dr. Wei-Jen Lee
Professor and Interim Chair
817-272-3934
wlee@uta.edu

Dr. Jonathan Bredow 
Professor & Associate Chair 
817-272-3472
jbredow@uta.edu

Dr. Sungyong Jung
Professor & Associate Chair
817-272-1338
jung@uta.edu

EE Staff Directory

Undergraduate Applicants

Graduate Applicants