Shout out to Brian.

[raulduke]

warning... gushy content 

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say I think its really neat that Brian shares his parts library for Eagle.

I use his awesome library for every one of my layouts.

Also, without this forum and the wealth of information and support it provides, I would have never got into this whole hobby in the first place

Brian; you are the dude!

[DutchMF]

Hear! Hear!

+1 on this Raul!!

Paul

[hammerheadmusicman]

I do concur!!!

[pickdropper]

Indeed.  Between Brian and Gaussmarkov, It has saved a lot of us hours and hours of parts creation in Eagle.

[culturejam]

Agreed. Brian is a generous dude. 

[gtr2]

Copy that!

Josh

[Haberdasher]

Agreed, Brian is the man!  100% authentic dude!

[Rockhorst]

Just started messing about with Eagle and Brians library. Very grateful!

[selfdestroyer]

For a new comer like myself to not have to start from scratch is invaluable... I am so appreciative for all the collected information on this forum and for Brian's help. Thanks everyone and Brian.

[Stomptown]

I too am greatful! I sent a couple layouts off to ish park to be dabbed which wouldn't gave happened so easily without Brian's library or Jacob's eagle tutorials. Thank you guys!

[madbean]

Thanks guys. Very nice of you to say

It is getting close to the time for updating the library. I've made a few adjustments and added a couple new parts. I'll give it a go-over an put up the "2013" version.

One thing I'm starting to do a lot more of with my layouts: using smaller signal traces, large supply and ground traces and no grounding plane. I'm not totally sold on the effectiveness of grounding planes other than the obvious convenience. Need to read up on it some more. I know R.G. is not in favor of them so I bet he's got some science on it.

[hammerheadmusicman]

Not sure on the science of ground plains being good or bad, but one positive for having as much ground plane as possible is that, when you are etching, the etchant has to etch less copper, thus your etchant goes further.. and if you do a lot of etching, i suppose it makes it more cost effective.

Just one more thing to think about!

Anyway, Thanks again Brian, really apreciate the nerdy haven you have crafted for us!

George

[Rockhorst]

One thing I'm starting to do a lot more of with my layouts: using smaller signal traces, large supply and ground traces and no grounding plane.

Why the smaller signal traces?

[jkokura]

Cause they don't need to be big, and you can get them into smaller places.

You can get traces between the pads of ICs as an example. I still use huge pads, but really, I should bring the size of my pads down and start using small traces as well.

Truthfully though, we rarely need to do those sorts of things with the through hole, less than 50 part builds we do. When you're doing the SMD type stuff with 200+ parts, there's a lot of routing to do.

jacob

[pickdropper]

I do not consider myself a PCB layout expert, but there are times where ground planes can be very useful for keeping EMI down. 

With SMT circuits, one of the tricks is to staple the top and bottom ground planes together using vias.  I've seen this help a board pass EMC testing on a couple of occasions.  One board I particular I can remember had so much stitching it looked like somebody shot it up with a tommy gun.

Guitar pedals are a lot more forgiving, so it may not matter, though.  In some instances, it could help if there is a noisy component polluting the ground plane.