The changes I made to the layout last week were pretty extensive especially concerning the level shifter IC. I don’t want to do layout verification, but It needs to be done. Like when i did the check plots before, I printed out the schematic and each layer. Then I physically traced the circuits both on the schematic and the layer plots.  I use colored pens to help differentiate each net.  Before printing, I removed the note from the schematic about testing the lithium cell charger.

I plotted the top copper, bottom copper, top silk, and Edge cuts layers to PDF file and imported them into gimp. I then removed the white background from each layer, and then put a new layer at the bottom layer filled with white. I left the board outline unchanged.  Then I changed the top silkscreen layer to yellow, and faded the copper layers to about 25% black.  This allows me to see the color of the pens while I am tracing the circuits.

I found that I hadn’t updated the RTS and DTR lines used in programming. They were swapped and I changed them on the board when I received the new PCBs on the last spin.  So I had to go back into the schematic and change them.  I vertically swapped the cross linked transistors and resistors R19,20, Q7,8 on the schematic so that effectively RTS and DTR are swapped. I re-ran the netlist, imported it into PCBNew and proceeded to make the adjustments to the layout.

As I was looking at the layout, I was able to see a cleaner layout of these parts. So I made the adjustments.  Also, I remembered I wanted to modify my logo on the board.  The arrows aren’t visible on the silkscreen, so I went back into Gimp and edited them to make the gap bigger.

Unfortunately PCBnew renders the pad on top of the silkscreen so you can’t see the new arrows.  I re-printed the schematic and layouts just like I did this week and I will check the layout again before I order another spin.  I am glad I caught this mistake now and not after the next spin of the board.  As before, the intellectual property for the Uprogrammer is still licensed with the MIT license. My logo is my trademark and I reserve all rights.

Because the schematic and layout have both changed, I have uploaded a new version to Github.

Do you like to “clean up” your layouts when checking them?  Are you doing any layouts at this time?