So far I personally like Diptrace much better. The user interface feels a lot more natural, plus it has an auto-router and the like. We will see if I hit the barrier and end up trying to convert.
Kurt
This last week I have playing around with Eagle and making some progress. As I mentioned before, I don’t find some of their interface very intuitive. Things like, to copy a set of components. You choose the Group tool, then you drag a rectangle around the components, then choose the scissors icon to cut, then click on the stop light to make it take. And this does not actually delete the components… Also with version 5.0 I don’t know anyway to cut and paste components between projects. I am also finding it difficult to find many of the components I am trying to use, like Voltage regulators… Probably for most of these would need to create my own library for them…
They have now released version 6 of Eagle. I downloaded it to my portable and am using the free version and it appears like they have cleaned up the cut/copy stuff some, and they now allow you to copy and paste between schematics. Not sure if your license is valid for version 6.0. Also not sure of cost to upgrade. You have to go through their system, enter serial numbers and the like and then they will tell you the price. Lots of changes, including the file formats. So I am also not sure if once you convert a project to version 6, if you can then save/convert it back to version 5 for others to use or not.
Kurt
I noticed the last time I opened it it told me there was an update. I will look into it!
Yep, I noticed that too.
I have downloaded and installed it on my main machine as well. Currently I am using a freemium version which allows me to use all of the components (max 4 pages on schematic, reasonable size 4 layer board…). This is good until sometime in March… This version does allow me to do some cutting and pasting from other boards, which is nice. I have most of the components now in the schematic and have been doing some placing of components… Needless to say it will be very tight!. May play around with some different layout options. LIke maybe using 2x3 connectors for power selection where top goes to left and bottom goes to right group of 4 (or vice-verse…). That may clear some more paths for stuff… Maybe use Resistor networks instead of individual resistors for the protection of the analog signals. Not sure if that will help or if I can just as easily stack up the resistors… I have also noticed that most of these Pic32 designs are using a different FTDI chip, which has a smaller footprint…
Still need to add on some stuff like leds, maybe buttons, speaker, EPROM, ???
Kurt
I know it will be tight. The buttons, led’s and the speaker can be one a small carrier. Best to keep the eeprom on the board. Maybe try a 4x4 where there are 4 columns and the rows from bottom to top are; ground, power, IO, and IO. Power selection could be in between the groups of 4 columns.
FYI - the old Eagle license does not work with the new version. I verified it yesterday when I tried to install it on my new Dev machine 
. Still setting it up and transferring things. Not sure what I will do yet as the Freemium license did not work on 2nd machine… May try uninstalling it on older machine and then try it…
Before I got the new machine I did try to do some autorouting using the new version and found that I want to for sure reorder the IO pins to make it easier. I still may go back to Diptrace for this.
Kurt
I have been playing around using the new machine. I did get Eagle to move the Freemium license to this machine. In addition I did upgrade my Diptrace license, so I can now do boards with 1000 pins and up to 4 signal layers. I have been playing around in Diptrace and I have most of the stuff in it… I have been playing around with placement of components and the like as you can see in this picture.
I still have a lot of work to go. I need to double check all of the connections. Also adding the appropriate silk screen stuff… Also will try to see what else I can add in, things like:
a) if there is room left to add at least the speaker. Maybe another LED or two… buttons??
b) Still don’t have an EEPROM here. None of the Pic32 boards I have seen have them added, although there have been a few conversations about them. Others are instead working with things like MicroSD cards, including the person that I have been following with the touchscreen support.
c) May want to give some access to some of the IO pins I don’t have connected to anything. May want to use different ones than I have, to make sure things like I2C and SPI work properly…
That is all for now.
Kurt
Gulp!!! Wow 
That is awesome.
You could route 8 of the unused IO pins to the right side of the board. Put them just to the left of the current IO column to make two 4 x 4’s I’m still up for a daughter board holding speaker, buttons/LEDs. This will be much better than the mega / shield.
Thanks,
Now to start going over the design again… One question I have, is should I continue to have the option of being powered by USB and/or external be by a switch/jumper, or should I do it like more of the Arduinos and Chipkits (UNO32…) do it and have it automatically run on USB if available… I am torn both ways, as then the power on switch on the robot does not turn off everything if plugged in to USB and you have to be careful that you don’t try to power servos…
Kurt
Wow, I’m impressed too Kurt! Looking very good.
My first thought is that the jumper power selection for USB/Batt sounds better. Powering through the USB is great for testing and under construction but as soon as you use it on a robot with battery and servos its more logic to just use the batt as power, probably safer too.?
Another interesting thing to consider, is that Arduino is probably in the next couple of months releasing the Arduino DUE which will be a 32 bit platform… It was supposed to be released last December, but has not yet. More comments on the Arduino thread: arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,88029.0.html (main comments about dates and the like on reply 28).
From the Arduino Blog:
So it will be interesting to decide if we should go that direction instead…
Kurt
I am still interested in the new 32 bit Arduino whenever it becomes available…
But I am still playing with the Pic32 design. Will try to do as you suggested and run a 2x4 connector with additional IO pins. I found some minor things like the previous one I posted was still missing the clock… Also added in header for SPI2…
Still trying to decide between SPI and I2C for EEPROM. Been discussing some of this on other forum and one person who answered choose to go with SPI. Currently he is using an EEPROM, but may go to SRAM. He reasoning was:
when I asked about I2C versus SPI, he mentioned…
Always more things to think about.
Kurt
I’m just not sure what to do. I just know the mega / carrier is not the best solution for more power. I dunno… 
I know what you mean, The Mega board form factor than adding on a full-blown shield with all of IO pins, is both very large space wise, it is also probably not the best economical solution…
As I mentioned, I am making pretty good progress now on Pic32 version. Added the SPI eeprom plus another set of connections internal to the board that has 8 more IO lines, plus GND and 3.3v… Now in the process of routing it. The auto-router after I fix things get over 95% complete. However lots of errors to correct and clean up… Also will need to clean up all of the labeling add text for what is what… Should be fun.
But once the Arduino DUE is released (sounds like they ran into some problems, so no DUE date yet), they will release the design to the public, which implies we could look at making a version of it…
Kurt
So this new guy runs at 96mhz and the pic32 runs at 80mhz. Do you think the DUE will outperform the PIC32? I do realize this may be a loaded question, sorry… 
That is the question. From what I have read, it sounds like it might be a wash and may depend on the mix of instructions, how many interrupts are being processed… Needless to say they should both kick the current 8 bit processors running at 16 or 20 Mhz in the rear end!
Kurt
Here is an updated image of the current stuff…
It has most everything on it I think… Including the SDI EEPROM, plus the extra 8 IO pin connector… Not sure if we had a small daughter board of which voltage(s) to supply, currently I have a 3.3V going to it… It could probably use some cleanup. Also need to go through schematics again and see if I screwed something up…
Also need to figure out why it re-sized my mounting holes…
Kurt
If we were really good, we could have both boards made to snap apart, thereby making the daughter board much less expensive to make. 
You mean something like:
Still playing around. Still need to double check everything… Currently I ended up with 12 IO pins plus all types of power, with 2nd connector. I did not think having only connector at top, would be good if user pressing buttons…
Kurt
Looks interesting Kurt, great work!
Do you know what the total height of the two boards will be?