exxos blog - random goings on

[JezC]

I might be able to try a few files over the weekend if that helps?

[exxos]

Bit of a prototype PCB viewing online thing going on.... Just toying with what is actually possible...

1.PNG

2.PNG

Idea being it could potentially be a replacement for open board view etc

It already has zoom in and drag and clicking a track highlights the whole net..

[exxos]

A.I. Can quickly write sooo many useful tools in no time at all ! I suspect there's going to lots of cool programs "written" by the community in the future !

A.I. overview. "the story so far"

Online PCB Viewer - browse my board designs in your browser

I've been working on a web based PCB viewer so people can look at my board layouts, follow tracks around and find their way around the boards when repairing or debugging - a bit like OpenBoardView / FlexBV but running entirely in the browser with nothing to install.

The viewer reads my original Eagle CAD board files directly on the server and renders them out as an image, so what you see is generated straight from the real design data - pads, tracks, vias, silkscreen, part names, the lot.

Features

• Board selector - pick which PCB to view from the dropdown.
• Zoom and pan - mouse wheel zooms in and out at the cursor position, click and drag to move around. "Fit" button puts the whole board back on screen.
• Hover preview - move the mouse over any track, via or pad and a small popup shows the net name, and the track under the cursor lights up. Hovering a via or pad also highlights the tracks connected to it, so you can instantly see where something goes.
• Click to highlight a net - click any track, via or pad and the entire net lights up across the whole board: every track, via and pad on that net. Everything else dims so the net stands out.
• Layer colours - highlighted tracks are colour coded: red = top layer, blue = bottom layer, brown = inner layer / via. Pads on the selected net show white. Press the ? button in the toolbar for the full key.
• Search - type a net name (e.g. A9, GND) and it highlights the whole net. Type a part name (e.g. C10, IC24) and it zooms straight to that part and outlines it with its pads marked.
• Flip view - "Flip" button mirrors the whole board so you can work with the PCB upside down on the bench - matches what you actually see looking at the underside.
• Silkscreen toggles - "Silk T" and "Silk B" switch the top/bottom silkscreen on and off, including part outlines and reference labels.
• Select tool - after you select a net or search, the hover tool switches itself off so you can zoom and pan without losing your selection. Toggle it back on with the "Select" button, or "Reset view" starts fresh.

How to use it for fault finding

Say you suspect a broken track or dodgy via: hover over the track near the suspect area and the net name pops up. Click it and the whole net highlights - now you can follow it across the board, see every via it passes through, and every pad it should connect to. Check continuity between any two highlighted points with a meter; if the board disagrees with the viewer, you've found your break.

The flip view is handy when the board is component-side-down on the bench - flip the viewer to match and everything lines up with what's in front of you.

A note on the design

The viewer deliberately only sends rendered images to your browser - no design files, no coordinates, no drill data ever leave the server. So please don't ask for board files or Gerber exports from it; that's not what it's for. It's a repair and reference aid so you can fix and understand the boards you own.

Capture.PNG

I may release the URL in the future for registered forum members in due time.

[exxos]

Another cool "feature" in V17..

Top silk screen like part numbers, when looking from bottom view, the text stays the right direction. This makes it a lot easier as you don't have to try and decipher backwards text when locating parts !

Capture.PNG

[ijor]

Bit of a prototype PCB viewing online thing going on.... Just toying with what is actually possible...

Wow, very cool and extremely useful!

[exxos]

Wow, very cool and extremely useful!

Yes, I am thinking up more ideas also to add! :D

[exxos]

New feature: Net checklist - methodical continuity checking

There's a new "Check nets" button in the viewer toolbar, built for one job: checking a board for broken tracks, one net at a time, without losing your place.

The problem it solves

When you're fault finding a dead board, you often end up checking continuity on lots of nets - sometimes all of them. Doing that manually means hunting down each track on the board, clicking it to highlight it, checking it, then finding the next one - over 100+ nets that takes a long time and gets tedious fast. Worse, you have to remember which ones you've already checked and which you haven't. Get interrupted halfway through a few hundred nets and you've lost track.

How it works

Press "Check nets" and a panel opens listing every net on the board with a tick box next to each. No need to locate and click anything on the PCB itself - the list drives everything:

• Tick the nets you want to check - "All" and "None" buttons, plus a filter box if you only want a group (e.g. type DRD to select just the data bus lines).
• Press Next - the first net highlights on the board automatically, colour coded by layer as usual. The net currently shown is marked with a green bar in the list so there's no doubt which one you're looking at.
• Zoom and pan around, put your meter on the real board, and check continuity between the highlighted points.
• Press Next again - that net is crossed off the list, the highlight clears, and the next net lights up.

Repeat until the counter says you're done. One button press per net instead of hunting and clicking every single track individually. Crossed-off nets stay crossed off, so if you get interrupted you can see exactly where you left off. You can also untick a crossed-off net to re-queue it if you want a second look.

Why it's useful

If the viewer shows two points connected but your meter says open circuit - you've found your broken track or dodgy via. Working through the list methodically means every net gets checked exactly once, with the viewer doing the bookkeeping instead of your memory - and no time wasted locating and clicking hundreds of tracks one by one.

1.PNG

2.PNG

[exxos]

Another cool feature is "text alignment" as take this for example on early H5 revisions..

e1.PNG

e2.PNG

Very hard to figure out what part goes where etc.

So now the tool has built in alignment. It will try to do a "best fit" for the text next to the actual parts. Tough in the Audio circuit. But we can also make text smaller to help it all fit.

r1.PNG

r2.PNG

All still WIP really.

Also a "info tool" while nets / parts can be searched for automatically, you can now click a part to get info. It just confirms the part your looking at is what it says it is, orientation etc.

r9.PNG

All these new goodies will make debugging boards sooooooo much quicker and easier !

[exxos]

Decided in the end to just use centered text in the parts and pads as it was creating to many problems otherwise.

Capture.PNG

Still some tweaking needed.

Also rebuilt the render engine now its like 20x faster !


EDIT:

Better net views on pads now !

Capture.PNG