Once in a while, you are almost done converting signals into tracks and you have one tiny unrouted signal.
Unrouted signals
Once in a while, you are almost done converting signals into tracks and you have one tiny unrouted signal.
These are very hard to spot. The circuit on the right, Okapi3, has been ready for the photoplotter for five times now but five times I thought of an improvement.
Each improvement meant a change in the schematic, followed by a few signal lines being unrouted. Also, when cutting copper planes in two by changed tracks, you may end up with an unrouted signal. Try to find the unrouted signal in the Okapi3 board on the right.
OK, OK, OK, I will give you a hint. The now unrouted signal is in this section.
One more hint: the unrouted signal is to the left of the 73HC243 gate. See it? Look for a brownish yellow line. It's in the pink ellipse!
Call in the troops
| 1 | Top layer (Red) |
| 16 | Bottom layer (Blue) |
| 17 | Pads (green) |
| 21 | Components on topside (White) |
| 33 | Silkscreen topside (brownish yellow) |
We're working with a computer. A piece of machinery designed to help us with difficult and boring jobs. So we will let the computer do the nasty things. Click on the DISPLAY icon. You get the pop up window on the right. In this window disable the layers
When done, click on OK and you get a much easier to understand picture. A lot of rubbish gone. Overview at last!
A very small yellow line. Easily obscured when more lines are around. But with that information disabled even
this tiny unrouted signal is easily spotted.
This has been a dirty example from me. The unrouted signal connects two pads that are moved unto eachother. So even with the pads (layer 17) still enabled the line may still be obscured. Or at least hard to spot.
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