After some more searching I found Fritzing, which was exactly what I was looking for.įritzing is an open source application that allows users to create schematics by selecting parts from a large part library, connecting them, and laying them out on a virtual breadboard.Īfter the schematic is created, Fritzing can autoroute the schematic onto a PCB design (it supports single and double-sided PCBs). On top of that, I also did not want to manufacture the PCBs myself with all the chemicals needed. Unfortunately, nothing was really great for hobbyists like me. I played around with some options for producing the layouts. The main motivation here was to be able to run some workshops at the local Java User Group, where people would solder the board and then program it. It worked, but it wasn't pretty:Īs I worked on the concept, I decided I needed some printed circuits (PCB). For the next iteration, I took a stripe PCB and soldered the components onto it. The first iteration was on a bread board with some wiring to connect to the Pi.
A while ago, I created a small extension board for the Raspberry Pi to do some hardware hacking.
