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I am not sure if its correct place to ask, I am going to ask it anyway. Its more of "Quora" question but since I am not so active there, I thought I would ask it here. So please bare with me :)

I am new to PCB design, I was wondering as to what are most common mistakes that designer do (professional or otherwise) while designing a PCB . In hopes of avoiding them ;).

Thanks

R. Hirur
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    Design another PCB first. Make mistakes on that one and learn from them. – The Photon Dec 16 '15 at 04:08
  • @ThePhoton, I did design couple of boards and there were problems with trace widths, components placed to close to the edges of the board etc. I asked this because getting PCB done takes like 2 weeks :( and assembly of the board another 5 days (in a small town in India). So i was wondering if the collective experience of people would help me to design it better that's all. – R. Hirur Dec 16 '15 at 04:16
  • That's a few mistakes you'll never make again. Every board you do will add to the list. – The Photon Dec 16 '15 at 04:31
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    Quickest way to test a board prior to getting them made, print it out at 1:1 scale and put some components on the printout. – Passerby Dec 16 '15 at 04:56
  • http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/58586/first-time-pcb-layout-recommendations – Daniel Dec 16 '15 at 05:07
  • http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/144912/how-do-i-make-sure-my-electronics-design-is-good-from-manufacturing-perspective – Daniel Dec 16 '15 at 05:08
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    My own 2c is check every single connection to ever single component, and match every single footprint to the pinout in the datasheet. Look for unconnected pins, misconnected pins, flipped footprints. Don't assume you did anything right. – Daniel Dec 16 '15 at 05:11
  • You could do worse than read the tutorial that Dave Jones created some while ago. – Roger Rowland Dec 16 '15 at 05:27
  • Robert Feranec uploaded a couple videos to youtube. https://www.youtube.com/user/matarofe They are extremely useful. I learned a lot from him. – bakcsa83 Dec 18 '15 at 15:35

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Probably too general a question to make it here.

The only cure for lack of experience is getting some experience.

Step one, make sure the schematic is right. A perfectly implemented board of a schematic with errors or omissions is not going to be perfect.

Step two, verify that the board matches the schematic. If at all possible have somone else who is qualified take a look at it with new eyes, as it's very easy to think something does what you think it does, when it actually does something else, but you stopped actually seeing what was there 3 revisions ago and see what you think is there instead.

If you have mechanical constraints (you mentioned "components too close to edge of board") make a drawing that identifies them, and then make a drawing of the populated board, overlay, and make sure they are met. Draw from as many directions as you need to be sure you have checked, or model the thing in 3D.

Trace widths - other than when messing about with high frequency stuff that needs specific widths for specific impedance, be as generous as you can, and also be aware of which ones are carrying 10 amps and which ones are carrying nano-amps so you can allocate the available space when they compete for it.

Take your board house's minimum widths and minimum spacings, and double them, for a start.

Ecnerwal
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    I'd like to add this: If you are using a new package (especially SMD), take a print out of the board file in 1:1 scale and try placing the components on the printout. See if your package drawing matches and you have enough pin length for soldering. If you are soldering by hand, make the pin lengths a little longer on outside. It will help you while soldering. Another good idea is to make a vendor test board which contains various trace widths, drills and pads of different dia, text of different height etc. This will give you a visual reference how your board will turn out to be. – Whiskeyjack Dec 16 '15 at 05:17