I'm new to PCB design, so this is probably a noob question. I'm laying out a PCB using circuitmaker, this is not a design I'll ever have manufactured, its just practice. I making the design a two layer board, top and bottom copper, all of the components are through hole. When I use the auto router then pour my ground plane the router wants to connect all of the grounds with traces then connect the pads to the ground plane. Like I said, I'm new to PCB layout but I've done enough audio repair work to know that seems like the kind of thing that would cause a ground loop of some kind. It would be easy enough to delete the traces and leave the pads connected to the ground plane. I double checked and in this case this isn't an island, the big plane is definitely the GND net. And as an aside is there a convention for the right way to connect the top and bottom copper GND planes in an audio application? That is to say, should I add vias just to make the connection or are the through hole components doing the work? Looking for input from people with more experience doing audio PCB layout. I did a search, but didn't find any threads on the subject with this issue. Thanks.
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I am new to PCB design also and here is my 2-cents worth --- On the various types of PCB's that I have had to design for a variety of aerospace/avionics companies, defense contractors, medical electronics firms, NASA, R&D laboratories and telecommunications and video electronics corporations.....they all have a general rule about using a Copper Pour as a Ground Plane and it is:
THE MORE "STITCHING" VIAS BETWEEN THE LAYERS, THE BETTER!!! (
NOTE: "Stitching Vias" is a term used for vias that are connected to the GROUND net and placed within a Copper Pour). On many of the PCB's I have designed that required "stitching vias", the numbers of those stitching vias ran up into the hundreds. Prior to the COVID-19 lock-down I was working at a defense contractor that was developing a new series of avionics electronics for a new breed of U.S. fighter jets and two of the larger PCB's had over -- literally!!! --
> ONE MILLION "STITCHING" VIAS!!! < If I remember correctly, all of those vias used a 6-mil or even smaller drill hole. I think those two PCB's were being laser-drilled and were also using some manner of new Thru-Hole plating process in order to get the copper-plating into such a small area of space. But, I digress......
As has been mentioned by others, auto-routers do not work very well on audio circuits. The above-mentioned PCB's were auto-routed, but they were strictly digital layouts and even then, it took several hours to configure and setup the auto-routing routines so the end result made any sense on a 30-layer PCB!!! In short, one easy thing to remember is.....simply remove the GROUND net from the auto-routing routine and take care of it manually. You'll be fine then.
[I'm laying out a PCB using circuitmaker] -- I believe your best bet would be to download the
-- FREE -- PCB Design software by
KiCAD and learn how to use it. It will serve you well for all of your home-based PCB layouts. In fact, I have noticed several times this year (2022) that various commercial electronics companies have even now adopted using
KiCAD as their main PCB layout tool. And, if you wish, you can even spend the "whopping" amount of $35 for their
KiCAD Training Course and even download 8.5GB worth of training videos!!! All of the videos are presented in small 3-to-15 minute chunks that makes the digestion and understanding of what is being presented and taught very easy to deal with. I highly recommend it!!!
Meanwhile.....create a folder on your hard-drive and maybe call it
-- PCB Design Reference Material -- and download and place the attached PDF files into it. Then, you will have the beginnings of your own "Technical Library" of material that you can read to learn more about not only PCB design, but also any other technical areas that interest you.
HERE YA GO!!!.....
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FREE KiCAD PCB Design Software Download Link
https://www.kicad.org/download/
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