Copper Pour

jlbrian7 wrote 07/09/2014 at 23:29 • 1 point

I am sure that anyone with experience my have several questions as to why I have done some of the things that I have done in my board designs, and the answer to that is simply because I am making it up as I go along. Those details will hopefully work themselves out with time, but right now I have two questions with the copper pour on my most recent board v1r4. The first would be about the top left set of vias for pin 8 through AREF. Along the wire for the grounding pins there is a blob. Is it better to leave that blob or would it be better to keep those vias connected by a wire that is not named "GND"?

The second question is about a portion of the board that is separated from the copper pour. Is it better to continue the pour over this area by using vias, or is it better to leave it without the copper? My concern is a ground loop, but I am hoping that someone with more insight may be able to answers these questions.

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jlbrian7 wrote 07/29/2014 at 01:32

pictures would have definitely helped. I can put some up on my project page if you are interested in taking a look. It would be great to hear your opinion.

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Le Samourai wrote 07/29/2014 at 03:36

Pictures and maybe snippets of the related parts of the schematic (so i can look at datasheets, etc). I'm not getting an email when you reply here, so forgive me if I don't respond right away.

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jlbrian7 wrote 08/02/2014 at 12:04

I added the pictures to a project log ( http://hackaday.io/project/1150/log/6070-pics-for-stack-question )

The question is about board v1r4 which you can find on my github. r5 is going to be largely redone with different components, so I don't think that I will have a problem with the white space, but this is something of a "Best Practices" question.

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Le Samourai wrote 07/29/2014 at 01:25

Hi. I just began browsing the HADio Stack today. I have quite a bit of experience with Orcad, Eagle, and Altium, but have no idea what you are referring to in your description. Is this a problem with the Stack, or did you need to include an image or URL or something with your post?

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jlbrian7 wrote 07/12/2014 at 13:35

I am usually one to do something right or wrong. I left the white space on the board because it won't hurt anything here, and I will just worry about it when it becomes more of an issue. I got rid of the blob because it was ugly. Also, I was playing around with different boards trying to figure out what I wanted to do for a 480v circuit and found that anyone who hasn't done a copper pour before should be careful about isolated grounds.

In my case the reason it was isolated was my own fault, I had just run leads out from the pads anticipating hooking them to the copper pour rather than drawing wires for a complete ground circuit. Ultimately it was because I wasn't drawing a schematic first and then going to the board. Still learning the ins and outs of Eagle.

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Copper Pour

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