RF Mixer PCB

A while back I created two circuit board designs to learn Upverter, but also gain some experience in laying out circuit boards. SeeedStudio will sell you ten 5×5 cm circuit boards for about USD$15 shipped.

I decided to create a SA602 RF mixer board and a separate crystal filter board to go along with it. The mixer board is built with multi-purpose implementations in mind. For instance, you can configure it as with a crystal, or a LC oscillator, or add a varactor. The inputs and outputs have multiple through-holes for using a transformer or capacitors.

The crystal filter board supports four crystals and has an optional configuration of using varactor’s for variable bandwidth.

I sent both designs to SeeedStudio (first time I used their service). I was impressed that I could download the Eagle files from Upverter and send them to Seeed without changing file names or doing anything.

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Upverter

I’m starting to use Upverter to realize cheaper project PCB’s. I’ve found Upverter easier to use than Eagle, but there are some quirks. It took me a while to figure out how to set a board outline (just set the dimensions). For simple stuff, the layout works pretty fast. If you have more than 30 components then bridging ground or VCC traces really starts to lag. I prototyped a board and had it sent out to 4pcb.com. I look forward to seeing how easy it will be to get the cheaper 5x5cm boards from Seeed Studio. I would love to see a concise summary of PCB design best-practices.

You can see my designs here