Viva the PCB!
Today I received an email from a friend telling me about Fritzing. Probably my friend wasn’t aware of the fact I have never heard of the word PCB. So I’ve started with some research. A quick Google search with `define: PCB´ gave me these results:
- Communist Party of Bolivia (Marxist-Leninist)
- Printed Circuit Board or electronics board;
For the moment lets forget the Communist Party of Bolivia, we can talk about it another time. This time it is about printer circuit boards.
Fritzing is an initiative of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (Germany) and it offers a service with software. With Autocad you design buildings — with Fritzing you design circuit boards. More precisely it is a Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software. While Processing and Arduino have been around for a little bit less than 10 years. Two well-known instruments for students and makers used to make electronic prototypes:
- Arduino — a platform based on a simple hardware design
- Processing — a programming language for the electronic arts and visual design scene
Fritzing enables you to design a custom PCB which are professionally produced, and at the same time keeps things easy and simple. Relative easy that is, obviously designing a PCB does require some knowledge. Also Frizing.org intends to become a thriving community where PCB-designs can be exchanged. Just like Ponoko does for product designers.
For more information and a deeper rationale on why hardware hacking is important watch this TED-talk by Neil Gershenfeld on Fab Labs.
The name Fritzing however does show some German cultural overlay. The once great chess game was called Fritz and these days there is a nifty gateway going by the name of Friz! Box. Both German products. But then again also Arduino is clearly Italian.
Compare the two videos to see how life was before and after Fritzing.
The Hard Way
The Fritzing Way
Thanks to Julia Werner for suggesting Fritzing to me.
