CAD tools helps UK company get ahead

Initially, from a design brief, Brooks provides his clients with an outline of how the project objectives will be achieved and an estimate of the design and development cost. If all is well and NTElectronics are asked to proceed with the design first it decides on the mechanical enclosure, then the company designs a schematic and then outlines the MCU software before proceeding to the PCB layout design using DesignSpark PCB.

Sometimes, the product may require a custom made enclosure, so NTElectronics designs that by using DesignSpark Mechanical. Occasionally a plastic enclosure for the product is needed, using ‘STL’ files produced by DSM, the company can provide a 3D printed version of the enclosure for evaluation before the client goes to a full production moulding.

Originally the PCB designing was done using AutoCAD with schematics drawn using OrCAD. This was in the days when PCB design software was in its infancy and full packages were really expensive. Moving on from this software NTElectronics began using Express PCB but were disillusioned with it as it limited its supplier of boards to Express, and the company couldn't get the Gerber files without paying a fee and building a delay into the process. The company moved from Express PCB to Design Spark PCB when it was first introduced by RS components a few years ago.

Recently Brooks purchased a Robox 3D printer so that he could design enclosures for his clients’ products and the 3D CAD design software he chose to use for his 3D design work was DesignSpark Mechanical. These two software packages are compatible with each other, so you can import PCB models into DSM when designing enclosures and so forth.

Like all software, DS PCB and DS mechanical have to be learned. Once conquered both pieces of software do have their limitations and 'quirks', but all software has similar issues. The company has learned to work around or avoid the quirky portions of the software and overall it would give DesignSpark PCB 9 out of 10, losing a point for some of the quirky bits.

When NTElectronics has an issue it always uses the forum and posts a question or two and sure enough, an answer to a query will quickly pop up. The company also likes to contribute to the Forum when time allows as a pay-back to help other maybe less experienced users with their design queries.

Below are some of NTElectronics' projects designed using DesignSpark PCB and DesignSpark Mechanical.

Pipeline crawlers
Crawlers are battery powered (120VDC) and drive down the centre of constructed pipelines before automatically positioning an X-ray head under the joining welds. A special film is wrapped around the outside of the pipe joint by an operator who then controls the X-ray exposure over 360°C. As the crawler is inside a steel pipe whose wall thickness can be between 12mm and 36mm thickness, controlling the positioning to within +/-5mm of the weld and then also controlling the X-ray head poses its own electronic challenges. Compass Pipelines manufacture a range of crawlers for use in pipelines from 6-48" diameter and its products are used in all parts of the world.

Control panels for crawlers were designed using DS Mechanical and the PCBs were designed using DesignSpark PCB.

Using DS PCB, the company has designed a circular and semi-circular board assembly. This piece of electronics is used to drive a 150KV panoramic X-ray head that is fitted to some of the crawlers produced by Compass Pipelines.

Dolls house lighting
This sounds like it should be in the hobby or toy market but Brooks' client, Ray Storey Lighting, creates 12^th scale dolls house lights for specialist collectors and museums. Some of the lights for the Tudor or Georgian period were lit by candles, so NTElectronics also designed a 6 channel flicker controller that simulates the flickering effect of candles in the light fittings. The PCBs were designed using DesignSpark PCB. This product is currently on sale and is used at prestigious exhibitions in both the UK and the US.

NTElectronics uses DesignSpark PCB and DesignSpark Mechanical to design most of the products for its clients because they are stable and easy to use CAD packages.