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Fritzing is an open-source electronic design tool

280 points by memorable 5y ago

IshKebab 5y ago
Yeah, a terrible open source EDA tool. I would strongly recommend Horizon EDA instead.
testmasterflex 5y ago
I’ve tried most tools out there. As a hardware founder (https://Loodio.com https://Loodio.com) I actually stuck with EasyEDA.com because it’s so damn quick and they have lots of ready made foot prints. I even make the enclosure for Loodio with PCBs that I screw together with screw terminals. So every unit is 2 electrical PCBs + 6 “wall” PCBs. You can do so much with circuit boards. I even made my business card of a 0.6mm thick PCB with an NFC chip: https://youtu.be/_BSfO9LAIqg https://youtu.be/_BSfO9LAIqg
drekipus 5y ago
I loathe fritzing. I don't understand why they can't just capitalise on their strengths and leave the rest behind, which is their breadboard view for making connection diagrams. Their breadboard view needs more work but it's by far the only reason to consider using it. Unfortunately the parts editor is a pain to use. I was considering trying to fork it to remove everything that wasn't related to the breadboard view, and make the wire interface a little easier to manage, but that didn't get anywhere. (Yaks) People are actually trying to use this as a proper EDA? Are you kidding?
ahepp 5y ago
I was tricked into donating to download it. Guess what, it sucks and isn't worth paying for. What a cheap trick.
- hda111 5y ago
  It’s very obvious that you need to pay to download. Open source doesn’t meant it’s free.
black_13 5y ago
Brian_K_White 5y ago
I do not recommend this. Use Kicad. It's not an on-ramp, it's a time-wasting distraction detour from your actual on-ramp. Every minute you spend figuring out how to do something in fritzing is a minute you could have spent figuring out the same thing in kicad, which you will end up doing eventually anyway, I promise you, garanteed. All this gets you is some badly designed boards and wasted time. There are gobs of youtube videos for the absolute beginner which takes care of taking you from zero to simple pcb in a few minutes. Then you figure out a lot of other details as you encounter needs for them over time. It doesn't have to be kicad either. If you don't mind a commercial proprietary product, Eagle is fine too. It's workflow is a little different but not bad. In fact it's an industry standard at a low level.
- upwardbound 5y ago
  Agreed. Also, if you include software that costs money, Altium is in my opinion by far the most user-friendly program in the ECAD industry (I've spent a lot of time in Altium and Cadence, and a bit of time in Eagle). If your design is open-source, Altium CircuitMaker is a free version of Altium specifically for open-source hardware projects: https://www.altium.com/circuitmaker https://www.altium.com/circuitmaker
  - fragmede 5y ago
    Eagle got bought by Autodesk which totally changed it.
    - upwardbound 5y ago
      Oh, nice. I'll have to check it out again.
hongseleco 5y ago
Why is this trending again for the 10+ time?
- dang 5y ago
  I found two threads in 13 years: How Fritzing is killing itself - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21530891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21530891 - Nov 2019 (53 comments) Fritzing - opensource circuit sketching tool for Arduino - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=606567 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=606567 - May 2009 (12 comments) Where are the others?
- zafka 5y ago
  First time I have seen it. I was wondering if anyone had used it.
  - EEBio 5y ago
    A lot of people do, but it has some limitations when it comes to PCB design. I recommend reading this write-up on Fritzing: https://hackaday.com/2016/10/11/creating-a-pcb-in-everything-friends-dont-let-friends-use-fritzing/ https://hackaday.com/2016/10/11/creating-a-pcb-in-everything...
  - CodeWriter23 5y ago
    I'm working on a machine. I successfully implemented a 5 channel optoisolated 3.3v control 24v output solenoid driver. But I had to do all the routing manually because Fritzing's auto-router could not figure out how route on a single layer. It painted itself into a corner every time. Manually, I was able to route a common signal the long way around and avoid trapping the traces. Also, Fritzing's router pissed me off that it did not adhere to a grid or angle system...I recognize this is a limitation of my I'm thankful for the recommendation for KiCAD I got out here today. It seems promising to help me take it to the next level.
    - bsza 5y ago
      Kicad doesn't have autorouting though, so you'll still end up either doing it manually or using a 3rd party tool.
marcodiego 5y ago
I simply love its simplicity.
- ISL 5y ago
  It is a great teaching tool (and very usable if you need to get something simple done quickly).
  - uuyi 5y ago
    It's not a good teaching tool if it tells people to do stuff entirely the wrong way against every bit of engineering experience out there, which is exactly what it does.
    - nrdgrrrl 5y ago
- IshKebab 5y ago
  It's so simple it doesn't even let you design components! Good luck making a PCB without using any components that aren't already in its library.
uuyi 5y ago
- mdp2021 5y ago
  T#;DR : also try KiCad (or Eagle).
  - uuyi 5y ago
    Actually no. Just go KiCad first and skip the mistake of using Fritzing.
- helsinkiandrew 5y ago
  I'd second that unless you really just want to make a PCB from a simple breadboard design with simple parts once and never do it again. But the few hours learning Kicad will be much more rewarding. Here's one of many tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCVh2SAZY4&list=PL3bNyZYHcRSUhUXUt51W6nKvxx2ORvUQB&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCVh2SAZY4&list=PL3bNyZYHcR...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- buescher 5y ago
  I can see the value of it for people who are going to say, build some electronic doodad once in their life as a sort of summer camp or survey course or adult enrichment activity.
- noasaservice 5y ago
  - uuyi 5y ago
    - noasaservice 5y ago
helsinkiandrew 5y ago
There was an interesting discussion on their "download" button a few years ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21530891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21530891 Original article has disappeared but is on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20210615211240/https://bowero.nl/blog/2019/11/13/how-fritzing-is-killing-itself/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210615211240/https://bowero.nl...
lnsru 5y ago
It might be open source, but it’s not free. Tried to download once for doing documentation of other printed circuit boards. Compiled from GitHub, but the user interface wasn’t convincing. Ended using 3D model from KiCad in documentation and it was great!
the__alchemist 5y ago
Are there any use cases where Fritzing is more suitable than KiCad?
- miniwark 5y ago
  - prototyping on a virtual breadboard - quick and dirty Arduino / Adafruit / SeedStudio boards based projects - first time software for electronic learners or in a classroom The breadboard view is the selling point of Fritzing. Kikad, LibrePCB or EasyEDA do not really offer this feature. That said, calling Ftrizing an EDA is exaggerated but it has his usage when a full featured EDA is not needed (yet). Fritzing is not in the same team, it belong more to the team of DIY Layout Creator and VeroRoute.
- II2II 5y ago
  Making illustrations of breadboard layouts. For actual PCB layouts though, I would put more trust into KiCAD.
- linker3000 5y ago
  When you want to document and get a picture representation of a breadboard lashup and that's as far as you are going to take things.
halotrope 5y ago
If fritzing gets #1 spot on HN I would like to wholeheartedly recommend https://www.kicad.org/ https://www.kicad.org/ as well. IMHO much saner workflow and good UX in the latest version.I did a simple PCB and got it manufactured on https://jlcpcb.com/ https://jlcpcb.com/ for a couple bucks. Quite a rewarding experience. I would also suggest that anyone who cares about computers gets to know basic electronics. How do transistors work, what is a bus (e.g I2C or SPI) and how is it all connected? (Drumroll ... a PCB of course). There is a ton of tutorials on youtube that do it end to end. E.g Phils Lab https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDqQ2L_mUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDqQ2L_mUQ for a PCB design. Or Ben Eaters excellent beginner tutorial "Hello World from Scratch" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnzuMJLZRdU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnzuMJLZRdU
- de6u99er 5y ago
  KICAD reminds me a lot of PICAD which I used when doing my electronics engineering degree.
- 127 5y ago
  I have only had good experiences so far on JLCPCB. I can very much recommend. Quality boards for very cheap, plus you can actually get the parts pre-assembled if they have them in their catalog (most common parts should be there) It's weird to "shill" for a company but I'm very happy that they exist, and hope they and companies like them continue to exist. Plus Kicad is cool ;)
- memorable 5y ago
  It does.
- cybrox 5y ago
  I would actually urge anyone to check out KiCAD instead, not just as well. The only merit Fritzings has against a thriving open ecosystem such as KiCAD is its dumbed down interface that would make it more accessible to beginners. However, if you want to use it without paying €8, you have to compile it from source, which makes this whole point mute.
  - 5y ago
severino 5y ago
I've never used Fritzing for PCB design, but I think there is a use case where it's not bad: when you want to make breadboard pictures.
- SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
  That's the one thing it's actually good at. But it is very good at that. If you're still at the level where you're using breadboards & through-hole parts for everything (i.e. before you learn to solder) it's a nice tool. Once you learn to solder you can make PCBs and work with higher-speed components than breadboards can support, then you'll want something that's actually slightly decent for PCB design. Fritzing is about the same level of help as manually cutting out mylar tape, you want something with actual design rule checking.
- sircastor 5y ago
  It seems like someone ought to fork this component of the project and release just that - or would that be overkill?
- nfriedly 5y ago
  Yeah, it's very handy for making a graphic showing how to wire up an Arduino or similar.
janoc 5y ago
Friends don't let friends use Fritzing for electronic design. It is only good for making simple newbie-friendly connection diagrams, nothing else.
gallerdude 5y ago
Adjacent topic: how does someone with strong computer science algorithm start designing pcb’s? Like if I wanted to, say, create a computer which randomly added together integers and displayed them on an LCD, where would I even start to learn how to do that?
- bsilvereagle 5y ago
  The MOOC nand2tetris was designed exactly for this purpose. https://www.nand2tetris.org/ https://www.nand2tetris.org/
- r2_pilot 5y ago
  It depends on what you mean by a few things, but a basic approach I'd take if you wanted this specific scenario would be to pick a microcontroller like arduino or raspberry pi(zero), pick a compatible screen, then design the board so that they're connected electrically. You may want to start with through-hole and breadboards first, as it's easier to get into than SMT.
- mch82 5y ago
  https://sparkfun.com https://sparkfun.com tutorials. The key is to think of electronics components like functions. Each component has inputs and produces outputs. PCBs aren’t a necessary step unless you want to make many copies of your work. They basically reduce the wiring you need to do & allow for a more compact circuit than a breadboard.
- samtho 5y ago
  First, pretty much everything in the lite-hobby space is done with microcontrollers, Arduino being the most mature ecosystem. Arduino is a really fancy wrapper/standard around the AVR ATMegas, I would start here. Arduino is an Open Source project so many manufactures create an Arduino-compatible board, but i do recommend supporting them and buying your first Arduino UNO from them directly if you are able to. Arduino provides software and an easy way to interface with pinouts. Start by doing some of the sample projects and tutorials, you'll pickup some basic electrical theory along the way. Next, you will eventually ask the question of how to make a production board, where you may go down the rabbit hole of programming the AVR directly (the microcontroller), which I recommend as a jumping off point into raw microcontrollers and using an ICSP which an Arduino UNO can also do for you. Somewhere along this path, you will want to gather some more advanced knowledge of circuits and DC fundamentals. Pick up a set of 7400 logic chips and learn how logic gates work from the lowest level possible as well as op-amps, comparators, etc. You'll find every chip (IC or integrated circuit) speaks in either a protocol/bus or just logic levels (pins going high or low). When more than a bit or so of data is required to be transferred, ICs will implement a general-purpose digital interface like I2C (most common), SPI, or UART. There are some additional ones like I2S (for audio), 1wire (for one wire communication), CAN bus (what your car likely uses), and there are some more advanced ones like PCI (the same kind bus your PCI slots in your computer uses), MII (media independent interface), etc. Most of the time, you are just connecting together devices on a bus (for example I2C can support multiple devices because it's addressed) or finding ways to convert one to another (for example, you might want to communicate in RS232 via your UART bus). There is also analog which is a whole different beast. This is all a big simplification, but honestly it's not that unapproachable these days, just start small and build from there.
dvh 5y ago
I always wanted to get more into electronics but I knew tools were crap so I was putting it aside but last year I finally started tinkering with electronics and so naturally I tried all the electronics simulators and design tools in Ubuntu repository. I've tried maybe 20 different apps. They all equally garbage. This was supposed to be a relaxing hobby, and instead I was just getting angry with ridiculous design decisions and obnoxious bugs. Let me tell you something, if software has autosave feature you can be almost certain it it steaming pile of shit. After several keyboard bashing episodes, for my own sanity, I decided either I make my own schematic design tool and simulator or I'll give up on this hobby. In a day I had proof of concept, in 2 weeks I had working prototype, in a month I had decent tool I could actually use for real stuff. For comparison, the easiest and most stable for me was Caneda. But to change resistor value and see change in output you need 7 clicks ffs! It would take ages to design anything, my tool simply uses mouse wheel over component to change its value by 1% or 10% (shift). What takes me 30s would take me hours in other tools. And my tool doesn't even have autosave. It doesn't need it, it never crashes, ever! There are 3 unbound loops in my schematic editor, I know where they are and I added code that prevents it from freezing. It is literally impossible to crash it. Even during the development it rarely broke, I guess the "pro" tools are built differently. Then few weeks later as I was making more and more complex circuits I designed perfboard design tool and now I have everything I need. I've been really happy with it, no bugs, no crappy UI. I should have done it years ago. Designing circuits is now my happy place. I think the authors of other design tools try to hide their bad core design by adding million features and thousands of components, but if the core products is crap, it will be crap even if you add 20'000 to92 transistors, it will just take you longer find component you need. I was considering releasing it but it would take too much time to get it to the state others can use it and I don't have that kind of time (it runs in browser but needs locally running ngspice running in the background via php server). But if you are like me and you find all other tools garbage, make your own, seriously, is not that hard and it is very rewarding, my first POC was literally screenshot of scheme with wheel changing netlist values, running ngspice, showing transient analysis in chart. Schematic design tool and simulator: https://de.catbox.moe/hcoapj.png https://de.catbox.moe/hcoapj.png Perfboard tool: https://de.catbox.moe/uq8si4.png https://de.catbox.moe/uq8si4.png
- SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
sircastor 5y ago
I thought Fritzing was dead as a project. I don’t recall where I got that impression though. I thought it was kind of cool, especially for prototyping how I’d put together a prototyping breadboard circuit, but by the time I got to it, I was already familiar with EAGLE and have since moved on to KiCad. To me, it’s a tool that is useful for beginners but complicates transitioning into another EDA tool. That actually makes me wonder if Altium users feel the same way about KiCad.
tomfanning 5y ago
Someone once told me "Friends don't let friends use Fritzing".
progre 5y ago
What a coincidence! I'm looking to replace Fritzing as it somehow corrupted my project file (the project file is readable but the netlist part is missing) I have gotten LibrePCB (had to build it, as there is no package available for Kubuntu) but I haven't really had a chance to try it out. Lots of other interesting suggestions here though!
kumarsw 5y ago
It's good to see that Fritzing is still alive. I recall that there were plans to move it to a web platform that fizzled out, and the original application was unmaintained for a while. I'm a little surprised to see that the pay-to-download button is still there. While I understand that the maintainers would like to be compensated for their time, it's not a good way to grow (or maintain) a userbase. Fritzing gets hated on a lot, but it has its niche. A salty forum commenter described that it's not actually intended for noobs, but actually for more experienced electronics hobbyists who are writing tutorials for noobs and want to draw a breadboard layout. And for drawing breadboard layouts, it's not bad. The PCB layout portion is that bad - it's probably the worst PCB layout tool I've ever tried using, and I can't come up with any reason for its continued existence other than to get referral money from a board house. And yes, KiCAD is great, but this doesn't and shouldn't compete with it.

280 points by memorable 5y ago

Yeah, a terrible open source EDA tool. I would strongly recommend Horizon EDA instead.

I’ve tried most tools out there. As a hardware founder (https://Loodio.com https://Loodio.com) I actually stuck with EasyEDA.com because it’s so damn quick and they have lots of ready made foot prints. I even make the enclosure for Loodio with PCBs that I screw together with screw terminals. So every unit is 2 electrical PCBs + 6 “wall” PCBs. You can do so much with circuit boards. I even made my business card of a 0.6mm thick PCB with an NFC chip: https://youtu.be/_BSfO9LAIqg https://youtu.be/_BSfO9LAIqg

drekipus 5y ago

I loathe fritzing. I don't understand why they can't just capitalise on their strengths and leave the rest behind, which is their breadboard view for making connection diagrams. Their breadboard view needs more work but it's by far the only reason to consider using it. Unfortunately the parts editor is a pain to use. I was considering trying to fork it to remove everything that wasn't related to the breadboard view, and make the wire interface a little easier to manage, but that didn't get anywhere. (Yaks) People are actually trying to use this as a proper EDA? Are you kidding?

ahepp 5y ago

I was tricked into donating to download it. Guess what, it sucks and isn't worth paying for. What a cheap trick.

hda111 5y ago
It’s very obvious that you need to pay to download. Open source doesn’t meant it’s free.

black_13 5y ago

Brian_K_White 5y ago

I do not recommend this. Use Kicad. It's not an on-ramp, it's a time-wasting distraction detour from your actual on-ramp. Every minute you spend figuring out how to do something in fritzing is a minute you could have spent figuring out the same thing in kicad, which you will end up doing eventually anyway, I promise you, garanteed. All this gets you is some badly designed boards and wasted time. There are gobs of youtube videos for the absolute beginner which takes care of taking you from zero to simple pcb in a few minutes. Then you figure out a lot of other details as you encounter needs for them over time. It doesn't have to be kicad either. If you don't mind a commercial proprietary product, Eagle is fine too. It's workflow is a little different but not bad. In fact it's an industry standard at a low level.

upwardbound 5y ago
Agreed. Also, if you include software that costs money, Altium is in my opinion by far the most user-friendly program in the ECAD industry (I've spent a lot of time in Altium and Cadence, and a bit of time in Eagle). If your design is open-source, Altium CircuitMaker is a free version of Altium specifically for open-source hardware projects: https://www.altium.com/circuitmaker https://www.altium.com/circuitmaker
- fragmede 5y ago
  Eagle got bought by Autodesk which totally changed it.
  - upwardbound 5y ago
    Oh, nice. I'll have to check it out again.

hongseleco 5y ago

Why is this trending again for the 10+ time?

dang 5y ago
I found two threads in 13 years: How Fritzing is killing itself - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21530891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21530891 - Nov 2019 (53 comments) Fritzing - opensource circuit sketching tool for Arduino - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=606567 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=606567 - May 2009 (12 comments) Where are the others?
zafka 5y ago
First time I have seen it. I was wondering if anyone had used it.
- EEBio 5y ago
  A lot of people do, but it has some limitations when it comes to PCB design. I recommend reading this write-up on Fritzing: https://hackaday.com/2016/10/11/creating-a-pcb-in-everything-friends-dont-let-friends-use-fritzing/ https://hackaday.com/2016/10/11/creating-a-pcb-in-everything...
- CodeWriter23 5y ago
  I'm working on a machine. I successfully implemented a 5 channel optoisolated 3.3v control 24v output solenoid driver. But I had to do all the routing manually because Fritzing's auto-router could not figure out how route on a single layer. It painted itself into a corner every time. Manually, I was able to route a common signal the long way around and avoid trapping the traces. Also, Fritzing's router pissed me off that it did not adhere to a grid or angle system...I recognize this is a limitation of my I'm thankful for the recommendation for KiCAD I got out here today. It seems promising to help me take it to the next level.
  - bsza 5y ago
    Kicad doesn't have autorouting though, so you'll still end up either doing it manually or using a 3rd party tool.

marcodiego 5y ago

I simply love its simplicity.

ISL 5y ago
It is a great teaching tool (and very usable if you need to get something simple done quickly).
- uuyi 5y ago
  It's not a good teaching tool if it tells people to do stuff entirely the wrong way against every bit of engineering experience out there, which is exactly what it does.
  - nrdgrrrl 5y ago
IshKebab 5y ago
It's so simple it doesn't even let you design components! Good luck making a PCB without using any components that aren't already in its library.

uuyi 5y ago

mdp2021 5y ago
T#;DR : also try KiCad (or Eagle).
- uuyi 5y ago
  Actually no. Just go KiCad first and skip the mistake of using Fritzing.
helsinkiandrew 5y ago
I'd second that unless you really just want to make a PCB from a simple breadboard design with simple parts once and never do it again. But the few hours learning Kicad will be much more rewarding. Here's one of many tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCVh2SAZY4&list=PL3bNyZYHcRSUhUXUt51W6nKvxx2ORvUQB&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCVh2SAZY4&list=PL3bNyZYHcR...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
buescher 5y ago
I can see the value of it for people who are going to say, build some electronic doodad once in their life as a sort of summer camp or survey course or adult enrichment activity.
noasaservice 5y ago
- uuyi 5y ago
  - noasaservice 5y ago

helsinkiandrew 5y ago

There was an interesting discussion on their "download" button a few years ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21530891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21530891 Original article has disappeared but is on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20210615211240/https://bowero.nl/blog/2019/11/13/how-fritzing-is-killing-itself/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210615211240/https://bowero.nl...

lnsru 5y ago

It might be open source, but it’s not free. Tried to download once for doing documentation of other printed circuit boards. Compiled from GitHub, but the user interface wasn’t convincing. Ended using 3D model from KiCad in documentation and it was great!

the__alchemist 5y ago

Are there any use cases where Fritzing is more suitable than KiCad?

miniwark 5y ago
- prototyping on a virtual breadboard - quick and dirty Arduino / Adafruit / SeedStudio boards based projects - first time software for electronic learners or in a classroom The breadboard view is the selling point of Fritzing. Kikad, LibrePCB or EasyEDA do not really offer this feature. That said, calling Ftrizing an EDA is exaggerated but it has his usage when a full featured EDA is not needed (yet). Fritzing is not in the same team, it belong more to the team of DIY Layout Creator and VeroRoute.
II2II 5y ago
Making illustrations of breadboard layouts. For actual PCB layouts though, I would put more trust into KiCAD.
linker3000 5y ago
When you want to document and get a picture representation of a breadboard lashup and that's as far as you are going to take things.

halotrope 5y ago

If fritzing gets #1 spot on HN I would like to wholeheartedly recommend https://www.kicad.org/ https://www.kicad.org/ as well. IMHO much saner workflow and good UX in the latest version.I did a simple PCB and got it manufactured on https://jlcpcb.com/ https://jlcpcb.com/ for a couple bucks. Quite a rewarding experience. I would also suggest that anyone who cares about computers gets to know basic electronics. How do transistors work, what is a bus (e.g I2C or SPI) and how is it all connected? (Drumroll ... a PCB of course). There is a ton of tutorials on youtube that do it end to end. E.g Phils Lab https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDqQ2L_mUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLDqQ2L_mUQ for a PCB design. Or Ben Eaters excellent beginner tutorial "Hello World from Scratch" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnzuMJLZRdU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnzuMJLZRdU

de6u99er 5y ago
KICAD reminds me a lot of PICAD which I used when doing my electronics engineering degree.
127 5y ago
I have only had good experiences so far on JLCPCB. I can very much recommend. Quality boards for very cheap, plus you can actually get the parts pre-assembled if they have them in their catalog (most common parts should be there) It's weird to "shill" for a company but I'm very happy that they exist, and hope they and companies like them continue to exist. Plus Kicad is cool ;)
memorable 5y ago
It does.
cybrox 5y ago
I would actually urge anyone to check out KiCAD instead, not just as well. The only merit Fritzings has against a thriving open ecosystem such as KiCAD is its dumbed down interface that would make it more accessible to beginners. However, if you want to use it without paying €8, you have to compile it from source, which makes this whole point mute.
- 5y ago

severino 5y ago

I've never used Fritzing for PCB design, but I think there is a use case where it's not bad: when you want to make breadboard pictures.

SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
That's the one thing it's actually good at. But it is very good at that. If you're still at the level where you're using breadboards & through-hole parts for everything (i.e. before you learn to solder) it's a nice tool. Once you learn to solder you can make PCBs and work with higher-speed components than breadboards can support, then you'll want something that's actually slightly decent for PCB design. Fritzing is about the same level of help as manually cutting out mylar tape, you want something with actual design rule checking.
sircastor 5y ago
It seems like someone ought to fork this component of the project and release just that - or would that be overkill?
nfriedly 5y ago
Yeah, it's very handy for making a graphic showing how to wire up an Arduino or similar.

janoc 5y ago

Friends don't let friends use Fritzing for electronic design. It is only good for making simple newbie-friendly connection diagrams, nothing else.

gallerdude 5y ago

Adjacent topic: how does someone with strong computer science algorithm start designing pcb’s? Like if I wanted to, say, create a computer which randomly added together integers and displayed them on an LCD, where would I even start to learn how to do that?

bsilvereagle 5y ago
The MOOC nand2tetris was designed exactly for this purpose. https://www.nand2tetris.org/ https://www.nand2tetris.org/
r2_pilot 5y ago
It depends on what you mean by a few things, but a basic approach I'd take if you wanted this specific scenario would be to pick a microcontroller like arduino or raspberry pi(zero), pick a compatible screen, then design the board so that they're connected electrically. You may want to start with through-hole and breadboards first, as it's easier to get into than SMT.
mch82 5y ago
https://sparkfun.com https://sparkfun.com tutorials. The key is to think of electronics components like functions. Each component has inputs and produces outputs. PCBs aren’t a necessary step unless you want to make many copies of your work. They basically reduce the wiring you need to do & allow for a more compact circuit than a breadboard.
samtho 5y ago
First, pretty much everything in the lite-hobby space is done with microcontrollers, Arduino being the most mature ecosystem. Arduino is a really fancy wrapper/standard around the AVR ATMegas, I would start here. Arduino is an Open Source project so many manufactures create an Arduino-compatible board, but i do recommend supporting them and buying your first Arduino UNO from them directly if you are able to. Arduino provides software and an easy way to interface with pinouts. Start by doing some of the sample projects and tutorials, you'll pickup some basic electrical theory along the way. Next, you will eventually ask the question of how to make a production board, where you may go down the rabbit hole of programming the AVR directly (the microcontroller), which I recommend as a jumping off point into raw microcontrollers and using an ICSP which an Arduino UNO can also do for you. Somewhere along this path, you will want to gather some more advanced knowledge of circuits and DC fundamentals. Pick up a set of 7400 logic chips and learn how logic gates work from the lowest level possible as well as op-amps, comparators, etc. You'll find every chip (IC or integrated circuit) speaks in either a protocol/bus or just logic levels (pins going high or low). When more than a bit or so of data is required to be transferred, ICs will implement a general-purpose digital interface like I2C (most common), SPI, or UART. There are some additional ones like I2S (for audio), 1wire (for one wire communication), CAN bus (what your car likely uses), and there are some more advanced ones like PCI (the same kind bus your PCI slots in your computer uses), MII (media independent interface), etc. Most of the time, you are just connecting together devices on a bus (for example I2C can support multiple devices because it's addressed) or finding ways to convert one to another (for example, you might want to communicate in RS232 via your UART bus). There is also analog which is a whole different beast. This is all a big simplification, but honestly it's not that unapproachable these days, just start small and build from there.

dvh 5y ago

I always wanted to get more into electronics but I knew tools were crap so I was putting it aside but last year I finally started tinkering with electronics and so naturally I tried all the electronics simulators and design tools in Ubuntu repository. I've tried maybe 20 different apps. They all equally garbage. This was supposed to be a relaxing hobby, and instead I was just getting angry with ridiculous design decisions and obnoxious bugs. Let me tell you something, if software has autosave feature you can be almost certain it it steaming pile of shit. After several keyboard bashing episodes, for my own sanity, I decided either I make my own schematic design tool and simulator or I'll give up on this hobby. In a day I had proof of concept, in 2 weeks I had working prototype, in a month I had decent tool I could actually use for real stuff. For comparison, the easiest and most stable for me was Caneda. But to change resistor value and see change in output you need 7 clicks ffs! It would take ages to design anything, my tool simply uses mouse wheel over component to change its value by 1% or 10% (shift). What takes me 30s would take me hours in other tools. And my tool doesn't even have autosave. It doesn't need it, it never crashes, ever! There are 3 unbound loops in my schematic editor, I know where they are and I added code that prevents it from freezing. It is literally impossible to crash it. Even during the development it rarely broke, I guess the "pro" tools are built differently. Then few weeks later as I was making more and more complex circuits I designed perfboard design tool and now I have everything I need. I've been really happy with it, no bugs, no crappy UI. I should have done it years ago. Designing circuits is now my happy place. I think the authors of other design tools try to hide their bad core design by adding million features and thousands of components, but if the core products is crap, it will be crap even if you add 20'000 to92 transistors, it will just take you longer find component you need. I was considering releasing it but it would take too much time to get it to the state others can use it and I don't have that kind of time (it runs in browser but needs locally running ngspice running in the background via php server). But if you are like me and you find all other tools garbage, make your own, seriously, is not that hard and it is very rewarding, my first POC was literally screenshot of scheme with wheel changing netlist values, running ngspice, showing transient analysis in chart. Schematic design tool and simulator: https://de.catbox.moe/hcoapj.png https://de.catbox.moe/hcoapj.png Perfboard tool: https://de.catbox.moe/uq8si4.png https://de.catbox.moe/uq8si4.png

SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago

sircastor 5y ago

I thought Fritzing was dead as a project. I don’t recall where I got that impression though. I thought it was kind of cool, especially for prototyping how I’d put together a prototyping breadboard circuit, but by the time I got to it, I was already familiar with EAGLE and have since moved on to KiCad. To me, it’s a tool that is useful for beginners but complicates transitioning into another EDA tool. That actually makes me wonder if Altium users feel the same way about KiCad.

tomfanning 5y ago

Someone once told me "Friends don't let friends use Fritzing".

progre 5y ago

What a coincidence! I'm looking to replace Fritzing as it somehow corrupted my project file (the project file is readable but the netlist part is missing) I have gotten LibrePCB (had to build it, as there is no package available for Kubuntu) but I haven't really had a chance to try it out. Lots of other interesting suggestions here though!

kumarsw 5y ago

It's good to see that Fritzing is still alive. I recall that there were plans to move it to a web platform that fizzled out, and the original application was unmaintained for a while. I'm a little surprised to see that the pay-to-download button is still there. While I understand that the maintainers would like to be compensated for their time, it's not a good way to grow (or maintain) a userbase. Fritzing gets hated on a lot, but it has its niche. A salty forum commenter described that it's not actually intended for noobs, but actually for more experienced electronics hobbyists who are writing tutorials for noobs and want to draw a breadboard layout. And for drawing breadboard layouts, it's not bad. The PCB layout portion is that bad - it's probably the worst PCB layout tool I've ever tried using, and I can't come up with any reason for its continued existence other than to get referral money from a board house. And yes, KiCAD is great, but this doesn't and shouldn't compete with it.