Awesome Electronics

A curated list of awesome resources for electronic engineers and hobbyists

Contents

• Simulators
• Part Search Engines
• Gerber Viewers
  • Online
  • Installable
• Miscellaneous Web Services
• Free EDA Packages
• CAD Specific
  • KiCAD
  • Eagle
• Blogs
• Forums
  • Discussion
  • Help
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Tutorials

Simulators

• Ngspice - Open source SPICE circuit simulator.
• LTSpice - The industry standard free SPICE circuit simulator from Linear Technologies.

Part Search Engines

• Octopart - Probably the most well known part search engine.
• Findchips - Part search from Supply Frame.
• Parts.io - Another search engine from Supply Frame geared towards discovering new parts.

Gerber Viewers

Online

• Tracespace Viewer - Gerber viewer that lets you inspect the individual layers as well as the board preview.
• Gerblook - Online Gerber viewer powered by Gerbv.
• Mayhew Labs 3dpcb - 3D Gerber viewer.
• EasyEDA Gerber Viewer - Gerber viewer and design for manufacture test.

Installable

• Gerbv - Excellent Gerber viewer for Linux and BSD.
• KiCad Gerbview - The KiCAD gerber viewer.

Miscellaneous Web Services

• Eyrie.io - For viewing Eagle and KiCAD designs online.
• Hackaday.io - Social site for sharing projects from the popular blog.
• Kitnic.it - Project sharing site that helps you buy parts and re-build projects. Open source and developed by yours truly.

Free EDA Packages

• KiCAD - Open source EDA package with push and shove router, differential pairs and much more.
• Eagle - One of the most popular EDA packages due to it's (board size restricted) free version.
• Design Spark PCB - Gratis EDA package without restrictions, sponserd by RS Components.
• Altium Circuit Maker - Free package from the maker of the go to pro software.
• gEDA - Another open source package, good for people that like scripting and makefiles, Linux and BSD only.

CAD Specific

KiCAD

• Xesscorp's list of KiCAD 3rd part tools
• Contextual Electronics' KiCAD 4.0 video tutorials - Comprehensive video tutorials for beginners.
• KiCAD.info forums - User discussion and help forum.
• Keyboard PCB Guide - Comprehensive written tutorial that takes you through creating a keyboard PCB.

Eagle

• List of ULPs everyone should know

Blogs

• Hackaday - Probably the most popular blog covering electronics and hardware hacking.
• bunniestudios.com - Andrew 'Bunnie' Huang covers hardware hacking, open hardware, manufacturing and more.

Forums

Discussion

• EEVBlog forum - Probably the largest and most active forum to discuss electronic engineering topics.
• /r/electronics and /r/ECE are the two most active sub-reddits for EE topics.

Help

• /r/askelectronics - Sub-reddit dedicated to help on electronics topics.
• Electronics Stack Exchange - Question and answer site for electronics running on the popular Stack Overflow service.
• EEVBlog beginners forum - Good place for beginner questions, other sub-forums on EEVblog should be suitable for questions on more advanced topics.

Podcasts

• The Amp Hour - Off-the-cuff chat about electronics with Chris Gammel and Dave Jones (EEVBlog), often with guests
• Embedded FM - Christopher and Elecia White discuss embedded systems development and much more, often with guests
• Sparkgap Podcast - Covers a specific EE topic each episode, sometimes with guests.

Videos

• EEVblog - One of the earliest and most successful YouTube channels where Dave Jones does teardowns, tutorials and more.
• ElectroBOOM - YouTube channel that debunks and explains EE topics with a lot of comedy thrown in.
• Micah Scott - Video logs of reverse engineering and re-purposing consumer electronics hardware in creative ways.
• Afrotechmods - Tutorials on electronics projects, often suitable for beginners as well.
• The Signal Path - Very in depth teardowns, repairs and reviews of lab equipment and prototyping products.

Tutorials

• All About Circuits - Online textbook for learning theory with clear diagrams and explanations.