Github Fritzing

[Fisseha Aranda]

Thisis a development version of Fritzing. Please create backups, use on a virtual machine, whatever you think secures your data. Do not use for production. That said, we trust our code enough to run it on our development machines.

Don't expect individual support, the idea of the development version is to enable collaboration by using a common known build. We have >800 issues on the backlog. If you can provide useful information, this might help in raising the issue to the top of the backlog.

This is a development version of Fritzing. It is not even a beta. It was not tested for any platform. It may just crash.

It may turn your computer into a useless piece of metal. Create backups, use on a virtual machine, put it in quarantine, whatever you think secures your data. Do not use for production. That said, we trust our code enough to run it on our development machines.

Don't expect individual support, the idea of the development version is that you help us. We have >800 issues on the backlog. If you can provide useful information, this might help in raising the issue to the top of the backlog.

Why do we publish this?

Detecting errors as early as possible usually makes them much easier to fix. Therefore we want to allow more people to try and work with the development version. We publish this development version because we hope to get error reports.

Fixed a memory corruption. This kind of bugs are nasty: The autorouter

seems to work fine, but at the same time, leaves some wounds that let

the application crash later on. Thanks to Filipp Mikoian!

Also, many more improvements and fixes, including contributions from Chris Mayo, Peter Van Epp, Ben Williams, Michael Anderson, Roman Vekshin. Thanks to the guys at Aisler.net, without whom this release would not have been possible.

A: For 0.9.3 the parts library has been changed so it could be updated much more frequently than the application.

This works fine for new parts. But some parts had to be fixed, and we want to take some extra

steps to guarantee that when rolling this out, no current projects are broken.

About 201 parts have been added or fixed since the 0.9.3b release.

Thanks to the independent part repository management, all those changes have already been distributed over the months and years since the last release.

The Fritzing parts library is now stored online at github and is automatically checked for updates. This means you will now get new parts (or fixes) in the moment when they are created. No need to wait for the next Fritzing release anymore!

We have been plagued by an annoying bug that occasionally caused PCB traces to get loose and flip around. It has been tricky to track down but it's finally fixed, sigh.. Plus, the fix will recover any files that have been mangled by this bug!

You can now alternatively save your fritzing sketches as an uncompressed set of files (.fz plus additional custom parts etc). This allows for proper versioning with systems like git or svn. Thanks to Sergio Oller (zeehio) for this contribution.

TODO: I accidentally pulled the wrong(old) version of "fritzing-parts" from git when building the app, which means that the parts library may not contain some very new parts. I will re-build a bug-fixed version in the next 1 or 2 days to update the parts library.

Fritzing is good to show a system architecture visibly when you want to describe your project with no actual boards and parts. I personally do not use it to make simulations which other commercial software is better than Fritzing.

There is little commonality between a schematic and Fritzing, the use of the latter is just trying to dumb it down to "Lego" building blocks. The user learns nothing useful, and pretty pictures are practically useless to any engineer.

Each to their own, but I tend to skip past posts where Fritzing pictures are used as evidence.

Yep, and when the beginners try to build a project from a typical crummy, misleading Fritzing diagram, they get the wrong parts in the holes backwards, then post on the Arduino forum asking us to explain why the smoke is rising from their "Lego building block system".

I understand your distain for Fritzing, It's not my favorite either. However can we offer a better alternative?

Unfortunately I don't have one. For breadboard layout (i.e. soldering to a standard copper clad perf board) I use CorelDraw. However lately I've been going directly to PCB's.

Second, fritzing may not be good at teaching but not make it trash.

Many programmers I know often use Xmind to draw diagrams for their codes(business logic, dependency, etc.) Will Xmind become trash because it's not a good programming teaching software?

Same for fritzing.

I'm using it to make a visible description for some of my projects to let people who have no electronic knowledge understand the basic frame quickly. Of, course I will put some professional diagrams alongside Fritzing picture, so people with different knowledge levels can automatically adapt.

As far as I know, Fritzing is the best way to make those basic diagrams.

Please advise me if you think there is an alternative for Fritzing.

My thoughts are simple. Were are here to help other folks and hopefully not waste the knowledge we've gained.

So if you cannot help, in this case recommend another alternative, then you should move to another post where you can help. Although I will admit I've been caught up in a discussion on something I feel passionate about, I try to keep my posts helpful.

[sarcasm]

I'm regressing to my fetal position under my desk....

(I though I had that under control, sorry an old reaction to Fritzy...and I so wanted to share New Years with my family..)

[/sarcasm]

That's the problem with Fritzing pictures. It shows where to connect the wires, but the user knows not why. Learns nothing. There is a circuit mistake that would be immediately visible on a schematic but it would take a few minutes of analysis from the picture. But by then, there would be smoke. (That's a hint).

The WCRS version of the ARDX experiment instruction pages include links to Fritzing sketch documents. The schematic and wiring layout images have been generated from the program, usually with a little after the fact tweaking to add or repair things that the application does not currently handle well.

In the process of creating the experiment sketches for the web pages, additional parts that were not (then) part of the core library, were needed. There were created as needed. If you just want to work with copies of our fritzing sketches, there is nothing extra that needs to be done. The custom parts are included as part of the sketch document.

However, if you want to create your own sketches from scratch, those extra parts could be useful. Links to them are supplied here, along with a few notes about when to use them. To use one of them, down load it to your local machine, then open it in Fritzing. That will add it to the "My Parts" bin. Remember to save the imported parts, and the "My Parts" bin updates, if you do not want to have to import it again each time you need it for a new sketch.

This should never be needed for new sketches. Unless you are creating a new circuit that is be added to our ARDX pages. It has no electronic functionality. The physical header is used to hold the paper breadboard sheet in place when building the circuit from the ARDX documentation. The part is only used to make the generated images look more like the breadboard sheets for the original ARDX documentation.

The fritzing part provides the same functionality for sketches. Placing the adapter part across the centre of the breadboard allows an nRF24L01 module (see below) to be placed on the header, and jumper wires connected to the breadboard view correctly create connections on the schematic and pcb views.

Like the main breadboard, a part inserted in the header will move when the header part is moved. However, the pins from that part do not get reconnected to the underlying breadboard when the adapter is positioned again. To get the connections back, the parts in the header must be moved out and back again. This seems to be a limitation of the way the Fritzing program works.

This is the standard relay included with ARDX kits. The part has been configured with schematic subparts for the energizing coil, and each set of the double pole switch contacts. That can make the schematic simpler. The circuitry to control the relay coil often has very little to do with the load being controlled by either or both of the switches.

This is a version of the radio we have been using for the CarBot. This version has the antenna built into the printed circuit board. The version with the external antenna has exactly the same interface pins, so this can be used in Fritzing for either module.

This is a recreation of the core "DIP-Relay-D31A" part. I needed a part for a 941 series relay, and this was a working example to start from. In the process, the original part was rebuilt with a different schematic view that supports sub parts. The relay switch contacts and shield connection are movable independent of the energizing coil.

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