OnTrack: The PCB Design Podcast

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Recording from AltiumLive Europe—we have Max Seeley, Lead Electrical Engineer at 3M's Digital Solutions Group and Carl Schattke, Lead PCB Design Engineer from a well-known electrical vehicle manufacturer for a coffee-table chat about the value of attending and being involved with tech conferences like AltiumLive. Max and Carl also share with us how they came up with their presentation ‘Schematic to PCB Design: Passing the Baton Like a Champion’.

Watch the video, click here.

Show Highlights:

• Carl is a PCB designer with 46 years of experience in a range of high-speed and high-voltage

boards and complex controllers, sensors, and test equipment. He is passionate about teaching design and has been an Altium Designer® user since 1985.

• Max is in the Corporate Research Lab, and part of the Digital Solutions Group at 3M. His group supports the development of high-tech electronics.
• Q: “What is the importance of conferences, self-education and being involved with summits such as AltiumLive and PCB West? How does this serve your career?”
• A: Carl - “Exposure to different points of view and methodologies. CAD tools are complex by nature, with tons of features. When you see how other people do things, usually you’ll pick up ways of doing things to add to your repertoire. Also, making connections with different people increases your value to the community as well as the depth and breadth of your network”.
• A: Max - “Learning where to go to get the right information. I have learned which sources of information to focus on. I learned very valuable things from Carl, while Rick Hartley and Mike Creeden have been profound influencers, and the textbook, Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering, by Henry Ott is a great textbook. It’s really important to ask if there’s a sound scientific explanation for any opinion.”
• Carl and Max delivered a talk called ‘Schematic to PCB Design: Passing the Baton Like a Champion’, here at AltiumLive. It’s a very useful look at the process of moving from schematic to PCB, covering aspects from setting up the schematic to transferring the data to communication and avoiding the pitfalls of the process like a champ. The race is lost when you drop the baton.  
• Max has many tips he gathered over the years and Carl has a collection of questions he believes should always be asked.
• Max believes that doing presentations together presents a fantastic opportunity to learn from one another; also, teaching something forces you to pay more attention to your own process. 
• Professionally, the most valuable skill we have is the ability to ask questions.
• It’s critical in the design process to slow down a little bit. Typically the excitement and adrenaline causes a rush once the schematic is done.
• Methodologies should be adaptable to whatever it is you’re designing and the timeline - we need to be ready to change with a positive mindset.
• Q: “What have the AltiumLive 2019 highlights been?”
• A: Max - “What sets the AltiumLive conference apart is the community.”
• A: Carl - “What I enjoyed the most is meeting new engineers and talking geek stuff about people’s different passions and projects.” 
• Judy loves watching the interaction between students and experienced engineers—it’s a two-way street of inspiration.
• There will be a full recording of Max and Carl’s presentation available online within about a month.

Links and Resources:

• Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering, by Henry Ott
• Tape-Ups shared by Carl at AltiumLive

Trade In Your Outdated PCB Design Tool & Unlock Savings on Altium Designer today!