Introduction

Fritzing is a printed circuit software that permits you to do beautiful circuit for Arduino. Furthermore, you can export this circuit to an image.

The pros of Fritzing

  • Unlike the others software of printed circuit, Fritzing continues to be updated.
  • A lot of people are using it , that’s mean you can find help in forums.
  • You can install new components found on internet

The cons of Fritzing

Fritzing software permits you to create printed circuit, but not to simulate it. If you want to simulate your circuit, you can use another software: Tinkercad.

Download Fritzing

To download Fritzing for free click here.

Presentation of the software

Interface of Fritzing

This is the interface you will see by opening Fritzing for the first time.

You can different menus, such as Breadboard, Schematic, Pcb and Code.

a) Breadboard

 

The breadboard will be used to do your circuit.

At the right you can see the different components that you can add in your circuit. You can also link on every component to your breadboard.

Here you have an example of what can be done in the breadboard parts :

At the left you have an example of a push button plugged on an Arduino.

b) Schematic

Schematic show an image of each component with their pins. That way you can have a better idea to where which have to be plug in.

The sketch is made from the schematic part. As you can see this part can be used to have a better view of your electric circuit.

c) PCB (printed board circuit)

The PCB (printed board circuit) part of Fritzing permits you to create your own board after doing your circuit on a breadboard. In the PCB menu, you can see our Arduino card with the led plugged.

You have the both buttons view from above and view from below to have a different perspective of your board.

The button both layer permits you to click on a wire, or on a pin of the Arduino card or both.

The button autoroute permits you to export your circuit for the PCB. You have to click on it when you have finished to modify your circuit.

Finally, if you click on fabricate, you have an indication of the cost of the board. With our circuit of the Arduino card and led, this is the estimation of the cost on the picture.

Finally, if you want to export your circuit to construct it by the constructor of your choice, you can click to export PCB et you will have the file of your board.


d) Code

In this part, the program can be written. You have also an option to upload the program on your Arduino card to test it.

To upload your program, you can choose the port in which your card is connected and do the upload.

Components of Fritzing

On the top right you can find the different components that you can placed on your sketch.

We will see now the different kind of components available on Fritzing.

The Core parts gather all the components usable for your circuit. You will see in this part a resistor, a motor or a push button…

Hint: characteristic of components

If you search any specific characteristic of a component, for example a tolerance for a resistor, you can click on the component to know the characteristics.

In the third category you can find all the Arduino cards that you will need. Of course you can find the Arduino Uno card, but also the Arduino Yun, Nano and Leonardo. All theses cards can be use in your sketch to link it with your components.

Finally, in the others categories, you can find the others constructors such as SparkFun, Seeed studion and Galileo.

What can I do if my component is not on Fritzing?

If you have read carefully, there is a category that I haven’t talk about, which is Mine. This category is useful if you don’t find a component on Fritzing.

All the components are not catalogued on Fritzing and it’s possible that you don’t the one you want for your circuit.

In this case, I will provide you three solutions to find the components you are looking for.

The First solution, which is also the easiest one, is to search on a website which catalogue the components Fritzing.

This is an example of website which catalogue the components with the most success.

The second solution is to search on the specialized forum such as the Fritzing forum where you can find the component not added.

Name of the component

Link to download it

H Bridge

https://forum.fritzing.org/t/h-bridge-with-l298n-motor-driver/7711

Black camera Raspberry pi

https://forum.fritzing.org/t/rasberry-pi-nior-camera/10283

Fan 5 volts

https://forum.fritzing.org/t/fan-ventilador-5v-download-piece/2096

Radio transmitter

https://forum.fritzing.org/t/rfm69-radio-transmitter/9400

Screen  nokia 5110

https://forum.fritzing.org/t/nokia-5110-lcd-display/2416

The third solution, if you don’t find the component on internet, you can create it by yourself!

How to create your own component on Fritzing?

You have on Fritzing an editor of component dedicate to it. To use it you have to start with a component similar from the one you want to create and modify it. We will take the example of a resistor.

To open the editor of component, you have to click on part and edit. This work if you have clicked on the component and you want to modify it.

When you arrive to the editor of component.

Here you can change the graphism of the resistor, change the pins, the size of the resistor or it’s functionality.

After finding my component, how can I install it on Fritzing?

After downloaded the component, you have to find it on fritzing to use it. To do that you have to open Fritzing and go to Mine category.

Do a right click and import. You have to choose the component that you have download. This one will appeared in Mine category, like the others 4 components that we can see.

Then you can use your new component.

Don’t forget to save this component when you quit Fritzing thanks to the dialog box which give you the possibility to keep the parts imported.

That way you can find your new component when you open again Fritzing.

Example of a circuit

Now we will see how to create a circuit and a program on Fritzing.
The first step is to create a sketch and after we will see how to program it.
For this tutorial we will take an Arduino and plugged a led with a breadboard

a) The sketch

To do the sketch you have to go to breadboard category on Fritzing.

In the component part, we will take the led and Arduino card. For the led, you will find it Core component, or write led on the loupe.
For the card, we will take the Arduino card.
Then we will take a resistor that you can find it on Core category : you have to click on the component and drag/drop on the breadboard

You will obtain this sketch on the left.

We can place the elements as we want and you can create link between the components. For example, to link the pin + of the led, you click on the pin 8 of the Arduino card et link it of the pin + of the led.

Tip "beauty"

 

To have a straight wire, you can click on it to create some “bend”. You can also change the color of the wire by clicking right and color.

The last step is to export your Fritzing project. You have many solutions for that: You can download an image of your circuit to click on export and png picture or pdf or svg.

To do that you have to click on the toolbar and export.

After exporting your project in png image you have the image on the left.

Tip to save time !

On Fritzing, there are also some examples of circuits. To see what has already done, you have to click on the toolbar and open example and All. You will see all the circuits available with a component in particular.
This is the list of components :

This is an example of a circuit available :

b) The programming

In the category code on Fritzing, you can add the program.

You can also upload the program directly on a Arduino card by choosing the right port. You have also the serial monitor to communicate with your circuit.

Tip to copy a program

If you found a program on internet, you can’t copy it directly on Fritzing because it won’t be on the same shape.
First you have to copy it on the Arduino Idle to have the good shape, after you can copy the program on Fritzing.

To go further : Order a PCB

Finally, if your circuit is finished, you can export it into a PCB part to create it in a factory. In fact, Fritzing is working with a company, Aisler which will help you to create the circuit you have done on Fritzing. To know more about, you can click on the toolbar, file and order a pcb.