Moteino solder pads

[kobuki]

Sorry for the noob question. I'm learning Eagle and PCB design in general (again) and I'm studying the Moteino designs. For the life of me I can't decipher what kind of objects the solder pads are for the transceivers. I'm sure I'm overlooking something, but these solder pads on the bottom layer are unselectable, unmovable, unchangeable. I'm using Eagle 8.2, maybe that's the problem?

Also, is there an Eagle library available for the LPL designs?

[TomWS]

Hi, Kobuki!  It's funny hearing you describe yourself as a 'noob'!

In any case, if you have any eagle design, say for Moteino R4, then you can easily extract any of the symbols into a separate library.  Use the 'Run ULP' tool "exp-lbrs.ulp", this will give you three options:
1. Export Original Library
2. Merge into one library with the original library name prefixed onto the symbol names
3. Merge into one library with unchanged names and symbols.

Options 1 and 3 are useful, I don't see much use of option 2.   You can change the path where you put this library, keeping it in the design folder is a safe place to put it temporarily. 

PM me if  you want me to walk you through this in more detail.

Tom
Also, the pads for a device, like the RFM69 radio, are defined in the 'package' section for that particular device in the library - you can adjust them there (like eliminate the cream layer if you want to hand solder the module rather than have the solder stencil have solder paste openings for these, as an example of mods I've made).

[kobuki]

I haven't described myself as noob, but I can still ask noob questions When it comes to PCB design I'm definitely not very experienced.

But on subject, thanks for the detailed answer and the offer. I'll try and extract what I need or export a lib. For now I thought I make my life a little easier by reusing the RFM69 footprint if I can. I suppose then it's a part integrated from Felix's private library.

[TomWS]

For now I thought I make my life a little easier by reusing the RFM69 footprint if I can. I suppose then it's a part integrated from Felix's private library.

It may actually be from a Sparkfun library.  They have a lot of commonly used parts and you can download their entire set directly.

Tom

[TomWS]

I haven't described myself as noob, but I can still ask noob questions

Good point and important distinction. I apologize for the misstatement.
Tom

[kobuki]

Yes, I downloaded the Sparkfun libraries, quite extensive and useful. And indeed, there's the Sparkfun-RF which I seem to have missed earlier. There are footprints for the modules I want to use. Thanks again for the hint.

Somewhat offtopic, but my Eagle 8.2 randomly freezes. It stops responding, sometimes every 5 minutes. Opening and studying the Moteino R4 project it doesn't die, weird enough, but whe I create a new project in it it freezes randomly. Only an application force quit/restart helps. Should I continue to use it or it's better to go back to 7.1-7.2 which looks the most frequently used?

[TomWS]

I'm still using 7.7 so haven't upgraded to 8.x yet (and don't experience hangs).  I use Eagle on my Window 7 machine.  What OS are you running?

[kobuki]

It's Win7 x64.

[Felix]

The "pads" represent a single Eagle part, like the pads of a chip except for these radios. They have a center somewhere in the .. center, on the bottom layer. That's all.

[kobuki]

Yeah, I found them finally, thanks. In this jungle of layers...