However, some of the time I need to take the electrical design much farther and I need the tools to do so. A full schematic is always a good idea, circuit simulation can teach me about how the design will perform and a printed circuit board makes the design robust, and is alarmingly inexpensive to buy. If I’m ever going to make more than 1 or 2 of a given board, I do the layout and buy the boards, it pretty much always saves time and money. Lacking a frequent need for advanced EE tools, I can’t justify buying OrCAD or PADs or another expensive, but highly functional, EE tool. Fortunately, open-source comes to my rescue.