Re: [kicad-users] Newbie to both PCDing and Kicad
Making a pin passive does not change the connection status. It will still require a wire to it. If you really do not want to use a pin, then all you need to do is place a no connect flag on it, (the blue X 9th icon down on the right hand side) Are you using KiCad libraries or stuff imported from other packages? Sometimes that can cause problems. Try a few tests with KiCad only libs and if that improves things, you may need to investigate the other libs that you are using, esp. the layout grid. If you have been making your own libs and mods, be VERY careful about pin names and numbers, the module and libs must match or things will get very confused. My clearance setting is the default 0.006 so this seems to be pointing to problems with your module pad sizes, or as you say things may not work until you sort out the connection issue. Until you get the connections sorted out, PCBnew won't really work as it needs a rats nest to work on. People do a lot more than produce home made PCB's with KiCad, so I think you have only got a few teething problems to sort out. (I only do home PCBs as well, and I have no problems.) If you want to try one of my homebrew circuits give me a mail and I'll send you a suitable project file to play with Andy On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:40:10 -0700 (PDT) Ted Huntington huntington_...@yahoo.com wrote: Thanks: I solved my library problems, but still can't connect the wires to the devices. Making a big circular junction that covers the wire and pin doesn't make the connection. I made the pins passive and it still is making a warning unconnected pin. Another nice feature to put on the todo list is: resize wires - that is nice if a person just needs to move a wire over to connect precisely with a pin. In PCBNEW I'm getting Track near pad from the DRC, even with a clearance of .001. I have to turn off the DRC to connect tracks. But then - I also have no rat's nests connections because I can't get the pins to connect in eeschema. But I think this is a completely workable program and I think I can use this to do my own home etched PCBs. Ted
Re: [kicad-users] ErrType(16) - Two track ends
Boris Barbour a écrit : Hi, Is it possible to join a track to a net without starting drawing on the net in question? In other words, if I start tracing in the middle of nowhere, the track is assigned to Net:0/noname. It is then impossible to join it to another net with DRC on (I get the ErrType(16) of the subject); with DRC off I can make the join, but the track retains its null net and will evermore generate DRC errors. Is there a way to induce Kicad to change the net name once the join is made, either automatically or manually? In case you are wondering why I should want to do this, the issue arises most often when drawing guarding and shielding traces. I've managed to work around the problem so far, but not without difficulty. Best wishes Boris Just open netlist dialog and run Rebuild Board Connectivity -- Jean-Pierre CHARRAS Maître de conférences Directeur d'études 2ieme année. Génie Electrique et Informatique Industrielle 2 Institut Universitaire de Technologie 1 de Grenoble BP 67, 38402 St Martin d'Heres Cedex Recherche : Grenoble Image Parole Signal Automatique (GIPSA - INPG) Grenoble France
[kicad-users] Re: Annotation issue
--- In kicad-users@yahoogroups.com, cklckl67 cklck...@... wrote: Dear Kicad User, I have a great issue with annotation. I use library : 74xx-eu.lib And in my circuit I use 2 components: 74HC14N 1 component 74HC4052. After schematic annotation I obtain IC1, IC2, and IC3 for 74HC4052 So the issue is when I generate the netlist: IC3 annotation is converted in #IC057 IC1, and IC2 no problem, only with IC3 I tried many things without success.. Could anybody help me, and give me the reason of this feature Many Thanks in advance. Christian Finally, I have to edit the lib file manually and modify it. Id didn't remember, but I have to replace the last letter by N For the first line it was Y Y 2 L P (Last was 'P' I think) and I have to replace it with Y Y 2 L N And also for the other following lines.. # 74HC4052N # DEF 74HC4052N IC 0 40 Y Y 2 L N F0 IC -300 525 50 H V L BNN F1 74HC4052N -300 -700 50 H V L BNN F2 74xx-eu-DIP16 0 150 50 H I C CNN DRAW P 2 1 0 0 300 -600 300 500 N P 2 1 0 0 300 500 -300 500 N P 2 1 0 0 -300 -600 300 -600 N P 2 1 0 0 -300 500 -300 -600 N .. Now it works
[kicad-users] Menu colors
Hello, How can I change colors of menu and text? Unlike the last one, the current version doesn't fit with my theme (willibex brown) thank you G .T
Re: [kicad-users] Menu colors
Sorry, I forgot to say I'm on Ubuntu jaunty Gilles Teisseire a écrit : Hello, How can I change colors of menu and text? Unlike the last one, the current version doesn't fit with my theme (willibex brown) thank you G .T
[kicad-users] Re: Editing hotkeys
This is a me-too reply. The Allowed keys: section in the eeschema.key file is very handy, but without a corresponding Allowed commands section, it's useless. I tried reading the code to find the commands, but couldn't find anything that led me to a comprehensive list. I _really_ want to use kicad regularly, but the lack of a hotkey to save files frustrates me no end. I added the line: shortcut Ctrl S:Save and reread Hotkey config file (same file; only eeschema.key on my entire disk) - no change in the Show Current Hotkey List and Ctrl-S does nothing. Please help. A product with this level of maturity deserves better. And I'd help, but I haven't been able to crack the code. Perhaps a clue? Donald. --- In kicad-users@yahoogroups.com, oecherexpat heiko.la...@... wrote: Hello, I would like to put more commands on hotkeys/shortcuts. The automatically created file seems to be self-explaining except one thing: How do I know the names of the commands that I can assign?? Thanks, Heiko
[kicad-users] KICAD success stories ?
Hi, is there any resource for success stories about using KICAD? Not only what company but also what circuit / application and what package density / types used. I am asking again, because I would wish to see some projects about targeting mobile phone / smart phone or PDA like complexity. (Especially those parts used in OpenMoko 1973 / FreeRunner) Thanks Lothar -- | Rapid Prototyping | XSLT Codegeneration | http://www.lollisoft.de Lothar Behrens Heinrich-Scheufelen-Platz 2 73252 Lenningen
Re: [kicad-users] Newbie to both PCDing and Kicad
something rather odd is going on with your install I think. I've never seen mouse tracks as such, Plenty of messy lines that don't get deleted and such like, but never mouse tracks. Likewise the polygon issue. I take it that you mean when drawing the board outline and such like? One tip regarding that, use the space bar to zero the rel. co-ords, then use the cursor keys as you get back to your starting point. When the co-ords are back to zero hit retun and the polygon should close. You can use the same idea in the module editor as well. Andy On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:45:55 -0700 (PDT) Ted Huntington huntington_...@yahoo.com wrote: Thanks Andy I had to make my own packages - but used the Kicad and the external Libs as the source for the schematic for the SO8 NE555 etc and other common packages I am using. Maybe I will try using devices from the default libs just to see if they connect. I could not set the second point in making a polygon - and therefore could not close or create any polygons, and so I decided to try using the last stable version instead of the current SVN version and hopefully that will solve the connection and polygon problems. Looking more at the refresh - one problem appears to be that the mouse icon leaves tracks - that looks so bad for such a highly developed program - I'm surprised that the developers have not figured out how to repair that - it just requires correctly erasing the mouse icon before moving it - there must be more to it because otherwise they would have solved that. Ted From: Andy Eskelson andyya...@g0poy.co.uk To: kicad-users@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, April 20, 2009 3:20:44 AM Subject: Re: [kicad-users] Newbie to both PCDing and Kicad Making a pin passive does not change the connection status. It will still require a wire to it. If you really do not want to use a pin, then all you need to do is place a no connect flag on it, (the blue X 9th icon down on the right hand side) Are you using KiCad libraries or stuff imported from other packages? Sometimes that can cause problems. Try a few tests with KiCad only libs and if that improves things, you may need to investigate the other libs that you are using, esp. the layout grid. If you have been making your own libs and mods, be VERY careful about pin names and numbers, the module and libs must match or things will get very confused. My clearance setting is the default 0.006 so this seems to be pointing to problems with your module pad sizes, or as you say things may not work until you sort out the connection issue. Until you get the connections sorted out, PCBnew won't really work as it needs a rats nest to work on. People do a lot more than produce home made PCB's with KiCad, so I think you have only got a few teething problems to sort out. (I only do home PCBs as well, and I have no problems.) If you want to try one of my homebrew circuits give me a mail and I'll send you a suitable project file to play with Andy On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:40:10 -0700 (PDT) Ted Huntington huntington_ted@ yahoo.com wrote: Thanks: I solved my library problems, but still can't connect the wires to the devices. Making a big circular junction that covers the wire and pin doesn't make the connection. I made the pins passive and it still is making a warning unconnected pin. Another nice feature to put on the todo list is: resize wires - that is nice if a person just needs to move a wire over to connect precisely with a pin. In PCBNEW I'm getting Track near pad from the DRC, even with a clearance of .001. I have to turn off the DRC to connect tracks. But then - I also have no rat's nests connections because I can't get the pins to connect in eeschema. But I think this is a completely workable program and I think I can use this to do my own home etched PCBs. Ted _ _ __ Recent Activity * 17 New Members * 1 New Links * 3 New FilesVisit Your Group Yahoo! Finance It's Now Personal Guides, news, advice more. Search Ads Get new customers. List your web site in Yahoo! Search. Support Group Lose lbs together Share your weight- loss successes. .
Re: [kicad-users] KICAD success stories ?
Lothar: I use KICAD to design all of my boards. They vary from DIP parts down to fine pitch (.020 pitch) parts. A PDF of the schematic and board layout for each of my boards is available on my website. Dave - WB6DHW http://wb6dhw.com Lothar Behrens wrote: Hi, is there any resource for success stories about using KICAD? Not only what company but also what circuit / application and what package density / types used. I am asking again, because I would wish to see some projects about targeting mobile phone / smart phone or PDA like complexity. (Especially those parts used in OpenMoko 1973 / FreeRunner) Thanks Lothar -- | Rapid Prototyping | XSLT Codegeneration | http://www.lollisoft.de Lothar Behrens Heinrich-Scheufelen-Platz 2 73252 Lenningen
Re: [kicad-users] KICAD success stories ?
Thanks. If comparing the Samsung 2442 chip pin distance of 0.8 millimeter, creating a module in KICAD would be doable. (http://www.opatnet.cz/elektronika/datasheet/U/um_s3c2442b_rev12.pdf) Here are the other components that are used in the FreeRunner: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner_GTA02_Hardware Especially the flash memory seems not clear to me (the fbga pin diameter of 0.0138 inch (b) and distance of 0.0295 inch (e) as of http://www.numonyx.com/Documents/Datasheets/M58WRxxxKTB.pdf The other components must be reviewed too, but this seems to be a house mark of package density :-) So I ask especially for designs using such fbga parts. Lothar Am 20.04.2009 um 18:56 schrieb Dave - WB6DHW: Lothar: I use KICAD to design all of my boards. They vary from DIP parts down to fine pitch (.020 pitch) parts. A PDF of the schematic and board layout for each of my boards is available on my website. Dave - WB6DHW http://wb6dhw.com Lothar Behrens wrote: Hi, is there any resource for success stories about using KICAD? Not only what company but also what circuit / application and what package density / types used. I am asking again, because I would wish to see some projects about targeting mobile phone / smart phone or PDA like complexity. (Especially those parts used in OpenMoko 1973 / FreeRunner) Thanks Lothar -- | Rapid Prototyping | XSLT Codegeneration | http://www.lollisoft.de Lothar Behrens Heinrich-Scheufelen-Platz 2 73252 Lenningen -- | Rapid Prototyping | XSLT Codegeneration | http://www.lollisoft.de Lothar Behrens Heinrich-Scheufelen-Platz 2 73252 Lenningen Please read the Kicad FAQ in the group files section before posting your question. Please post your bug reports here. They will be picked up by the creator of Kicad. Please visit http://www.kicadlib.org for details of how to contribute your symbols/modules to the kicad library. For building Kicad from source and other development questions visit the kicad-devel group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-develYahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:kicad-users-dig...@yahoogroups.com mailto:kicad-users-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: kicad-users-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [kicad-users] KICAD success stories ?
Do a Google search on DG8SAQ or/and the VNWA2 Vector Analyzer. The pcb is visible on some photo's. The pcb and all the schematics where done with KiCad. //Dan, M0DFI On Monday 20 April 2009 15:24:42 Lothar Behrens wrote: Hi, is there any resource for success stories about using KICAD? Not only what company but also what circuit / application and what package density / types used. I am asking again, because I would wish to see some projects about targeting mobile phone / smart phone or PDA like complexity. (Especially those parts used in OpenMoko 1973 / FreeRunner) Thanks Lothar -- | Rapid Prototyping | XSLT Codegeneration | http://www.lollisoft.de Lothar Behrens Heinrich-Scheufelen-Platz 2 73252 Lenningen Please read the Kicad FAQ in the group files section before posting your question. Please post your bug reports here. They will be picked up by the creator of Kicad. Please visit http://www.kicadlib.org for details of how to contribute your symbols/modules to the kicad library. For building Kicad from source and other development questions visit the kicad-devel group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-develYahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:kicad-users-dig...@yahoogroups.com mailto:kicad-users-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: kicad-users-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[kicad-users] Absolute and relative Path
Dear all, Is there a possibility to work with relative directory in Kicad. In fact, in some cases it works very fine, in other not. For example, to add my libraries to my project, I modified my project file like following. [eeschema/libraries] LibName1=../lib/power.lib LibName2=../lib/regul.lib ... [cvpcb/libraries] EquName1=../modules/devcms ... [pcbnew/libraries] LibDir= LibName1=../modules/connect.mod ... And it's work fine. Nevertheless in libedit, when I specify a relative link for a component document, it doesn't work. Eeach time, Kicad tries to open the missing document under Kicad directory. Same case for 3D component models in the Module editor. I have to set the complete path, in the other case it doesn't work. This works C:/Documents and Settings/Christian.GRIS/Mes documents/papsi/trunk/schemas PCB/modules/packages3d/ssop-28_dip-28_w300.wrl This doesn't work ../modules/packages3d/ssop-28_dip-28_w300.wrl Thanks in advance for your help and information Christian PS: Kicad is a super super great tool. A great thank you to the developer and the help staff to maintain this hight quality free tool
Re: [kicad-users] KICAD success stories ?
On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Dave - WB6DHW brain...@wildblue.netwrote: Lothar Behrens wrote: Hi, is there any resource for success stories about using KICAD? Not only what company but also what circuit / application and what package density / types used. I am asking again, because I would wish to see some projects about targeting mobile phone / smart phone or PDA like complexity. (Especially those parts used in OpenMoko 1973 / FreeRunner) Thanks Lothar . Lothar, I'm not sure what type of stories you are looking for. I'm a first time user. Previous board experience with PADS. I just completed a 6 layer (4 routing, power, ground) board approx 3.5 x 3.75. PC104 connector, dual row IDC connector, 240 QFP FPGA, 2 144 pin QFP devices and an assortment of 0805 resistors, capacitors and smaller parts. Hand routed, 800 or so holes... Fairly dense. Waiting on the board to ship now. Generally very pleased with the experience. Steve
Re: [kicad-users] Absolute and relative Path
Short solution would be a subst to a virtual drive. Thus moving the contents only requires to change the subst command. I work with that any time on Windows for my projects (programming) and it also works at least with CVS managed projects. Lothar Am 20.04.2009 um 22:47 schrieb cklckl67: Dear all, Is there a possibility to work with relative directory in Kicad. In fact, in some cases it works very fine, in other not. For example, to add my libraries to my project, I modified my project file like following. [eeschema/libraries] LibName1=../lib/power.lib LibName2=../lib/regul.lib ... [cvpcb/libraries] EquName1=../modules/devcms ... [pcbnew/libraries] LibDir= LibName1=../modules/connect.mod ... And it's work fine. Nevertheless in libedit, when I specify a relative link for a component document, it doesn't work. Eeach time, Kicad tries to open the missing document under Kicad directory. Same case for 3D component models in the Module editor. I have to set the complete path, in the other case it doesn't work. This works C:/Documents and Settings/Christian.GRIS/Mes documents/papsi/trunk/ schemas PCB/modules/packages3d/ssop-28_dip-28_w300.wrl This doesn't work ../modules/packages3d/ssop-28_dip-28_w300.wrl Thanks in advance for your help and information Christian PS: Kicad is a super super great tool. A great thank you to the developer and the help staff to maintain this hight quality free tool -- | Rapid Prototyping | XSLT Codegeneration | http://www.lollisoft.de Lothar Behrens Heinrich-Scheufelen-Platz 2 73252 Lenningen Please read the Kicad FAQ in the group files section before posting your question. Please post your bug reports here. They will be picked up by the creator of Kicad. Please visit http://www.kicadlib.org for details of how to contribute your symbols/modules to the kicad library. For building Kicad from source and other development questions visit the kicad-devel group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-develYahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:kicad-users-dig...@yahoogroups.com mailto:kicad-users-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: kicad-users-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [kicad-users] KICAD success stories ?
Am 20.04.2009 um 20:34 schrieb Steve Weigold: On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Dave - WB6DHW brain...@wildblue.netwrote: Lothar Behrens wrote: Hi, is there any resource for success stories about using KICAD? Not only what company but also what circuit / application and what package density / types used. I am asking again, because I would wish to see some projects about targeting mobile phone / smart phone or PDA like complexity. (Especially those parts used in OpenMoko 1973 / FreeRunner) Thanks Lothar . Lothar, I'm not sure what type of stories you are looking for. I'm a first time user. Previous board experience with PADS. I just completed a 6 layer (4 routing, power, ground) board approx 3.5 x 3.75. PC104 connector, dual row IDC connector, 240 QFP FPGA, 2 144 pin QFP devices and an assortment of 0805 resistors, capacitors and smaller parts. Hand routed, 800 or so holes... Fairly dense. Waiting on the board to ship now. Generally very pleased with the experience. I am doing a small research if KICAD will be capable to create boards with 8 or more layers using high density components like FBGA parts. It's about a mobile phone / smart phone from OpenMoko, that now will be further developed in a comunity. As I remember if I am right they used Mentor PADS if that is what you mentioned. For a comunity it should better be an open source tool than a closed source. That's why I am asking for success stories or simply stating 'we using KICAD for our project X containing these parts: As in my other post: http://www.opatnet.cz/elektronika/datasheet/U/um_s3c2442b_rev12.pdf and http://www.numonyx.com/Documents/Datasheets/M58WRxxxKTB.pdf The main samples yet didn't show up any ball grid array housings, what I am interested in, but it shows that there are created boards that are to be selled. Also I saw applications up into the HF area to 1.3 GHz. BTW, if anyone is interested in participating in smartphone development, please welcome to the mailing list (gt...@lists.openmoko.org ) Lothar Steve -- | Rapid Prototyping | XSLT Codegeneration | http://www.lollisoft.de Lothar Behrens Heinrich-Scheufelen-Platz 2 73252 Lenningen Please read the Kicad FAQ in the group files section before posting your question. Please post your bug reports here. They will be picked up by the creator of Kicad. Please visit http://www.kicadlib.org for details of how to contribute your symbols/modules to the kicad library. For building Kicad from source and other development questions visit the kicad-devel group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-develYahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-users/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:kicad-users-dig...@yahoogroups.com mailto:kicad-users-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: kicad-users-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[kicad-users] Wish list for the Library Editor
Hello KiCad Users and Developers, I am a new user of KiCAD and don't know where to post this. Using Win32 KiCad 20090216-RC6. And kudos to the authors of this amazing program. I struggled a bit trying to add a component to the library and I feel the .pdf could use a little more explanation and accuracy. Unfortunately I dont know how to highlight the corrections here, so I will use pipes || to show added text and tilde ~~ to show text to strikeout. Spelling corrections to the .pdf Help file: 11.6.6 - Pins : Electric ~kinds~ |types| 11.3 - Load a component for ~edition~ |editing| Proceedure suggestions: 11.4.2 - Creation based on another component When a component strongly looks like another, it is often ~profitable~ |advantagous| to load this other component, and ~to~ then modify it. ~Then you have to :~ |Perform the basic steps: Open the Library Editor [show icon] from the EESchema toolbar. Load the desired component library that has the device you want to modify and create a new part from. Toolbar: Select Working Library [show icon]. Load the component which will be used as a model by. Toolbar: Select component to edit [show icon]. Modify the component its name. Choose ( edit command and chage Add, remove, edit Field Properties « Value », or right click on the component name, select Field Edit and edit the text « Value »). Modify pin names by right clicking on the pin and select Edit Pin. See 11.6 for complete pin editing. Save the new part into the loaded library with [show icon] or save to a new library with [show icon]. Save the library to disk with File Update. [show icon] | --- Bugs/or Wish List: The 1st panel of the Library Browser and Library Editor statusbars contain the component part number of the currently selected item. The panel contains an unnecessary prefix: Current Part: or Part: , the width of the panel is not suffcient to view the entire part number in most cases. 1. The 1st panel should be made wider. 2. And also eliminate the prefixes in the 1st panel as aforementioned. 3. The panels of the statusbar should include tooltips to identify their useage similiar to the toolbar's tooltips. 4. The lists of the library names should be alphabetized whenever the lists are filled. [in Library Browser, Library Editor, Preferences]. Is is often tedious having to search up and down the list looking for a library. 5. It would be great if the cursor size in the Library Editor was user sizable so that it would facilitate placement of duplicated inner components that need to be aligned vertically or horizontally of an IC. Such as when creating a darlington array, or inverter chip.
