KiCAD poznamky

Uzitocne nastroje z r. 2024

• KiCAD dokaze importovat schemu aj pcb z Eagle. Zo starsich verzii, ktore boli binarne, to nevie, ale tam sa da odpomoct tym, ze otvorime Eagle subor vo Fusion360 a ulozime ako Eagle9 format, ten uz potom podla tohoto navodu vieme nacitat: https://community.element14.com/technologies/open-source-hardware/b/blog/posts/working-with-kicad-7-importing-eagle-files (napriklad sa mi

takto podarilo nacitat do KiCADu schemu a plosak k Open Servo https://www.sparkfun.com/products/retired/9014)

• Vyroba v JLCPCB je fakt super, pomocne nastroje k tomu su:
  • Navod ako vygenerovat podklady na PCB https://jlcpcb.com/help/article/how-to-generate-gerber-and-drill-files-in-kicad-7
  • Navod ako vygenerovat podklady pre montaz komponentov https://jlcpcb.com/help/article/how-to-generate-bom-and-centroid-files-from-kicad-8 -- tu si treba dat pozor, ze v .csv subore nemozu byt bodkociarky ale len ciarky a tiez na poradie stlpcov, ktore je ine ako to co vygeneruje KiCAD. Tiez je blbe, ked sa stlpcek vola "Pos X" s medzerou, niekedy tam excel/openoffice vlozia ciarku navyse
  • Specialne DRC do KiCADu https://github.com/labtroll/KiCad-DesignRules/tree/main
  • Uplne super nastroj je https://github.com/uPesy/easyeda2kicad.py ktory vie suciastku z JLCPCB (ktora ma obvykle aj footprint aj 3D model) prekonvertovat a importovat do KiCADu. Vo vyssich verziach by to malo byt asi uz priamo v editore pristupne
  • a asi by mohol byt aj tento https://github.com/Bouni/kicad-jlcpcb-tools alebo toto https://github.com/bennymeg/Fabrication-Toolkit

Este raz:

Schematic = Symbols and Wires

• The ERC -- Electric Rules Check is for the Schematic (symbols)
• Symbol libraries
  • have the suffix “kicad_sym”

Board design = Footprints and Tracks

• The DRC is for the PCB (footprints)
• Footprint libraries
  • have the suffix “pretty”.

Personal library

You need to add your personal library to the list of available libraries. When you installed 7.0.2, Kicad only installed the Kicad libraries.

To install your personal libraries go to

Preferences / Manage Footprint Libraries / Global Libraries.

Left click the + icon (bottom left of opened window) Click the Greyed rectangle in the “Library Path” column Click on the black folder icon In the newly opened window, find your library, highlight it, click open.

This will place your library in the global library list.
Give your library a “Nickname”, tick Visible & Active
Click OK.

Nicknames determine the position of your library in the list of libraries available in the PCB & Schematic Editors

If you have Personal Symbol libraries, you will have to follow the above procedure to install those libraries into the Schematic library list.

eeSchema:

• Realigning modules to the grid: Select symbol (all more, even All), right click -> Align Elements to Grid

.lib obsahuje vzhlad suciastky, ako bude vyzerat na scheme .dcm sa vola rovnako ako suciastka, ale obsahuje dokumentaciu - popis, nazov a link na dokumentaciu

Schematicka znacka - datasheet a dokumentacia:

do pola mozno vlozit URL na dokument na webe, napr. .pdf u vyrobcu.

do pola mozno vlozit aj URL na lokalny subor v takomto formate:

file:///C:/Users/Richard%20Balogh/Desktop/otazky.pdf

tretia moznost je vlozit tam URL na lokalny subor relativne

 ./myDatasheet.pdf

Toto je myDatasheet ulozeny priamo v projektovom priecinku

Pole dokumentacia moze byt vlozene v schematickom editore (vtedy je informacia prenasana tusim so suborom) alebo v editore suciastok a este je aj treti sposob. Zmeny v editore suciastok sa prenasaju s kniznicou, zmeny v scheme su len v scheme. Informacie v kniznici sa zasa bez prislusneho suboru ktory by sme pripojili k scheme neprenesu dalej.

Creating libraries, I was trying to include the URL to the component datasheet. I've seen this can be done on two different places in the schematic library editor:

   Datasheet field: inside Field Properties (button with a "T")
   Documentation File Name: inside component properties (button that says "ABC" with an op-amp and a gear) in Description tab

They are independent things and they behave differently as well. For instance, when using the component on a schematic, the way to open the datasheet URL is different:

   Datasheet field: open component properties ("e" key) and click on datasheet field and "Show Datasheet"
   Documentation File Name: you can see a PDF/Acrobat icon on a few different places, e.g. right-clicking a component, using the library browser, etc. which is nicer in my opinion.

On top of this confusion, the Datasheet field is common between aliased components but the Documentation File Name can be different.

Why are there two different ways of doing this? Is any expected to be deprecated/removed?

ANS: The Documentation File that is entered using the library editor is saved in the .dcm file with the same name as the .lib file. The Datasheet sheet field entered using the library editor ('T') is saved in the .lib file. The Datasheet sheet field entered using Eeschema is saved as part of the schematic file.

There are three different ways to this and I don't think any of them are a good solution. I maintain my own library of datasheets and application notes for components that I use.