A weird test point on PCB?

[tizana]

Hi,

can someone please tell me the utility of these untented holes appearing in some PCB

and how can i create them using KICAD.

thanks,

[c4757p]

Those link the two power supplies together, but make it possible to cut them apart for testing purposes (measuring current, supplying one from an external supply, etc.). They’re a variant of net ties - I posted about those recently; you could do a variant of what I did in this post:

Protip #2: net tie

KiCad doesn’t support net ties any more than it supports via stitching, but you can force it to. It’s quite simple to do: make a footprint with two pads, far enough apart not to cause clearance issues, and then draw a graphic line between them to link them. DRC ignores the line, so there’s no clearance violation. It’s a good way to link together nets that you want connected in a controlled manner. For anyone who wants to see them in practice: Using a net tie in KiCad: https://www.youtube.com/…