I hereby certify that I am not simply asking someone else to design a footprint for me.
This is an auto-generated message that is in place on the “footprints” section of the KiCad.info forum. If I remove it and ask for a footprint to be designed anyway, I understand that I will be subject to forum members telling me to go design my own footprint or referring me to a 3rd party footprint site.
Is there a database where I can see what the components mentioned in the footprints are?
not sure if is available in all components of the library, but you can see the datasheet on the schematic or at least the 3D view on the pcb…
If you are instead looking for a ‘library catalog’ i’ve never seen one.
When i do my libraries, both for sch and pcb, i place the components in a library catalog
on a project that can be opened for a quick location of parts.
I guess a few examples of components that puzzle you may be helpful. In some cases, manufacturer datasheets offer a good image of the component. In other cases, the component image is a very standard package so that the manufacturer deems the image to be unnecessary. But if you wanted to give a few examples of components that seem to leave you wanting, I or others could post links to datasheets which might give you an understanding of how this all works. ??
I have to confess, I am very new to kicad or in fact pcb design itself.
I just want to include a basic hole, into which I can solder stuff, and I am having difficulty finding it.
Do you recommend me taking a complete intro class to kicad?
I am not the best expert on what we have…but I am not aware of any classes. Have you ever examined a printed circuit board with components on it? “A basic hole” sounds like something which would not be so helpful. If you have a good circuit board design, then basic proper mounting of the components will give you a good workable and robust circuit. If you have only a few holes, then most of the work will not be done and even if you get something working it is not likely to be mechanically robust.
there are a lot of good introductory videos on youtube, see for example the channel of a fellow here on the forum 
(Chris Gammell), he does very educational contents, i suggest to give them a try. I’ve discovered KiCAD with his videos.
Thanks man.
My name is Claude too. Nice to meet you. 
Well here’s the problem. I am designing an ESC for a mini drone and the three pin connectors will just make it heavy. So I need a basic hole like what you see in dot vero boards so that I can solder in the wires
I had to Google “drone esc” to see what that is. I think that the innards of the controller has at least one power IC; much more than just 3 wires. But if you just need a board with a few holes, you can make a component which has only one through-hole pad. Or one component with all of the holes. It is easy to make a component footprint in KiCad.
I have never used the 3D. To me, that is a “pretty picture” which may be useful sometimes but is not universally needed. I mostly make my own footprints, so I assume that the needed 3D information is lacking in what I design anyway.
OK…Your images mostly confirm my remark about the power IC. I am not sure what the Si2302 is for; that is probably a small MOSFET in SOT23 or similar surface mount package. So I guess you are not trying to reproduce the board (with the IC) shown in center part of the image with the LiPo battery. What portion of this are you trying to build? I am hitting bedtime right now and will be shutting down my computer. Hopefully someone in another part of the world can pick up the discussion…
Good night lol.
I am trying to replace the esc part.
With the motor.
There are lots of footprints you can use for this.
Just starting PCB Editor / Place / Footprint and then typing in hole gives you plenty of holes:
There is also a “TestPoint” library which has lots of holes. You can also use the “Connecor_PinHeader” library, and then just use pin headers with a single pin, instead of a longer row of pins.
When assigning footprints to schematic symbols you can also enable previews. The screenshot below is from: Schematic Editor, hover over a symbol, press f to edit the footprint link and then click the bookcase for the Footprint library browser. My mouse cursor is on the icon for enabling the 3D viewer, which updates live for the footprints that have an 3D model associated with it.
A program I had long ago came with a booklet which printed out all predefined footprints, and it was some hundred plus pages of graphics, and it was not very useful. Too much repetition and the booklet was too thick so browsing though it was still tedious. KiCad has some 30.000 footprints in it’s libraries if I remember correctly.
I suggest you start a clean project, and then browse a bit though the libraries and make a very simple PCB and put the footprints on it from the different libraries you find interesting. Especially the libraries with the different connector types (and the terminal blocks) can be confusing, and an overview with a few of them on a simple PCB can help finding them if you need them.
An FAQ article about wire connections:
Hi,
I see a very simple drone here and I can give you some ideas. Firstly there are a lot of great ‘starter’ vids out there on youtube “John’s Basement” is a channel that walks through a build from the beginning. You have an ESP32 module for your WIFI you have an Arduino Nano for the peripherals and a I believe the MPU should be IMU (Inertial Measuring Unit) for flight controls.
Some of these have Templates in Kicad, I know the Nano has,These would be placed on the PCB your making and become a starting point for your design, you would place the symbols on your schematic and then wire as shown using ‘Tracks’ I would think everything except the motors go on you board including the 4 diodes and 4 Transistors (Probably MOSFET) the 2 wires from each motor can be soldered to the PCB by placing a ‘pad’ or ‘hole’ down or by using a screw connector and these basic skills you will easily get from a tutorial. You PCB will physically be built same as you laid it out here with your four motor’s being connected at each corner. To begin with start a test project and just do simple stuff, watch a few tutorials, look up ‘Kicad Templates’ and once you have the basics nailed your good to go, I can’t stress enough how important tutorials are and there not scary ! in fact they are fun, hope this helps a bit and happy designing !
Andy
They are called MPU. I’ve used them several times with Arduino Nano’s.
ADDED: In fact, I’m in the process of integrating a 6050MPU into my recent Telescope Tracking (DSC) design - I use the 6050’s for making a Digital-Level for the scope bases (currently they are independent but, will strive to integrate into one packed box… Here’s my vid on YouTube…(just posted this week)
Simple STEP file attached - you can make your own Symbol and Footprint…
6050_MPU_r0.step (347.0 KB)
Remember The Gentleman was in fact asking how to put a ‘hole’ in a PCB “like you see on Veroboard” I think perhaps he should start smaller than downloading a step file and making a footprint although I’m sure this will be useful in time, in fact I will add this to my own library! Do you have any tutorial suggestions please ? as he did ask and I offered one that I used and also Mr Gammels “Getting to Blinky” was mentioned.
Wikipedia lists MPU as ‘Memory Protection Unit’ or ‘Microprocessor Unit’ and my Google search revealed the same but in addition it added ‘Mobile Processing Unit’ which I guess it is but so is a calculator, please give me your understanding of the acronym and its relationship to MEMS technology I get confused with all the shortened stuff as it is 
Andy
Re: the name - well, by any other name, a Rose is still a Rose. And, if you google MPU 6050 or 6050 MPU you will find handful of them. From Amazon, Mouser, Digikey… In fact, Invensense (a mfg of them, calls them MPU). Can also stand for ‘My Pink Underwear’
Re: the hole… Yes, I read it but provided the Step as some folks, though wanting to learn about Footprints/Symbols, in the end, just want a starting-point without learnig CAD/modeling. And, User needs something to start with…
Re: Learning to make Models and Footprints… Well, my tutorials are not for real-NOOB’s but, perhaps some of these may help anyway…
Thank you so much!
I’ll try the tutorials now I guess.
FYI, from the TDK InvenSense webpage at MPU-6050 | TDK:
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR NEW DESIGNS
Note: The MPU-6050 is not recommended for new designs
