The issue I’m having is that some of the tubes that I use, there is no footprint in the software that I could put on a PCB board. I’m looking for the footprint for a 6AS7, and a 6ns7. So what I’m doing, is I was going to use a terminal board to do a point to point connection to the vacuum tubes but I’m having difficulty with the circuit because I’m unsure on how to close the circuit board in combination to a point to point wiring. My question is how do I show the voltages leaving the terminal board on my PCB diagram ,so that the circuit finally looks closed.
Use a connector on one side, and a socket on the other.
What you need is the footprint of the tube socket for which I have seen board mount versions. If you are doing point to point wiring to sockets mounted on a chassis then you can make a footprint of an array of (circular) pads. In either case assign the footprint to the tube symbol.
Have you thought about making your own sockets? something like:
- Find female connector pins that are compatible with the pin thickness of your tube pins.
- Put shrink tube around it.
- Poke holes in a piece of paper, and put that on the bottom of the tube (stick the tube pins through the holes).
- Put the individual female sockets on the pins of the tube.
- Add a generous blob of glue. Silicone chaulk may work, or some other filling glue.
- Let it dry and clean it up.
By coincidence, I made this 6SN7 STEP file a few years ago for a Kicad user…
You can make your own Footprint and link to the STEP…
Tube_6SN7_r1.step (65.5 KB)
Here are links to my KiCad Projects Website that may be useful for this subject.
IFX KiCad Works
https://www.invntfx.com/_ifxkicad/_ifxkicad.htm
Valve/Tube Projects
IFX Valve/Tube Web Page
https://www.invntfx.com/_ifxkicad/_ifxkicadvlv.htm
Inventor eFX KiCad Project Extras Web Page
Custom Designed for the Projects:
3D STP & WRL Models
Footprint Libraries
Symbols Library
IFX Extras Webpage
https://www.invntfx.com/_ifxkicad/_ifxkicadxtra.htm
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In British English they’re referred to as valves instead of tubes. The standard libraries have both valve symbols and footprints.