Can someone help me convert an old binary Eagle schematic?

Hi, there’s an old public project that has published a schematic but it’s in the old Eagle 6 binary format, or so I believe, which Kicad’s importer doesn’t handle. I would like to have the schematic in text format to import into Kicad. Is somebody with a copy of Eagle kind enough to convert it and post it? The project is here:

In the section Project Files near the end, there’s a link to download a zip file. The file within the archive is 8088/8088.sch

Alternatively if you can suggest another way to import the schematic, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

i remember reading on some other forum that ftp archives of pre-autodesk eagle are still available… a simple google search can help you with that… download the desired eagle 7 version, save in v7 xml format which is imported by kicad i think…
fyi i haven’t tried any eagle import myself… also i don’t know what size/net/node limitations are there in freeware eagle v7…

Well, it is nowhere near ready for testing, but I’ve been working on a binary converter.

I’ll DM you the kicad project that results. That there is no license in the files provided by that site, so we can’t post them publicly.

I note when looking at the result that the eagle schematic appears much messier than in the images on the blog. I don’t think that this is because of the converter as we don’t move items around and all the blocks still connect. I suspect the posted project is merely incomplete.

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Thanks very much for that. You’re probably right that the project is incomplete. I will probably be just looking at that schematic and the images in the blog for reference, and doing my own eeschema schematic from scratch.

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A fun solution would be to grab a Spartan6 (should do) and cast the whole thing in Xilinx. :sunglasses:

That will be a future project, doing a CPU in a FPGA. I’ve got all these old chips (yes, even the 8284) and there are all these cheap fab offers so good practice in Kicad for me for little cost and some learning time. :wink:

About the FPGA stuff…
Familiar with opencores?

https://opencores.org/projects?expanded=Processor

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Yeah, I’m a rabid packrat of possibly useful information for “sometime later”. If it were all printed, I would drown in the paper. :grinning:

Likewise. Problem is too many people can’t, or don’t want to, read which spares a lot of trees.

I doubt I would be able to afford enough paper to print the info on my (modest) 2TB HDD. Datasheet of the Sitara processor in my Beaglebone is just a few MB, but its > 3000 pages. Complete madness in this world we’re living in.

I have a WIP bit of python that I managed to get to export eagle binary schmeatics in xschem format

8088.xschem.sch.zip (5.9 KB)

The xschem format is text based and simple enough. You may be able to convert it from there if you know the eeschema format well enough.

I haven’t got all the metadata going over yet, but hopefully it’s of some help to you.

Regards,

erichVK5

The buffers overlapping other symbols look strange. Is this the problem mentioned by @Seth_h or is this a problem of your particular conversion?

The same issue appears in the viewing utility I based my converter on; I suspect it is the same issue mentioned above.

Thanks! Between the various converted schematics and the blog I should be able to figure it out how to connect the chips and draw my own schematic. I am familiar with the bus mux scheme of Intel MCUs, I just have to watch out for things like the polarity and timing of various signals, for which a working design is a good check. I also have to read the IC numbers carefully, my eyesight doesn’t help; the other day I put in a LS374 where a LS373 was needed, hahaha.

Good to see that there are efforts to convert binary formats into open ones.

Cadsoft eagle binary layout conversion is essentially a solved problem, since pcb-rnd can load a layout if available, from which export to kicad is possible, but of course, there is always the potential for losses during conversion, although older boards with simple pin, pad and track geometries should export fairly cleanly.

In contrast, binary schematic conversion is an “almost solved” problem.

Have fun!

erichVK5

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Looks ok in Eagle 7.5.0, I suggest it is a problem with the conversion.

Schematic saved in XML : 8088.sch (657.4 KB)

thanks for the attached schematic, it should help in debugging the conversion code.

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