Component Pins, do's and Don't

[Andrew_Walsh]

Hello,

I am a newbie to kicad and am wondering if anyone can provide and do’s and dont’s regarding
connecting component pins to other pin types, etc.

I seem to be limited to few choices and getting many errors.

[Rene_Poschl]

Electrical type of schematic symbol pins (KiCad 4 and KiCad 5)

What are electrical types used for? The electrical type is used by the electrical rule check (ERC) to determine if you made an obvious mistake. ERC is really quite limited. All it does is read all electrical types of pins connected to a particular net and check their combination against the error matrix. Example: By default connecting two output pins together will result in an error. (Makes sense as one output can be high and one can be low resulting in a short circuit between the positive supp…

[paulvdh]

Settings for the ERC checker are in:
EEschem -> Tools -> Electrical Rules Checker -> Options (tab)
This is what the rules look like:

You can change these rules, but if you think you need to you are probably wrong and the chance is a lot bigger that you have an error in some schematic symbol, and you should correct the symbol instead.

[Sprig]

Can I wager a nickel that it is a Power Flag related error?

[Sprig]

What is the main Error that you are getting?

[paulvdh]

Power flag errors, are indeed more likely. Especially because:

@Andrew_Walsh

I am a newbie to kicad

It is always a good idea to start with the “getting started with KiCad” tutorial.
It is a relatively short pdf, but just long enough to give the basics of the workflow in KiCad.
I designed my first (lousy) PCB with it in KiCad in the first day I used it.
Beware though that the schematic / PCB design example is only used as a tool for explaining the workflow.
There are for example no decoupling caps on the uC.
You can find it here:
https://kicad.org/help/documentation/#_getting_started

The use of PWR_FLAG is also explained in that tutorial.