DB62 and Pin Receptacle Symbols

[hermit]

?

[bwilliams60]

That is more than likely the footprint am looking for. What would I use for the schematic symbol? Thank you @hermit Much appreciated.

[hermit]

Any single connector will do for the schematic. You don’t need a specific ‘banana’ jack symbol.

[paulvdh]

First a bit about terminology, just to be clear:
There are schematic symbols, and there are Footprints. The schematic symbols are just a graphical representation and are used in Eeschema, Footprints are the representations you see in Pcbnew.

The link between pins in the Symbol and the Footprint is very simple, the pin names have to match, that is all. So you can use any single pin connector, test point or similar Symbol and assign it to your Banana Jack Footprint.

When I need a custom schematic symbol or Footprint in KiCad I usually make it myself. Bot the Symbol Editor and the Footprint Editor work very good, and when I go this route I know in advance I can make my custom footprint, while when I start searching the 'net, it’s easy to spend a lot of time without knowing in advance if it will even be successful.

More info here:
https://forum.kicad.info/search?q=create%20footprint%20category%3A19

The first few Schematic Symbols and Footprints you make will take some time, but the learning curve is not very steep. And once you’ve mastered this you can also make custom footprints for “weird” things that are guaranteed to not exist elsewhere.

Footprints for connectors are also notorious for being very specific to the real part. There are several hundred of USB connectors for example, and for the DB connectors, the distance from the pins to the flange can vary a lot.

[bwilliams60]

Thank you guys for the help. I am just reading through the Getting started 5.1.6 tutorial and it is very thorough. I just find there to be a lot of steps to get from A-Z and i am sure once I have done a few, i will understand it much better. My first few are going to be very simple boards so I think I will get it. I came from the school of etching my own boards with ferric chloride and single sides so this is a bit of a process for me. I do think it will have great benefits once I get it.

[hermit]

@paulvdh

First a bit about terminology, just to be clear:
There are schematic symbols, and there are Footprints. The schematic symbols are just a graphical representation and are used in Eeschema, Footprints are the representations you see in Pcbnew.

Sounds like a FAQ?
First a bit about terminology, just to be clear:

What is the difference between footprints and symbols?

What are symbols Symbols abstract the function of a component and communicates the interface of it to both KiCad and the person reading the schematic. To to this it at least needs to define the connection points for the schematic with so called pins. It is suggested to add some artwork to the symbol to do this effectively. The easiest symbol is a so called black box symbol. It simply surrounds the symbol with a box with every pin having a meaningful name shown. For some symbol classes there a…

[bwilliams60]

Which way do you number the symbol when you are drawing it? For example am I numbering it looking at it face on or from the backside of the connector? So with the 62 pin, if I starter from the bottom left, what pin am I looking at on the schematic or does it matter?
Also, does my spacing on pins matter at this point or is that more for the footprint?

[hermit]

No need to draw it all as one symbol. For schematic legibility these can be broken up and numbered ANY way you like. The symbol pin number however MUST match the correct footprint pin number.

[bwilliams60]

On the DB 37, it looks as though each pin is made of two parts. How do I make the pin part? I can find the part that says passive with the line but not the colored dot with the line.

[hermit]

[bwilliams60]

I am in that box but I do not see a male pin to attach to the passive stub.

Also what is number of units per package?
Should I use passive or bi-directional?

[hermit]

Units per package depends on how you want to break up the package in your schematic. Do you really want ONE big connector or does it make sense to break it up into different units for different parts of your schematic for legibility purposes?

Start here:

Tutorial: How to make a symbol (KiCad v5.1.x)

Disclaimer: Screenshots taken in a nightly from after the 5.0.x releases. The current nightlies are expected to become 5.1. Some features shown here are missing in the current stable 5.0.x. Some dialogs look different in 5.0.x. KiCad version 4 had a very different symbol editor meaning this tutorial is not really suitable to teach symbol creation in KiCad version 4 Quick start tutorial for the symbol library editor. Official documentation for the symbol editor Other FAQ articles worth read…

@bwilliams60

Should I use passive or bi-directional?

Not sure if this is covered in the tutorial:

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…

[SembazuruCDE]

Putting on my pedantic hat here…

There is no such thing as a DB-62. The B shell size for the D family is only standardly defined for 25, 44, and 52 pin variants. I think you really mean a DC-62 (which is the high density variant of the normal density DC-37). See this Wikipedia page:

D-subminiature | Description, nomenclature, and variants

The KiCad standard libraries (as distributed with v5.1.6) makes the “error” of calling all D-sub connectors “DB#” regardless of the shell size. (I put error in quotes because the common usage doesn’t follow the original specification…)

Feel free to go back to your original conversation.

[bwilliams60]

I can take pedantic. I knew DB wasn’t the correct description for this unit but wasn’t sure what exactly it should be. Thank you for the correction. Carrying on.

[jos]

Break up could be something like below.

[bwilliams60]

Is this where you would use “3 units per package”?
That would make sense to me.

[SembazuruCDE]

I agree, except for specialized usages where one would group pins by function (or by what pins are needed on a particular sheet in a hiearchial schematic), breaking it out by row makes the most generic sense.

Oh, I noticed a copy-paste error there @jos. On your A and B parts you forgot to add the internal graphics. I know this was probably just a quick and dirty example to help @bwilliams60, but if you ever plan on using that symbol you may want to add that small (aesthetic) detail.

[bwilliams60]

@SembazuruCDE, are you referring to the missed connection on pin #1, 22 and 43 or is there something else I am missing?
Also, how did you make the circle inside the symbol (female terminal?) and if it was male, how would you fill it?
I am looking at the circle function but when I use it, the circle comes out rather large.

[jos]

Since that connector consists of three physical rows it somewhat suggests a three unit part as an initial approach,

[jos]

Well spotted

The properties of those graphical elements for the 20 contacts can be set common to all units, however the remaining two for units A, B need to be by themselfs.