Electrolytic capacitor mounted at 90°

Layout
1

Good morning. I have been using Kicad for a long time and I am very happy with it. I have a particular request and I can’t find an answer on my own. I am developing a PCB in which two 4700uF radial capacitors, diameter 17mm and height 31mm are inserted. For space reasons, I have to mount them bent at 90° on the PCB, i.e. the side must rest on the PCB and the pins are bent at 90°. I only find library symbols of radial capacitors and axial capacitors mounted as expected. How do I to:

  • insert the capacitor as I need it,
  • see them in the silkscreen mounted lying down,
  • see them correctly in the 3D render as well?

Thank you.

2

I scrounged some (from grabcab community library maybe?) – 12.5x31 with 5.0 lead-space is the largest I have. You can mirror in freecad if you wish to reverse polarity. In kicad footprint editor properties/3D tab you can attach them.

horiz-caps.zip (135.6 KB)

I only made a footprint for one of them:
C_electrolytic_thru_6.3mm_horiz.kicad_mod (2.0 KB)

cap
cap1688×922 127 KB

1 Like
3

Just create your own footprint variant.

I do that for all footprints that i use, just for the sake of house style and silk screen contents.

1 Like
4

A couple of extra holes near the midpoint of the capacitor to allow it to be tied down to the board are a good idea to deal with vibration and shock

2 Likes
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OK. thanks. I’ll make a trial.

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For Silkscreen OK, I do that sometimes, but for 3D models I do not have any experience, so I do not know how to do that.

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I agree. I normally do that, not for all components, just for bigger ones.