Good morning all,
I am drawing the schematic of some cables that are part of the project I am designing. The connector on the end of the cable uses a Molex connector that has separate pins. Can anyone tell me how to represent the pins to be sure they get onto the BOM?
Right now I have the switch on one end of the cable connected the Molex connector which I have represented with a Conn_01x03_Female connector on the other end of the cable.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
There is a helpful faq article here
The question was how to have it in the BOM. All my suggestions in the linked FAQ do not add anything to the BOM.
I have put parts to the side with ‘no connect’ symbols. One example was when I wanted DIP sockets for some chips. This was mainly to integrate them into the 3D model but it works.
I think hermit’s suggestion is good start.
You will need both a conn shell and some pins in the BOM. For the connector, use the shell part number. Then add a number of conn_01x01 and assign the pin part number. There would be no connection to the pins, but that is ok. Use the correct quantity or just use 1 pin as a place holder and edit the pin quantity later.
Or you know have the kicad project document what is really placed on the pcb and use other tools to document the rest. A simple spreadsheet might do the trick here to be honest. (It could then link the house part number of the connector to multiple order numbers)
I really sometimes wonder why people think one tool must do everything. I get the feeling big companies trained us to think of this as a good thing as it makes it easy to lock their customers into their tool forever.
In big (and not so big) companies, you are passing information off to a person who is trained to order parts. If you don’t tell them all the parts, they don’t order pins. To the kicad devs this might seem like an annoyance, but having a means to support BOM (but not in the schematic) parts would be a plus.
Go open one of your own projects from a year ago and see how well you remember all the details.
Think modular. Kicad is a program for making PCBs. Schematic capture aids that process and is a different, but integrated, module. Adding things that aren’t on the PCB starts getting a little far a field. Where do you draw the line? Is it really that hard to add things to the BOM you exported to a spreadsheet? You can make notes on the schematic and include the BOM in your project archive. There is no right or wrong. Just preference.
I highly doubt that you will send a kicad project to your ordering guy. I kind of bet they either want it entered into their database system or you send them an excel file (they might look at you funny if you send a csv file but might accept it after the third time telling them that it can be simply opened with excel)
I hate it when a thread wanders way off topic and I apologize to the Robhixkg (OP).
If KiCad were a commercial product, the attitude would be “What more can I do for you that will make my product more valuable and gain market share.” Which, if you listened to Wayne last year at KiCon, is clearly a direction he wants to go.
hermit: yes I agree modular, but better BOM management could be integrated. IMHO as should be a text/cell based log to capture design notes. 
I may be missing something or showing-off my ignorance but, getting individual Pins in a BOM isn’t difficult if using a Symbol and Associating a Footprint to it.
I suspect the problem is that the Con_1x3 does not have a Footprint associated with it.
If you’re willing to not use the Con_1x3, and make your own, then it’s easy to get them listed in the BOM.
Quick Example - I did not fuss with trying to make it Look and Taste like a real part. Just did it for Example (and my education)
Images shows results (PCB,SCH,BOM)… with the Con_1x3 on SCH, too…
[EDIT] And, you can draw a Box around the pin group…
I understand what you did, but it would be better if kicad handled this better. If there were a way to have a hierarchical item in the schematic then you could build a top level BOM of all the parts.
This post ask the same question
and propose some workarounds.
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