I couldn’t find a more suitable Category, so forgive me if I selected the wrong one. Anyway, the other day, I went to start auto-routing a board, as I have done many times, and all of the sudden I get an odd error: WARNING The normalization of net ‘GND’ failed. I have no idea what/where that is coming from. So, I started to look at some of the checking tools that are part of KiCAD (ERC), and see 4 Errors and over 999 Warning? I have no idea what is going on, or how/when something changed. A couple of examples:
[power_pin_not_driven]: Input Power pin not driven by any Output Power pins
; Severity: error
@(745.7518 mm, 60.9212 mm): Symbol U15 Pin 14 [VCC+, Power input, Line]
[endpoint_off_grid]: Symbol pin or wire end off grid
; Severity: warning
@(744.5656 mm, 58.2052 mm): Vertical Wire, length 2.7160 mm
I don’t even have a clue as to where to start to look. For the Power pin ones, i deleted the symbol, added it back, and ran it again with the same result. And all the ‘wire end off grid’ warnings? And the “normalization of net ‘GND’ failed” message. So, I’m open to any suggestions on even where to start with this. Thanks
Off grid generally means that you changed your working grid after laying out your schematic. You can either “Align objects to grid” or change back to the proper grid (which is 50mil). But if you’ve made a bunch of changes in a metric grid and you use the KiCad symbols (that are laid out on a 50mil spacing), you are going to have a lot of work ahead of you.
Align elements to grid is in the context menu, so select the elements with errors, right click and go.
Thanks Seth, I did go back and just do a reset to defaults under preferences, and add the Power Flag stuff. The Error messages are gone and only the Warning messages remain about ‘grid’ issues. You mention “Align objects to grid” and something about a ‘Context Menu’. I looked and I didn’t see where there was a Context menu. Is there a way to globally snap everything back to the default grid?
Also, when I try to auto-route the board, I still get the “WARNING The normalization of net ‘GND’ failed” message that I have no idea what that means. Thanks
Nor do I. Autoroute is a good way to spend more time for less enjoyment and generally a worse outcome (in my experience). You are a better designer than your tool.
Select the items you want to align. Then right-click. This is the “context menu” What you see when you do this will change depending on the context of the elements selected.
Well, winner, winner, chicken dinner. Doing that re-align and a few other tweaks, and now no errors or warnings. I think a big culprit was the CMR0512S3C DC/DC onboard power supply. The manufacturer (I think) that I got the symbol from, and the lines listed as bi-directional. Clearly they are not… Now I just have the ‘GND normalization’ warning message, that I have no idea what the severity is. So, I’ll probably let it auto-route tonight and see what happens. And thanks for the help.
Yep, you are correct. While I finally got the schematic errors & warning resolved, I’m probably going to have to redo the schematic. I started the autoroute last night, and as of this morning, it had made over 3500 passes and still not done… So, I have lived, and I have learned… Oh well.
