New to KiCad, trying to evaluate it compared to Eagle and DesignSpark
Worked many years with WinQcad, very pleased with, but they are out of the market and I try to find an alternative.
Until now KiCad it seems friendly, easy to adapt (.sch in this stage).
My problem are the libraries:
Have a microchip library without even one PIC microcontroller (many Atmel in the atmel library, but I will not switch to them). Do KiCad have an online or downloadable library for PIC microcontrollers?
Same about DCDC converters.
Any help will be appreciated
It takes some time for the first couple, but after that you usually know what you’re doing and there is wizards to help you along with repetitive tasks…
All parts I use I have drawn myself and most of the frequent users do the same as by the time one has validated the work of others the work itself could have been done (and how you want it).
Also note, if you prefer atomic parts (symbol + footprint as one) that come with manufacturer part number (or your own internal procurement number) you have to run your own libraries anyway.
Thank you for the link PCB_Wiz, I found it useful.
Thank you for the post Joan_Sparky. The answer is yes, I have drawn 100 ts of symbols and footprints while using WinQcad, Orcad and Tango (long time ago) and also a new symbol for the PIC16F1847 in KiCad just now. Not just waited for the answers. It takes some time, but it is strait forward.
Maybe I am expecting too much from a free software.
If you have a lot of existing library resource, you could look at converting those to KiCad format ?
I see WinQCad can export OrCAD SCH symbols, and the eeschema LIB is a fairly simple ASCII format, so you could translate those symbols ?
Have a look at the ASCII files you can create at each end, to check.
At one time I divided library for the PIC microcontrollers into smaller libraries, easier to search for the necessary components. That’s why if you look at the current library set at https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-library/tree/master/library you can easy find: microchip_pic10mcu, microchip_pic12mcu, microchip_pic16mcu, microchip_pic18mcu, microchip_pic32mcu. Of course they do not have every PIC device in the market because I stopped further work on them and my library contribution.
Microchip, however, do not only produces PIC microcontrollers, so we have a main library called microchip.lib for other devices. As I remember there is only ENC28J60 there, because it’s very popular.
Thank you keruseykaryu
I check out your link but I don’t understand what to do as with the other option I was proposed.
I am using just three PIC controllers so the simplest way is to draw them and save to the library.
Done one already and it was strait forward
In any case I found just one of the three.
Hi @Joseph it is very easy to expect too much.
The beauty of opensource software (!= free) is that you can contribute with your own work to it. After you create the parts that are missing in the main library, you can contribute it to the project:
So future users can has the expectations fulfilled.