Hi all! I’m a uni student trying to learn KiCad because it would enable me to make custom PCBs for some of my experiments, which I’m really excited to do. For now, however, I want to reference other people’s work to get a started on circuit milling and understanding PCB design. For now, I’m trying to make a turbidostat that comes from this paper [A user-friendly, low-cost turbidostat with versatile growth rate estimation based on an extended Kalman filter - PMC].
I can’t figure out how to actually open the schematics to make the arduino shield though! There’s the library, and a *.pro file, but I feel like the schematics are stored in the .net file (I’m only assuming this based off past research, please correct me if I’m wrong). I would have tried to import using other programs, but I literally can’t even open the .net file with a text editor (some guides said I should be able to) so I can try and replicate the schematics without them. For milling purposes, I’m most definitely more interested in getting the board info, but I feel like this would be a good learning experience for me.
Does anyone know how I should go about importing this?
Like the *.pro thing not pulling anything up or the zip file just not having anything in it? I’m sorry I am so bad at these types of things. I assumed that because there was a .net file that would have some information stored in it? From what I read you can export kicads into netlists. Apologies if I’m not understanding something basic!
There is a project file, the “turbidostat.net” file is just a netlist, and this is a file that can be generated from the schematic with a few mouse clicks, but it’s pretty useless on it’s own. The rest of the files are mostly drawings of the PCB in .SVG format and some libraries.
There is a schematic in .PDF format on the site you mentioned:
From that and the .SVG pictures included in the earlier mentioned zip file the project can be reconstructed, but I don’t know if it’s worth it. The schematic is very simple. Just some FET’s and connectors to sensors and a big DIP footprint (presumably for an arduino nano). I guess it mostly depends on whether the firmware and other files for this project are usable. I often see things like this. For example some “thing” designed in a 3D CAD program, and then only some STL output files are available, but you can’t do much with those in a CAD program without spending many hours of reconstruction of the original model.
I suggest you start with KiCad with some beginners tutorial, and during such a tutorial do some simple projects such as build a blinking LED with an NE555. This will get you familiar with the way KiCad works, and the files it uses to store data in a project.
There is a big difference between having a simple solid, compared to parametric sketches and the mechanism with how the 3D solid is constructed from that. And you would need those if you want to change the object (move holes, make it a bit longer, etc)
This difference is similar to the SVG pictures of the PCB layers in the zip file above, and a complete KiCad PCB file.
In either case, reconstruction is possible, but it is a lot of extra effort.
No argument about it Not being ‘parametric’ as-is and that translates to the Sketches, too.
However, as far as “…a lot of extra effort” goes, that depends on what the Model is. A model of Harley-Davidson would be ‘difficult’ but, a model of a part, such as an Enclosure for a PCB, a Connector… well, it’s pretty darn easy…
Example: the STL has a Hole in it and User wants to make it Larger/smaller… Thus, simply need to ‘Fill’ the hole with a solid and make a new hole. It takes 20 seconds. I just timed it…
And, the additional work done in Part-Design workbench is Parametric and uses Sketches.
You can see the sequence and making a hole… a dumb but simple example (the STL conversion was previously done before making the Hole…)
Thanks @paulvdh ! I appreciate the explanation! The CAD files were most definitely functional, and I’ll check the functionality of the software before trying to redesign the KiCad file. I’ve already done a couple of beginner projects (i.e basically the depth of a single circuit like an LED controlled by a switch) but I’ll definitely do some more research before moving forward! The file types and softwares just trip me up a lot some times.
If you don’t mind answering just one last question: What is a netlist file at the end of the day? Like right now to me it seems a bit useless/dumb to export it out into this type of format, but it must have some kind of use right?
The netlist is mostly a relic from old KiCad versions and deprecated. For normal use it’s replaced by Schematic Editor / Tools / Update PCB from Schematic [F8], and it may be used for “unusual workflows”.
