I am a newbie to kicad. I am trying to teach myself to make a single-sided through-hole PCB.
I am using this version of kicad:
Version 4.0.7+dfsg1-1-bpo9+1,release build
wxWidgets 3.0.2 Unicode and Boost 1.62.0
Platform: Linux4.16.0-0.bpo.2-amd64 x86_64, 64bit
In order to learn the kicad application programs and workflow needed to draw a schematic, assign footprints, and then layout the PCB, I followed
0yvind Nydal Dahl’s kicad video “Quickstart Intro to Kicad - Design a board in 5 minutes” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=l9b_6WLemmg
It worked! The 3D-viewer is very, very nice. A great way to double-check that I laid out the PCB properly!
Next, I am starting to wonder if I can use kicad to do useful work – okay, honestly if I can teach myself to use it, so I started a new project to create a board using a 8-pin DIP 555 timer IC.
I went through the same steps outlined in 0yvind Nydal Dahl’s tutorial, and am having difficulty using Cvpcb to assign footprints to the 555 timer IC. I got footprints associated with all the other components, mainly passives and a relay.
I found that Kicad libraries are stored at /usr/share/kicad/library/
This linear library should have both the symbol and the footprint for the 555 timer IC i am using in my second circuit.
$ ls /usr/share/kicad/library/linear*
/usr/share/kicad/library/linear.dcm /usr/share/kicad/library/linear.lib
However, this library is not showing up in Cvpcb. What must I do in order to use the existing 555 footprint ? The 555 timer IC component appeared fine with all its eight pins in eeschema. But it’s a no-show in Cvpcb. I am using Cvpcb in the tabular input way as Dahl showed in his video.
I know there must be a one-to-one correspondence between each component in
my schematic and a kicad footprint file that matches in pin count and has a land pattern that corresponds to the physical component (which I can verify by pressing the [ View selected footprint ] button once I get a footprint file in the left-hand column).
But I don’t know why the standard 555 footprint isn’t showing up in Cvpcb ?
Can anybody guide me in making this footprint work?
I googled similar Cvpcb footprint issues but soon found myself looking into the deep-end of the pool – where I don’t belong!
Also, is there a way to save the Cvpcb footprint associations I have already made, so I don’t have to redo them in case my computer powers down unexpectedly?
Russ