I have not been able to locate a symbol for an AC-DC power supply such as a meanwell, or PowerOne. I would think there would be one for this common component - although used at a system not board level.
Also, is there a way to get a list of all components in a particular library?
Any suggestions?
There is no such thing as a common component. What you think as common is just a thing that you can buy easily. Somebody at the other side of the world has some other things in their definition of “common”.
Thank you - I would never have thought to look for an AC-DC converter! Makes sense in hindsight.
I could have been more accurate by saying common TYPE of component. Something that takes mains in and provides DC out is a globally used component in electronics. If you exclude the brand names that is.
Designing electronic devices since 30 years I have never used one at any of my PCBs.
Get all your friends to use Kicad. Even your pets too. Then there will be more demand for such symbols and some of those users will design symbols and contribute.
But seriously perhaps the people most likely to use such components are using other software and it’s fortunate that there are some symbols in the library at all? Can’t be that difficult to create a symbol which is just a rectangle with 4+ pins and labels.
You are correct about board design. In my 40 years I had very few PCB designs that included a power supply. Several that included a DC-DC converter or the like.
In almost every system design there was a power supply - battery powered systems being an exception.
I didn’t mean to say all designers use power supplies, only that they are common in systems. In any case I got helpful advise from the group.
My main reason for the question is not to avoid creating a symbol. I am new to KiCAD and trying to better understand the overall organization of the libraries and how to navigate them.
Thanks to all.
If you expect to use KiCAD more than 2 - 3 times per year, then learning to make symbols and footprints should be a high-priority task.
I started using PCB Layout software about 20 years ago. For most of that time, board layout was an ancillary task to my main job. I used several different commercial programs to make only a board or two, before circumstances forced me to get acquainted with a different program. Like many people, I believed that the size of libraries supplied by the software vendor was a significant factor in evaluating a layout program. It took me several years to realize that library size is actually a minor consideration. What REALLY matters, is how easily you can create new symbols and footprints, or make significant changes to existing ones.
Dale
I treat the KiCad library only as a source of examples so need to navigate in them very rarely.
I have started to use KiCad from making my own libraries. When I thought I have all typically used elements I have done my first PCB. If I need element I have no in library I just add it to my libraries and then use it. My symbols are directly connected with footprints - no step of footprint assigning.
If you wont to know what is my current library structure - ask (there is no idea to write if no one needs it).
This is not stable yet. During my first 3 KiCad PCBs I made some changes. I don’t exclude to make next changes in future
I started in 1989 or 1990. But it was very hard - I had Racal-redac distributed at four 320k floppies and PC/XT with 640k RAM, 2 floppy disc drives, and no HDD!. Imagine how to run so big program in such limited environment and how to design two layer PCB with monochrome monitor
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.