Well, congratulations with your first (non trivial?) design in KiCad. I also find there is a weird satisfaction in routing a PCB. It’s much better then jigsaw puzzles or Sudoku (I find those both boring and pointless).
I would not consider the project “finished” though. I usually consider this state a first draft, and check everything from start to finish. Even things like “is the pinout of all schematic symbols correct?”, and even if the schematic itself is correct. Same for PCB footprints (and the hole sizes in their pads, too small holes is a common mistake, especially for you when you deal with old parts which I assume may have thicker pins then usual) Does your PCB have mounting holes? (and do you need them?) It’s also common (in bigger companies) to have a design checked by someone else, because it’s quite common to look over your own silly mistakes, and someone else is more likely to catch them.
Other common mistakes are with SOT-23, which does not always have pin “1” in the same location. Connectors are also worth an extra check. Columns of connector pins can get swapped accidentally (for example by mistakes with male / female footprints).
It’s also a good idea to build up a checklist. The goal is to use this checklist for your future projects to go quicker and more thoroughly through the checking process, and revise the checklist during each project to refine it.
If I have room, I also like to add one or more small “prototyping” areas to my PCB’s. It can help a lot with making small modifications to fix things. For a small microcontroller PCB it might be just enough to add an interface to some sensor, etc.
I also like to add a loop of thick solid wire to GND, so I have an easy access point for my oscilloscope GND lead and multimeter.
Those are all good ideas. I like the ground test point and will add one. Some of the items I really need to check is that some of the parts, for example the transistors were not in the symbol or footprint list, so I used one that looked OK. I checked the size and pin orientation. I think it is OK. I used the 3D viewer and saw that the part valves were not shown in the 3D viewer. The values are listed as FAB. I’d like them to be shown on the PCB. How do I do that? Do they need to be changed to the silk layer? Another question, it would be nice to have the part references shown on the back side of the PCB. Is there a way I can show them on both the front and back, or do I need to make labels for the back? It’s starting to shape up. Thanks, Mike
Yes. If you want text to show on the PCB, you have to put it on a silkscreen layer (Although technically you could also put it on a soldermask layer or even on a copper layer).
If you want to change multiple instances of a footprint, it is a good idea to:
Copy a standard footprint to a personal library.
Change the footprint in your personal library.
Update the links in the schematic, so it references your personal library. (For example with: Schematic Editor / Tools / Edit Symbol Library Links)
Update the PCB with Schematic Editor / Tools / Update PCB from Schematic [F8]
Once your footprint is in a personal and project specific library, it is easy to modify. Just load it in the Footprint Editor, right click on the text on the fab layer and change it to F.Silkscreen. You can also duplicate that text (with [Ctrl + d]), and then flip it to the backside, or just change the layer to B.Silkscreen.
Well… I was in the middle of trying this and power went out. Now I can open KICAD, see my projects, but when I select one to look at, Kicad hangs. I can not open any of my projects. Any suggestions? Thanks, MIke
First step:
Make a backup of of the project you are working on, and from the config directory of KiCad. This is probably not very useful for you, but the KiCad developers always are keen for test cases that manage to crash KiCad, and if you share them you can help with improving KiCad.
What happens if you start a new project? Does that work properly or do you also have a problem with that?
Next, KiCad makes a backup directory in your project directory. In that directory are probably one or more zipped versions of your project, and the filenames have dates attached.
Thanks for the reply and info. I believe I found the problem. My video display driver was trashed. For some reason most of the programs worked in a higher resolution, but KICAD would or could not. I had to remove the display driver and reinstall it. Now KICAD seems to work again. Time for a break, thanks, Mike Maybe later today I’ll try changing some footprints so that the REF and Values are on both sides of the board.
Just got back and tried to add a REF to the back silk of a resistor,
The resistor footprint I tried is
resistors_tht_r_axial_din0207_l6.3mm_d2.5mm_P10.16mm_Horizontal
In the fottprint editor I added the REF to the back silk and tried to save, but it would not, explaining that I need to set option allow_pretty_writting_tp_this_dir in the Library tables dialog. I do not know where this is, Mike
KiCad’s default libraries are read-only.
If you want to change a library symbol or footprint, you first have to copy it to a personal library.
Alternatively, since KiCad V6, both the schematic and PCB editors can cache symbols or footprints in the design file itself, and you can load it in the editor by hovering the mouse cursor over it (no need to select it first) and then press [Ctrl + e]. When your edit is done, just close the (Symbol or footprint) editor, and the program prompts you whether you want to put the changes back into the schematic or PCB.
This works, but doing it via personal libraries has my preference. If you only have your changes in the schematic or on the PCB, then you can loose them if you update the schematic or PCB with the wrong settings. If it is in a library, chances of accidental overwrites are a lot smaller.
There is no advantage to telling you’re going to do something.
It’s better if you first do “that something” and then report back the results. (and possibly with a follow up question).
Well… Here is what I did in attempting to have the REF and VALUE of a footprint be displayed on both sides of the PCB. I started with just a simple 1/4 watt resistor. I made myself a new library and copied into it the 1/4 watt resistor from the KICAD library. Then I copied the REF** and pasted it on the back side of the footprint. I didn’t see where the VALUE would be, but decided I’d try just the REF first. I saved the new footprint to my library. Next I associated the new footprint to the symbol. updated netlist and the new footprint with with the back side REF was there. I had to re arrange the labels and then I saved it. Then just for fun, I looked at the 3D view and the REF values were in the default area, not where I had positioned them. I’m sure the 3D view had changed, but didn’t take my changes. I went back and moved some items a little and re saved, but this didn’t make any difference. I’m missing something, Thanks, Mike.
ADDED - FYI: and, though the 3D-viewer won’t show Fab layer text, the Text’s/etc will show in Gerbers (also, the 3D renderer won’t show Eco layers but, they will show in Gerbers… and, other layers in exported files will also show text…
I’m trying to understand the use of REF**, %R and %V. I think the %R subs the reference value and %V subs the parts value. But how does the REF** work?, Mike
Frankly, I can’t accurately answer your question as I generally ‘Brute-Force’ my way to getting what I want and (when I post ‘How I did it’, if I remember how I did it (whatever ‘it’ is)), some User(s) complain so, I’ll leave the Answer to your question to others…
