This whole series shows everything you need for your first board! And its a great reference when you forget something. Thanks for making it, greatly appreciated. I just submitted my second board for manufacturing.
I'm using KiCad 5 and I made the mistake in part 5 of not replacing the default transistor footprint with the digikey one. This ended up causing trouble with the Design Rules Checker, which is now located under the Inspect menu. Fortunately, I was able to go back and change it and then load the new netlist and choosing "Change" under "Exchange Footprint". One nice thing KiCad lets you do is a "Dry run" to see what will happen before you actually run the change to make sure it only changes the parts you expect it to before making the actual change.
If you're using KiCad v6 note that adding the copper pour (10:32) works quite differently now. There's a short but clear explanation of how to do this here: th-cam.com/video/8NV5cuPbVm0/w-d-xo.html
There is a button named "High contrast display mode" on the left side of the window (third button from the bottom). It grays out all the components and traced at the other side of the board. It is much better than turning off the layer (7:25 in the video) since then you still see where stuff is when you plan for vias.
I greatly appreciate the video series, it helped me a lot. I am sorry for now taking this to the presenter's looks, but he looks like he is just a few months and a dangerous lab experiment gone wrong away from being either a super hero or more likely a super villain :D
Thank you for this very useful tutorial! When you have made your ground copper pour, all the other layers are visible as if they are all on top of the copper layer, but for me they are underneath and I can't see them. Do you know how to fix that?
I figured it out by asking about this in the kicad forums. You may have accellerated graphics mode turned on. Under the Preferences menu in KiCad 5 you can select "Legacy Toolset", "Modern Toolset (Accellerated)" and so on. I had mine set to Modern, but when I switch it to legacy, it displays things as shown in this video, including the yellow board color after both sides are filled.
@@deltaray3 I have KiCad 5, too but no options for legacy toolset just "Modern Toolset (Accelerated)" and "Modern Toolset (Fallback)". Neither of them allows me to see the board the way it shows up in the video. Any advice?
I can't believe I noticed this as I didn't know what a PCB was 3 days ago but have been researching like crazy. He actually has them in the correct order and numbering, but one is rotated 180 degrees so that the label is above or below. Note the far right is actually R4 and is also actually 100k as it should be. The 2nd to the right is actually R3 and also correctly 22k as it should be. This took me a long time to figure it out, but as I know nothing about this hobby I'm sorting out creating exactly what I see and spotted it.
yes when you zoom in you ll see a clearance given for the traces from the copper zone, that means copper fill is not present for some distance around the traces
@2:30 he says "make sure there's a small amount of vertical trace before it enters pad 2." but he doesn't explain why. Could someone please tell me? Design rules seem pretty pointless if I don't understand the reasoning behind them. Edit: this just got even more confusing, because @6:30 he breaks his own rule on the same pad. Wtf?
I thought the right angle circuit thing was a debunked myth. But here he says after 1Ghz it adds deflection? Where is my understanding wrong. Is it an issue for signal strength of data but not for voltage power current or something?
I think its because if the two wires are close to being parallel, the electro magnetic fields of the two wires will affect one another the most, introducing errors in voltage and currents
KiCAD is sure full of surprises. Your tutorials are great! I hope you will continue with more KiCAD tutorials which explain more and more about advanced PCB design techniques.
I ran in to a weird bug in kicad where my resistor and cap footprints wouldn't show up in the PCB editor until I restarted the program. Heads up in case anyone else runs into this.
Good video -but the description as to why power tracks are thicker misses the key point -they need to be thicker to lower their inductance and therefore make them cleaner supplies
This whole series shows everything you need for your first board! And its a great reference when you forget something. Thanks for making it, greatly appreciated. I just submitted my second board for manufacturing.
I think Shawn might be an actual robot. ;)
Don't take that the wrong way, I appreciate the clarity you use in your videos.
I watched a good dozen of videos about KiCad - but this one is hands down the most detailed and efficient ! Thanks
Great series, I especially love how happy he is with himself lol, seems legit
Shawn - love your elocution. Clear, concise presentation. A+. (not sure what the "little party" thing is about. An in-joke for some?)
I think you're reading too much into it. When I eat a nice beef pie, my tongue is having a little party - why would being happy be an "in joke"?
This series is great!
I'm using KiCad 5 and I made the mistake in part 5 of not replacing the default transistor footprint with the digikey one. This ended up causing trouble with the Design Rules Checker, which is now located under the Inspect menu. Fortunately, I was able to go back and change it and then load the new netlist and choosing "Change" under "Exchange Footprint". One nice thing KiCad lets you do is a "Dry run" to see what will happen before you actually run the change to make sure it only changes the parts you expect it to before making the actual change.
If you're using KiCad v6 note that adding the copper pour (10:32) works quite differently now. There's a short but clear explanation of how to do this here: th-cam.com/video/8NV5cuPbVm0/w-d-xo.html
There is a button named "High contrast display mode" on the left side of the window (third button from the bottom). It grays out all the components and traced at the other side of the board.
It is much better than turning off the layer (7:25 in the video) since then you still see where stuff is when you plan for vias.
Good tip, thank you! I'm so used to toggling layers from other layout programs that I didn't even think to look for something like that.
So, no auto-routing like DipTrace?
I greatly appreciate the video series, it helped me a lot.
I am sorry for now taking this to the presenter's looks, but he looks like he is just a few months and a dangerous lab experiment gone wrong away from being either a super hero or more likely a super villain :D
I was actually thinking he presents a lot like Darling in the video game Control.
Appreciate the videos a lot, they've been really helpful!!!!!!!!
Could you send me the name of a supplier of exclamation marks, please - there appears to a shortage now.
Thanks for this series. I sub'ed
Awesome, very helpful, thank you so much :)
Great series, loaded with straight to the point information.
BTW, are you the same guy behinds the Afrotechmods
channel ;) ?
Can you show me how to get a Negative image of the artwork, since UC process needs a negative, thanks
This is so great!
Thank you for this very useful tutorial! When you have made your ground copper pour, all the other layers are visible as if they are all on top of the copper layer, but for me they are underneath and I can't see them. Do you know how to fix that?
I had the same problem. Do you use KiCad 5?
I figured it out by asking about this in the kicad forums. You may have accellerated graphics mode turned on. Under the Preferences menu in KiCad 5 you can select "Legacy Toolset", "Modern Toolset (Accellerated)" and so on. I had mine set to Modern, but when I switch it to legacy, it displays things as shown in this video, including the yellow board color after both sides are filled.
Thank you, I will try that!
@@deltaray3 Thanks!
@@deltaray3 I have KiCad 5, too but no options for legacy toolset just "Modern Toolset (Accelerated)" and "Modern Toolset (Fallback)". Neither of them allows me to see the board the way it shows up in the video. Any advice?
Does two copper pours create ground loops
There is a mistake at 13:28, the text showing the resistance for R3 and R4 is swapped. It should be 22k for R3 and 100k for R4.
I can't believe I noticed this as I didn't know what a PCB was 3 days ago but have been researching like crazy. He actually has them in the correct order and numbering, but one is rotated 180 degrees so that the label is above or below. Note the far right is actually R4 and is also actually 100k as it should be. The 2nd to the right is actually R3 and also correctly 22k as it should be.
This took me a long time to figure it out, but as I know nothing about this hobby I'm sorting out creating exactly what I see and spotted it.
Is the DRC part missing at the end？
What prevents the traces shorting to the ground zone? Are they isolated somehow?
yes when you zoom in you ll see a clearance given for the traces from the copper zone, that means copper fill is not present for some distance around the traces
I keep getting Non-copper Zone properties when I hit place zones, any fix?
Can you connect a trace without doubleclick? Keyboard shortcut?
@2:30 he says "make sure there's a small amount of vertical trace before it enters pad 2." but he doesn't explain why. Could someone please tell me? Design rules seem pretty pointless if I don't understand the reasoning behind them.
Edit: this just got even more confusing, because @6:30 he breaks his own rule on the same pad. Wtf?
What about the solder mask???
I thought the right angle circuit thing was a debunked myth. But here he says after 1Ghz it adds deflection? Where is my understanding wrong. Is it an issue for signal strength of data but not for voltage power current or something?
I think its because if the two wires are close to being parallel, the electro magnetic fields of the two wires will affect one another the most, introducing errors in voltage and currents
There is good trace width calculator in kicad.
I just found that the other night (it was staring me in the face in the Project Manager the whole time). And yes, it's pretty solid. :)
KiCAD is sure full of surprises. Your tutorials are great! I hope you will continue with more KiCAD tutorials which explain more and more about advanced PCB design techniques.
Can you give a direction where is this calculator located in KiCad, please?
I ran in to a weird bug in kicad where my resistor and cap footprints wouldn't show up in the PCB editor until I restarted the program. Heads up in case anyone else runs into this.
Good video -but the description as to why power tracks are thicker misses the key point -they need to be thicker to lower their inductance and therefore make them cleaner supplies
i expected mounting hole
tiny party (:
Young Sheldon
I've never seen copper layers used for text. Very interesting.
I remember seeing it quite often on older (pre-80s) electronic boards.
dunning kreuger
thanks!!