KiCad 5 #4 PCB Layout
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2024
- You can support me on Patreon here: / johnsbasement
Laying out a PCB from a netlist.
This is part of a #KiCad 5 tutorial playlist: • KiCad 5 Tutorial
Source files from this tutorial: github.com/joh...
Music used in this video (Vibe Tracks, Alternate) was downloaded from the TH-cam Audio Library: www.youtube.co...
#kicad5
"air wires" ... In the "olden days" - "rat's nest"...my first PCB layout program was in 1985... Printed them 4x on a dot matrix printer, up to 11" x 17", but, previously, good old grid, colored pencils, tape, footprint "puppets", xacto knife ;-). Different worlds!
😂... I still have some tape-on DIP footprints and spools of narrow black track strips around somewhere!
I guess that TH-cam plataform and users, are very gratefully to have channel like yours.
Congratulations, and thankyou so much for help me!
Thank you for your kind words!
I'm convinced that I have created a PCB that will work. I intend to get it made and build on the componants. If it works, great! If it doesn't I have learned loads and really enjoyed the series. I'll continue to watch, great job, thank you.
Hey! I'm glad to hear that! I hope all goes well! Like you say, no matter what happens, I always learn something new.... even when it's how NOT to something. 😜
Great stuff. Making your videos mandatory viewing for my underling. Thanks so much
Awesome, thank you!
Still the best KiCAD tutorials on TH-cam. Thank you :-)
Thanks! I'm glad to hear that! Enjoy!
Ok, I pause this video a lot from about the 32min mark because as I was doing the tracks on my project the video became white noise until at some point I heard the word 'vias' and my ears pricked up, mostly because I miss autorouting and intend to do single sided etching at home, plus I'm getting tired. So I'm going to save this as it stands (man, I do miss autorouting, but I've heard it can be incorporated into KiCad 5 since it's not included by default as it used to be), and pick this up tomorrow. However, Brilliant video series so far. I've just looked at the playlist, 37 lessons and I'm on no 4, haha!... But, it doesn't matter, this has got me further than I dreamed in one evening, so thank you for that John, I have learnt a lot and will return!
Best KiCad tutorial series I have come across. Thanks again.
Thank you for making this series. It is an enjoyable way to learn Kicad.
You are most welcome! Thanks for saying. I'm glad to know that others can get something out of all the hours I have spent learning this stuff!
Only part way in your series learned more in so far than I did in two months on yourtube. Awesome videos, crystal clear! Subbed.
"Yeah I'm helping" 😂. Really enjoying the series, I'm excited to make my own pcb for the first time! Thanks!
For the last 4th point on the EdgeCut to easily view where it should be while drawing, you can set to cursor in the settings to whole screen. Then you see where the other end of the board cut is while drawing.
Confinement gave me time to finally start a project I've had in mind for months. And your awesome video series made it possible! Thanks so much!
Go for it!
Really enjoying the series. Best series I found about Kicad.
Glad you like them!
Brilliant, thanks John! Your tutorial really helped me out with my first PCB in KiCad
Glad it helped
Top job, this tutorial is helping to iron all the mistakes I'm currently making.
Ufff rocking the breadboard power series! Hitting them shortkeys, like a pro really enjoying the build! thanks john
If you make one, check Digikey for new products from CUI. They have what appears to be the first hand-solderable USB-C power-only connector.
Thank you for pronouncing KiCad properly.
🤣... I assumed that since a principal author is French....
Thank you for your teaching. I enjoy learning from you. Keep it coming. I have a wish "to learn programing FPGAs" to make my own Spectrum analyzer but I only written bach files in DOS many years ago. If you would teach us FPGAs it would make the world better. Thanks Nic ( Guitar player/electronic technician/IT Admin)
I'd love to do an FPGA series. If only I had unbounded amounts of free time!!!
Sorry, I see time is always running right through our fingers like water. Would you point me to a cook book or the like?
@@freqcy I found Pong Chu's book very useful for synthesis: www.amazon.com/dp/B00HLHWWGA/ref=cm_sw_r_apa_i_dTQLEb69PG64P
Awesome tutorial! Well structured and pleasant to watch!
Great video! Thank you so much for teaching me this!
😀👍
Thanks so much! I have they update the UI so much and I couldn't find anything in this new version. You made it all clear!
very good tips!! I'm enjoying your tutorials! thanks a lot!
Incredible playlist, sir!
Thanks! Tell your friends! 😀
@@JohnsBasement I will! :D
Many thanks for this great tutorial!
Thanks! I shot this for a fried who asked about kicad. Are there any topics that you'd like to hear more about?
@@JohnsBasement I must say I'm total beginner with kicad, so I will need some time to experiment, start my first pcb design and figure out what's missing. From other design tools I know that creating your own symbols and footprints always is a complex topic.
No problem. I will be talking about symbols and footprints soon.
Yes, John has done a marvelous job here! Great tutorials, easy to follow, got me up and running quickly :-) Can anyone tell me how I can auto-route my PCB now that I've placed the components and generated a netlist? Thanks! :-)
Oh I wish I could. I am VERY much NOT an experienced user of the auto-router. Meanwhile, I'd love it if anyone has any links to 'start here' level docs/vids on the auto-router. I'm sure EVERYONE reading this would welcome it/them!
Hi John - Glad I found your channel. This is the best series I've found on KiCad and its starting to make sense now. Thanks for all the work you have put into it. I have many more to watch. But I will be building a PCB as a result! thx
I'm glad I could help! Have fun!
This tutorial rocks! Best on TH-cam!
Nice tutorial. Thanks.
Thanks for all the tips!!
(Updated) John, I have tried understanding programs like Kicad for a couple of years. With your teaching style, I finally have a working, yet very simple, PCB. Thank You.
But, it is years after this video and I am using V7. How do I add a "filled zone" in V7?
Never mind, The missing piece to the puzzle is after you have created the filled zone outline, pressing "B" to get the dialog box to set the "fill" up.
I'm glad to know all the time I spent on those vids is still helping people!
Yeah, create a zone and then fill it. You will find that re-filling zones is necessary all the time as you ard/move tracks around.
You want things to be obvious without thinking .... the less thinking, the better the results.
That depends on who is doing the thinking!
nice class
Hi John! Thanks for this series it is very helpful! Any plans to add some other KiCad projects in the future? Maybe some intermediate pcb board design?
Thanks again for your time in making the series!! :)
You are welcome. And yes. I have been working on an FPGA board that I hope to use for a deep dive series.
@@JohnsBasement You are the best! I am looking forward for your next series!! :)
Great series. I’m on my 5th pcb, largely thanks to you. I was wondering if there was a way I could get some individual mentorship/peer review. Beer money goes without saying.
Well... I can tell you what I know... Is your design on the web somewhere?
@@JohnsBasement you have a mewe page or something we can exchange info privately?
@@TheDiverJim mewe? Never heard of it. Try my address at NIU on this page: faculty.cs.niu.edu/~winans/
@@JohnsBasement mewe is like Facebook without censorship and data harvesting/exploitation.
Email incoming.
Thank you man. This is really helpful. Do you intend to do some advanced stuff like mixed signals boards and multiple layers boards. Thank you again
I think I mention a 4-layer stackup in one of my vids. Mixed signal projects might be interesting. Most of what I do is digital though. I fear I may not be the best mentor for mixed signal knowledge.
Nice work John ... What file do you send out to the FAB ?
It depends on what fab you use.
Look at parts 5 and/or 31 for two common ways to send files to a fab house.
KiCad is popular enough these days for many prototype-friendly fab houses to give KiCad-specific instructions.
All fabs I have ever heard of can accept the gerber files described in part 31.
How do I change the size of the pads? Run DRC.......Pad too close to pad. Track to close to pad.......Courtyards overlap......Pad too close to copper item.
It depends what you need to acbomplish. You can edit them directly in the pcb efitor by double clicking on them. You are, however, probably better off defining a new footprint for what you need.
If you only want to rid yourself of the DRC warnings, you can change the design rule values/tolerances.
I your design rules are as tight as they can be for your board fab house, then you might need to edit the trace widths by double clicking on them... or reroute your board.
The generic barrel connector symbol on the schematic has two pins, but the specific footprint you chose for it has three. I take it the third pin is for detecting whether something is plugged into the jack, which we don't need. But were you certain about the pin numbering, that is, that pins 1 and 2 on the symbol correspond to pins 1 and 2 on the part (respectively)?
This would depend on which barrel you purchase. In future vids I chuck the barrel & replace it with a USB connector so I could use a USB charger as a power source. BUT... the micro-USB connector I chose to use is not exactly easy to solder in (as I show in one of the 'building' vids.)
If you want to build one of your own and want a USB connector, I STRONGLY recommend using a MINI-USB connector (if you are not pretty good at surface-mount soldering)!!!
This is the digikey part you want: WM17115-ND
This is the footprint you want for it from the Digikey footprint library: digikey-footprints:USB_Mini_B_Female_548190519
You can get the pinout for the symbol & footprint from this schematic (I have built these and they work fine): github.com/johnwinans/2055-LPC51U68JBD64-breakout
Have fun!
You are fairly correct, back in the older days this three pin power jack connector was very common on things that were portable, especially portable cassette players, portable boomboxes (you needed a free shoulder to carry those things!), and later on, portable CD players etc, none of which were at all power efficient, so you pretty much only had dry cell 'D' or 'C' cells, with the smaller items using between 4-8 'AA' batteries. As such, the more permanent ground pin of the barrel had a 3rd pin sprung piece of metal that pressed against it, and when you pushed in the male plug it separated the two pins and could be used a dumb switch (internally in the jack) to detect, or rather switch between dry cell batteries and a low voltage mains/car power supply, if of course you were lucky enough to own such a thing. There was no small large amp switched mode power supplies, even a small mains regulator was a brick and kicked out just a few hundred milliamp, it was as simple as a primary/secondary, a very crude bridge rectifier, and it was regulated (if you can call it that) by resistors, no LM7805 etc. Seldom was there a LED, this consumed valuable mA, but if there was, it was red and as dull as anything. So many corners were cut. If you were lucky you had a thermal fuse against the secondary as protection against short circuit since using a diode caused too much of a voltage drop. Yes the technology was out there, but it was still expensive and still quite bulky for the average consumer. As times moved on and rechargeable batteries became affordable, some devices used NiCd batteries and a simple NiCd charging circuit, but often you had to move a switch inside the battery compartment to select which type of battery was installed, dry cell or rechargeable. It was a strange world we lived in...
Very good tutorials. Helpt me a lot with the new Kicad version. Is it an option to make the board slightly bigger so the groundplane could route around the connection pins? It is maybe possible to use a single sidede board. I am glad that you made a double sided one to complete the tutorial and adressing rf and emc behavior. I have much to learn and will follow your tutorials.
I don't know about an 'option' perse. I do it the naive way by dragging out the board outline lines & reconnect the corners. 😏
Some single-sided discussion that might be useful can be found here. Unless you are etching one by hand, it should cost the same as a double-sided board. forum.kicad.info/t/single-sided-circuit-boards/7122
The simple answer is to only route traces & filled regions on only one side.
How do I connect a relay to an FM radio output so that it can turn on a light when a strong signal is received?......
I don't know.
I am trying to add dimension but it is not showing anything
Hard to know how to reply.
On what layer? Is it set to be showing? What sort of dimension (straight? Radial?)
It takes 3 mouse clicks to draw it. Maybe you didnt finish it?
Is there a way to invert the colors so that my laser printer prints everything but not the tracks and ground plane?
I use the plot output icon (not print). Then selest layers of interest & 'plot to PDF' and print the pdf.
If that is yick then try plotting to gerbers & find a gerber viewer that can print it after you can select what layers, colors & stacking order.
@@JohnsBasement OK. I finally sorted out all the issues with overlapping pads, courtyards overlapping etc. The printout from the plot pdf came out way too small on the 6x4 photo paper. Board was 116mm x 75mm. It printed at 40mm x 26mm.
When I print this out on my laser printer, it prints out too many blanks (probably lots of seperate layers), and the print size is too small. How do I get this to work?
It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. You are not giving me ANY idea what you are actually doing, what software you are using, how much "smaller" your output is, are you printing from KiCad or from a pdf, etc.
I suspect that this has nothing to do with KiCad at all.
For example, some print drivers "scale to fit" things to the page area. Such settings will ruin the size of things like a PCB foil pattern if you are trying to get actual size.
@@JohnsBasement Using Kicad to print a pcb pdf. The size of the output is 70x110mm instead of 75x116mm. A little too small. I used actual size, thought that might work.
thank you very much for such a great tutorial on pcb design. i am new in pcb designing and you cleared my most of the doubts. i have a question if you wanted ground layer on back of the board why did you drew it first on top layer and then again drew on back of the board and connected both layers. why you didnt draw it on back layer in the first place ?
It depends on the board. On a busy board, the ground plane can end up getting cut by traces flowing across the board. When that happens, I will put vias in place to let the plane on the other side connect across the cut.
On a board that doesn't otherwise need it, you still may want to provide an even distribution of copper to prevent chemical waste, board warping and to help maintain an even distribution of the plating material during manufacture.
Some PCB design tools allow you to put down what is called "thieving" which is a fill that is a bunch of copper dots to fill an area but not provide any conductive paths.
You can ask your PCB fab house what they recommend to do with unused areas on each of your layers so that they can give you the best quality based on the processes they use to create your board.
@@JohnsBasement thank you very much
Hi John! What's the best version of Kicad that runs great on Windos 7?
Wow... This is likely tough for ANYONE to answer... especially me.. because I don't use Windows. :-D
However, anyone that tries to answer this question as given is going to be making MANY assumptions that could be problematic.
Unless you want KiCad itself to be your science project, install a version that has a standard installer and that you can upgrade without investing endless hours tinkering with it.
If you have any existing projects (which is the case for me) you need to make CERTAIN that the version you chose is not going to mess up all the symbols and such since the libraries change over major point-revisions (like 5.x vs 6.x). Either pick the one that matches the version of the designs you expect to edit or schedule time to upgrade the projects (which is pretty simple) and then re-check everything (which might not be so simple.)
If you are just getting started, you want to chose the most recent version that 'everyone else' is using since it is likely to have been checked out enough that you can count on it not becoming your own support problem.
You also want to take this question up on the kicad.info discussion boards since they are used and read by the community at large:
forum.kicad.info/
Just curious why you have two ground planes and no power plane. Is it bad design to have the front of the board filled with +5V and the back filled with ground?
In simpler designs like this i tend to favor grounding all the unused copper and routing the power busses along with everything else. In a 4 layer design I usually have an internal ground and power layer & route signals on the surface.
Ultimately it REALLY depends on the needs of the circuit. For example once I built a video switcher where I routed many 75 ohm analog signals on an internal plane between two ground planes to keep them clean & to control the impedance.
I HAVE A QUESTION, Only 1 Question
I got the entire video and i understood it
My question relates to the colour of the board
I'm using KiCAD
Now I understand perfectly about filled zones
I Understand perfectly how to draw the polygon and that it can't be open ended
I understand about edge cuts
Now that being said
HOW DO WE DEFINE THE BOARD COLOUR
My fabricator told me that they strictly go off the gerber's so even though i selected blue at the time of manufacture the board came back, only 1 side blue and the other side green
what the fuck happened ? I don't know
so 3 areas of confusion that i have
1. The colours next to the layers do not necessarily indicate the colour of the board, i mean F. Mask (even if both back and front are selected blue, we still haven't applied anything to it
2. Now if i select them both to be blue, why does the 3D Rendition not show it as blue
3. there is of course a way to make the 3D Model blue on both sides, although this is just a colour picker and does not actually communicate to the fabricator that the board must be blue
so..... How do we define the colour of the board on both sides
thanks in advance
Gerbers do not contain color information.
The KiCad 3D viewer does not render gerber files. So it is not showing you what the fab house sees.
You have to tell your fab the colors you want some other way.
SOME fab houses I have worked with (15 years ago) requested that I create a gerber (layer) with text messages in it that specify the stack up order (naming which gerber is for which layer) and other things like the board material, thicknesses, plating styles, thieving rules, and solder mask & silkscreen colors.
It is possible that your fab house is asking for such a description to be delivered to them in a similar gerber file.
Consider asking them to send YOU an example of a proper PCB fab request package so you can see what they expect.
@@JohnsBasement
Interesting, thanks for that , because when i ordered i pretty much picked the default options and chose BLUE as the colour of the board
when it came back there was only blue on 1 side even though i selected 2 sided board.
i'ts the last thing that i've been trying to work out
Ok so i have this question then
if the gerbers don't contain colour information what is the point of having a F.mask and B.mask and drawing that polygon around the board and selecting the colour
i thought that was applying the mask layer
@@martinkuliza I dunno. It is possible that I'm mistaken about the gerber files. Maybe there is an option in there that I've never used... or that the board house I used back when ignored and that caused me to learn this incorrectly?
In the spirit of sharing is caring.... and to say upfront (thanks for your patience with me)
1. I took your advice and called the Fabrication house (well, ididn't call them... i guess im showing my age. LOL, I got on chat with them).... i spoke to them
Now let this be for the benefit of all
2. I am dealing with JLPCB
3. i asked them if they could provide an example of a proper fab
their response "We do not provide client gerbers to other clients"
when i asked if they could provide their own internal one they said "We do not supply design assistance"
4. What i have learned about JLPCB is
a) they are very cheap (but ironically , that comes at a cost)
for 5 standard boards delivered to sydney it's around $50, same thing from PCB Way is about $90
b) they have impressive things (at least impressive at first) things like
Electrical Check, Initial Gerber check (checked by an engineer)
Now... one would think
- Holy fuck, .. so an engiineer is going to check my gerber for any errors
- When they build the board they electrically check it so that i know it works without fail
NO...NO... NO... FUCK NO.. AND NO AGAIN.. LOL
Here is what it really means ...
Initial engineer check of gerber
Yes, an engineer checks it...
HE MERELY CHECKS TO SEE IF THE GERBERS CAN BE LOADED INTO THE MACHINE............ THAT'S IT !!!!! PERIOD !!!
(i had this confirmed to me on chat)
- as for the electrical check
(my first board had open circuits everywhere) because i didn't know to change the NET NAME and how they related to each other and therefore they didn't lock into place
so what they actually do is.... (let's assume you have this circuit
-------------------------------------------------(O/C)---------------------------------------
they check
FROM HERE................TO HERE THEN HERE ..............TO HERE
THEY DO NOT CHECK HERE
LOL
so basically , they only check the tracks that they lay
they don't care if they are Open circuit , short or otherwise
so.. JLPCB is ok , but understand you get that price because they do absolutely nothing other than
1. they check their own work
2. They do not care if your board has errors
3. they absolutely and strictly follow the gerber regardless of faults
anyway.... Back to our issue or board colour
they didn't provide and example file
- NOW THIS WAS INTERESTING
Today the operator told me (as you suggested)
The gerber doesn't contain the colour information, BUT YET 5 DAYS AGO ANOTHER OPERATOR TOLD ME I HAD TO PUT IT INTO THE GERBER (which is why i reached out to you
(i've got a board prep'd for Fabrication, i'm sending it off tonight, i'll see how it comes back)
but apparently
4. The colours (as you suggested) in the 3D View have no bearing and do not convey colour information to the fab house
5. the colours in the layer panel have no bearing to the same effect, Not even F.Silkscreen and B.Silkscreen
i mean... I thought (Assumed) that when you set silkscreen to WHITE for the layer colour that it means to the fab house, make the silkscreen white, apparently it doesn't.
6. Apparently when you fill out the form to order the board
they go off your answer for "silkscreen colour"
(which.. that other operator said, was not the case, but todays one said, it was)
Same for the colour of the board (The Soldermask) they said , the gerbers don't contain the colour but instead, you have to pick it from the form
so i guess it makes that simple
7. Now.. A WORD ON THE COMMENTS LAYER
i asked, "if i put comments in the CMTS.USER" layer to make the layers blue and silkscreen white , will they read it "
their response
"We do not read or acknowledge comments within the gerber file"
LOL..... HOW NICE OF THEM
Apparently you can put comments into the order form, but that's about it
so i guess this confirms what you have already said
the real test now will be to send the board off for fab and see what i get back,
Last time i got a 2 layer board with only 1 side with soldermask that was supposed to be both sides blue
this time (Because i was told that having Green soldermask is done faster) i'm going for a 2 layer board, both sides green solder mask with white silkscreen
LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS SHALL WE
but yeah mate, thanks for your help, i appreciate the guidance because you did steer me in the right direction to getting the right answer
I've also noticed 2 other things about JLCPCB
1. some of their staff are not really very knowledgeable
2. since they are in china there is a lot of times a clear communication gap or breakdown in what is trying to be conveyed
i guess it's a teething process
anyway that's what i have for now
Thanks for the great videos but after two days of farting around and being unable to find a simple footprint for a 2n2222 I deleted my entire project in frustration and removed every trace of kicad from my computer.
it started with no dip28 socket symbol ... so I used an eprom and assigned it a downloaded dip28 from some site somewhere. Then I finally got to the end (2 sockets, 3 resistors, 4 caps and a transistor) and it was just spiteful how it 'manages libraries. I honestly think it would be quicker to draw with pen and paper and use wire and vero board. I think it was designed by sadists for a laugh 🤣
Hmmm. It may have been a good idea to load the digikey library. They have parts with foitprints already assigned.
@@JohnsBasement Thanks. I tried loads of libraries but they never showed up when assigning footprints and no way to change them. Tried all the change paths and everything. Waste of time. That was win10. May try on a linux box when I next feel like abusing myself 🤣
@@Plan-C It's in the standard Kicad 5 library. Just having problems in searching thru the footprint library. I did a careful, eyeball search.
Housings_DIP:
Select DIP-28 with the correct width (check data sheet.)
@@williammentink Wow. Thanks. Wasn't expecting any help! I will dig it out and re-visit it. I confused myself by adding libraries and changing paths and then got to stage where I forgot how to undo it all and lost my rag with it 🤣. Thanks again.
John , at about the 13:12 time marker (of the video above) you highlight the #4 pin on the component so as to allign it properly with the grid according to the 42 mm spec. On the
version of KiCad I'm using (ver 5.1.4), it won't let me highlight an individual pin of a component while in the PCB editor. As a consequence, I'm unable to properly align the component corresponding to the 13:12 time marker in your above video. Do you know what I need to do
so that Kicad lets me highlight an individual pin of a component in the PCB editor?
Edward
What I did there was to single-click on one pad of the footprint with my left mouse button. Is that what you are doing?
I have used every 5.x release and have not had trouble with this (in fact the opposite... often I want to select an entire footprint & grab a single pad.)
I don't see anything in the preferences that seems related to this feature.
I am on Ubuntu 18.04. Maybe there is a variation caused by the OS?
John-
yes, I did do a single 'left-click' of the mouse over the pin but it didn't get highlighted. I am using windows 6.1 as the OS. I was able to follow allow fine
with your tutorials (parts 1,2 and 3) but ran into a problem here in the pcb editor
when you alligned the left-most component with the 42mm marker.
Can probably make it more concise, will definitely increase your viewership, editing out all the "oops" moments
Actually, I kept them in this particular video on purpose. It can take a long time to get a practical board routed. I didn't want to misrepresent the process to the beginners.
If I re-record this series for KiCad 6, I might do two versions of this topic. One edited and one raw.
@@JohnsBasement ok, sounds good
I happen to like seeing those 'oops' moments, partly because they branch into other areas that may otherwise have been missed, and partly because we get to see how to correct issues which the program throws up. Concise is to sterile, 'oops' is real world...
@@johnmaffysdad4713 Agreed. Mistakes are instructive.
Excellent !...…….when you flip the components to the back there is a flip board view as well (so you dont have to read backwards ) keep em coming great work
Thank you very much Mr John great lesson learned a lot.
these are fantastic tutorials. I'm coming with no PCB design knowledge (only theoretical circuit design) and this all makes perfect sense.
Thank you soo much for this great content!
You're welcome!
DRC doesn't detect track short !?!? Whoops. In silkscreen I also add "iss 1" for issue one, as my boards are named after project codes which don't change. There is also a 'mod' table (modifications) numbered 1 to 5, where engineer can tick the number to show which modification level that particular board is at. I also have copper and solder mask keepout pours in one area at the edge, on all layers, with text numbers indicating that layer. So for a four layer board held up to the light you'll see "1" on top layer, "2" on 2nd, "3" on 3rd and finally a reversed "4" on the bottom layer; this helps the pcb manufacturer set your layers in the correct order when providing them standard Gerbers.
Yeah... This is cool stuff... I did the same when working with 4-layer boards some years ago. I also like to put Easter-eggs in internal layers with keep-outs on the outside so you can read something like 'John Was Here' if you shine a light through it... Or putting text onto the soldermask layer of an ENIG board and seeing it written in gold... :-D
Probably worth adding to my list of vids-to-make.
@@JohnsBasement : Text in the soldermask layer does look really nice. Tried the drc short from your vid on my version of Kucad (latest as of 1st June 19) and it seems that particular bug has been fixed.
Ahhh! I'm glad to hear that. I think I am in need of an upgrade.
Thank you John
Very nicely done. Thanks.
Thanks for watching!
John, can you give any hints or tips, or perhaps make a video on techniques for routing tracks for something like a 3D printer heated bed PCB? It doesn't really use any components, you can't just route Vcc to GND and so on.
Also, knowing the track length is fairly critical, how can I measure track length?
Is there a way to get KiCAD to generate the trace in a nice pattern to save having to manually draw a long meandering trace?
Hmmm.. Doing this sort of thing with KiCad is new to me. Sorry. I'm not aware of track length measuring assistence with KiCad. You should ask about this sort of thing on the kicad info forums.
@@JohnsBasement I jumped into PCBNew, and laid some traces down, and the selected one segment. At the bottom of the window you can see segment length and total trace length, so that's awesome! That's probably the biggest obstacle, if you're patient enough to manually place 3 meters of trace on a board. 😂
Now, one last problem: How do I make a nice big solder pad on the board? I can't make a copper fill without soldermask. I tried to do a keepout but seems to only be relevant to traces and vias. As in, it will keep traces out!
@@CollinBaillie Coolness! I never noticed that before!
You can make a pad in multiple ways. I'd put a test point in the schematic and select a pad or thruhole pad for the footprint.
Then on the pcb, select the footprint and 'edit' it. In there you can open the footprint pad editor & change the diameter, soldermask etc.
Probably something worth doing a video on when I get the chance.
@@JohnsBasement I did find a video showing how to remove solder mask. I'll have to try it. th-cam.com/video/TmriDK7Jpes/w-d-xo.html
@@CollinBaillie if you want to just remove the mask then fine. If you want a pad to solder onto then making a hole in the mask to reveal something might be ok. But if the copper revealed is big then it will be trouble heating up enough to solder it.... and if it is a wire you are attaching, you'll want a thru-hole so you don't inadvertently pull off the copper.
If you use the remove mask method to attach a wire then at least put on a via with a reasonable diameter thru-hole in case you need one.
How do I set the parameters so that I don't have to keep changing the size of the vias and track widths when I add a new ones?
In PcbNew (the board editor), click on the 'Board Setup' icon (the green one upper send-to-the-left... it looks exactly like the the international symbol for WTF is this button supposed to do?). It will open a set of forms that lets you edit things like the default, max, and min values for tracks, vias, etc.
I regret never having done a video on how to use it. But now that the spring semester is wrapping up, maybe I'll have time to do one.
@@JohnsBasement Somehow it is not saving the data I entered.
@@Berghiker This makes no sense. Maybe you have values in the defaults outside the range of the limits?
@@JohnsBasement The changes need to be made in net classes, not tracks and vias.
@@Berghiker not on line right now... But look closely. One is likely limits and the other (that looks like a spreadsheet table) is the defaults.
Thank you very much!
Learned a few new tricks. Thank you.
Thanks! Is there any topic you'd like to hear mote about?
I would like to see a video on how to panelize a design with Kicad 5 including a way to easily snap a board away from the panel. Also, how to include a prototype area on a pcb that includes an array of interspersed through-hole and surface mount pads. Both ideas should be doable by the popular offshore pcb fabs typically advertised on TH-cam.
Thank you for asking.
Gary Jenson
Gary, I have yet to create any panels for any of my projects. (My professional work has focused on large PCBs that didn;t need panels and my hobby work of one-offs have yet to need one).
All is not lost, however. I can see that a talk is scheduled at KiCon 2019 by Piotr Esden-Tempski that will be recorded and made available. I expect that to be enlightening to both of us!
Scroll about 2/3 down this page: kicad-kicon.com/talks/
Thank you for the link. I will definitely check it out.