How To Use KiCad to Make a Printed Circuit Board: Part 1
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- Опубликовано: 28 июн 2024
- Welcome to the first Skinny Research and Development Tutorial! In this episode I'll teach you how to use the schematic (Eeschema) portion of KiCad to layout a circuit design. This is very much a beginners level tutorial.
LM386 Schematic: skinnyrd.com/how-to-use-kicad-... 
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Eagle's switch to subscription has me switching to KiCad and these videos are truly helpful. The Hierarchical nature of KiCad is a beautiful thing indeed.
Best one to get started with KiCad
Thanks. Didn't know KiCad existed yesterday. Now I have my first schematic. On to next video.
+SHORTMOVEES Glad it was helpful!
Great tutorial, as ever. Seems Circuit Wizard is more user friendly, especially selecting components. Love to see you so a video tutorial on that
Hey thank you so much for your videos definitely going to help me get a good job
Thanks for the video, very useful.
I had to make PCB using KiCad few days ago. It was first time i saw the program :D But i did the job after watching all three videos.
Great videos for first time users :) Not to much information to blow your head of :D but exactly the few tips to get the job done.
+External HDD Thanks! I was hoping the videos would give people a quick way to get started with KiCad. Glad they helped you!
Very helpful video. Thanks.
mtsupp You're very welcome. Glad it was helpful.
Thanks for this. It's just what we need for our development group. Can I upload this video to our Facebook group with attribution?
Hi, thank you for the video series! You mentioned some special steps to do at 7:09. If you could do a video about those special steps, that would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
pentekimi I'm glad you found the series helpful. I'll be getting back to making videos in a couple of weeks. I've been putting the finishing touches on another project. I'll be sure to make a video to address your concerns.
Hey Skinny Great series. Its an old one so hope you get this. Question: Trying to put some pins on a board that will accept an inverted Arduino mega2560. you know, clip it down to feed off to term. blocks, ICs etc. When I drop a Header on the board should the pin centers line up with the dimensions of the Arduino or the centers of the "block" for the CNC to drill? Cheers
So I don't work with arduinos on a daily basis, so I don't know if each drill hole is lined up exactly with the header above it. Also, I've not worked with those headers yet for my own projects, so I just don't know. Find as many datasheets with dimensions as you can and rely on your micrometer. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
So much more 'User friendly' than V5
I don't have the select by browser option in choose components in my popup window..
DIL8 not available in current release!
My only suggestion as an EE for almost 20 years is to never represent a component by its footprint in a schematic, you always use the circuit representation ;)
Thanks for the tip. I have a couple questions: 1) Why does it matter? and 2) What do you do if you can't find a circuit representation for the component in the library? Do you usually make one from scratch?
Skinny R&D 1) it matters mostly because an LM386 is an OP-AMP, you drew it as if it could be any component on the planet that connects via 8 pins. Whoever looks at your schematic (including you years later) would not immediately know what your circuit does. 2) Yes, if you look at people/companies who does a lot of PCB designs, 90% of the libraries are drawn by them. They invest as much time in library design as they do in layout. That is why companies like Altium offer the "Vault" service for companies to store their libraries.
mjkulikow Cool. Thanks again!
mjkulikow I completely agree. It doesn't matter in a simple circuit with a single IC although it is better to use the right schematic representation, but in anything more complex it gets really horrible really fast. Imagine someone else had drawn the same circuit using 2 pin connector symbols for every resistor and capacitor and you saw it and had to guess what it was.
I am curious as to what the problem is that you mentioned with using the LM386 symbol is in KiCAD though. Maybe you say later in this video, I haven't got to the end yet.
I use cadsoft eagle generally and I make my own library parts all the time, it's as simple as drawing a part, importing some standard footprints and pairing them up once in the library so that you can choose on every future project. That software also has a very poor interface though (I'm looking for something better, that's why I'm here.). I've tried altium designer although I could never afford to buy it. It is powerful and relatively well designed but its got so many advanced features it's difficult to see the wood for the trees.
If I was designing a schematic capture software, I'd have things like move, name, value etc as F1-12 keys, Ctrl+C,V,X for copy paste cut, be able to group items so that any action is applied to the group until they're ungrouped, right click on a name edits the name in place, same with the value, drag a component moves it, drag select simply selects without having to click a "group" button, be able to batch rename components so that for example all the resistors are renumbered sequentially from top left to bottom right without gaps rather than with the order I entered them and deleted parts etc, have a tool to duplicate a schematic selection as well as the associated board layout etc. These are all things eagle does badly or not at all and it looks like kicad does differently but not better. I'd definitely keep eagle's library system though, A good library item with things like pinswap and gateswap working well is priceless. OK gone a bit off topic there...
I also would like to know what the Kicad problem is with the LM386 as I just purchased a handful of them.
Am a newbie looking for a video on how to solder a lm386 circuit onto a circuit board. Have you done this or know of a video that demonstrates this. Txs
M Olson Do you just want a video to show you how to solder in general or are you looking for a video to show you how to solder an 8-pin chip like an LM386. If you are afraid of getting the chip too hot with the soldering iron, I would use an 8-pin socket. Solder the socket onto the circuit board and then place the chip into the socket. You can find a socket here: @821740
Skinny R&D Thanks for getting back to me. I'm completely new to this and haven't a clue on how to solder onto a circuit board. I've seen videos on a bread board but haven't seen one on soldering it together on a circuit board. I'm trying to build a small guitar amp, using the lm386. any help would be appreciated.
M Olson So I can't guarantee that I'll get to this soon, but I'll try to put together something for you in the next month.
when becomes it necessary to fill up a layer with copper??
If you would like to have ground readily accessible instead of running lots of traces, it comes in handy.
yeah...thank u boss!
I'm facing very much problem while connecting resistors and capacitors
what should i do now?
It's pretty impressive how little actual material you managed to cover in 16 minutes.
GoatZilla Thanks. Hahaha. Have a great day!
+GoatZilla Video is excellent if you see KiCad for first time
Downloaded KiCad today from kicad-pcb.org/download/windows/. When clicking kicad-product-4.0.1-x86_64.exe, got a big red dialog box and the message "Windows has identified this file as malware. Running this file might risk the safety of your PC and personal data". I am running on Windows 10. Has anyone else seen this behavior? Thanks.
Thanks for the great videos.
+Paul Comitz I just downloaded the same file this weekend and did not have a problem. I also have Windows 10. Hopefully someone else can be more helpful.
Better use Altium Designer
What's with the lag?
+Matthew Ferrie Old computer and free recording software.
+Skinny R&D Ok
What I don't understand is that KiCAD is open source, it has plenty of users, they're the sort of smart people who might know how to code as well as knowing what an intuitive interface should be like.. so why has it got such a clunky, unintuitive nasty interface that makes a very simple circuit a marathon to turn into a PCB?
Because a lot of these people are stuck in their ways.
+KX36 To me KiCad feels the most intuitive.
kids cat!