I am an extreme noob in KiCad, basically I learned what I know as I went along trial and error, making a board for the ZX Spectrum. I have already bought a couple of these boards off PCBWay and they woek flawlessly, although I would make a couple of small changes myself for personal taste, mainly change the switches for DIP switches, and the spacing of the holes of the cap, as all the caps I have come with a wider stance. But this video is fantastic, as it's the best I've seen on KiCad, as you explain it very simply and is easy to understand. I'm using KiCad 7 so a few things are a little different, but I now know what I'm looking for. My main issues was making edge connectors, and I didn't know how to fill in the ground plane, and it answered both those queries I had very quickly!! Thank you for your time in making these videos and in sharing the boards!!
@@iNimbleSloth I have 2 built so far, one with Pitfall!, Centipede, Frogger and Choplifter!, and the other with Jack Attack, Battlezone, H.E.R.O. and Moon Patrol. Jack Attack is a game I used to play a lot back in the 80's on my old Plus/4, and one of the few games my father would play!! Both of these I have the EPROM soldered directly to the socket as I think it looks much cleaner, and I'm waiting for more EPROMs to arrive. I also made a third one with an empty socket which is what I ise to test the EPROMs on the C64 before soldering them permanently to a board. I only have 5 in total, as I got a small order to try them out, but I don't know if I will order more, or make a variation with the small changes I mentioned before, but if I do, I won't share the project, as I don't want to take away from the work you put in and your share benefits. I've only made one board so far, which is an internal Kempston interface for the ZX Spectrum, which goes into the CPU socket and the CPU plugs into the new board, but it doesn't have any ground planes done or anything, just traces, as I didn't know until now how to do it. I made it for my ZX Spectrum Plus to fit an internal joystick port om the side, instead of using an expansion interface. Last night I designed an adapter board to use an AY-3-8910 sound chip in the olace of the much more expensive AY-3-8912 sound chip on the Superfo Harlequin 128K that I'm building, but it's not ordered yet, and I plan to add the ground plane to that now I know how. The edge connector I needed to learn to make an NES cartridge for things like Zelda homebrew games, which I have the schematics done with CIC and mapper alternatives, but I haven't started on designing the board layout yet.
Let's check ERC to make sure there are no errors; 1 listed.... Great, no errors and moving on. Wait, what? Looks great, couldn't stop watching even though I've already made the obligatory cartridge some time back. You make it look easy 😀
haha, must have been a long day that day. Great spot! I just opened the PCB layout and re-ran the ERC, yes one error! I need to pay more attention! Luckily it was only the top layer most right connection on the edge connector which is one of the many GND connections, so electrically it is still connected through all of the other GND pins. Thanks for the feedback. I'm working on another PCB video, so will double-check this time 😉😉
So far so good, but I can’t say I’ve used the cartridge a lot. I tend to use my Pi1541 or Ultimate64 and USB. However, the edge connector seems on par with the edge connector on a ZX Spectrum motherboard.
With this awesome tutorial, I was able to make a Master System Edge connector. Excellent, and really thorough. Loved it!
I am an extreme noob in KiCad, basically I learned what I know as I went along trial and error, making a board for the ZX Spectrum. I have already bought a couple of these boards off PCBWay and they woek flawlessly, although I would make a couple of small changes myself for personal taste, mainly change the switches for DIP switches, and the spacing of the holes of the cap, as all the caps I have come with a wider stance.
But this video is fantastic, as it's the best I've seen on KiCad, as you explain it very simply and is easy to understand. I'm using KiCad 7 so a few things are a little different, but I now know what I'm looking for. My main issues was making edge connectors, and I didn't know how to fill in the ground plane, and it answered both those queries I had very quickly!!
Thank you for your time in making these videos and in sharing the boards!!
Thanks for the feedback. Great to hear my videos helped you out. Keep KiCADing 👍🏼 Which games did you add to the boards you purchased from PCBWay?
@@iNimbleSloth I have 2 built so far, one with Pitfall!, Centipede, Frogger and Choplifter!, and the other with Jack Attack, Battlezone, H.E.R.O. and Moon Patrol. Jack Attack is a game I used to play a lot back in the 80's on my old Plus/4, and one of the few games my father would play!! Both of these I have the EPROM soldered directly to the socket as I think it looks much cleaner, and I'm waiting for more EPROMs to arrive. I also made a third one with an empty socket which is what I ise to test the EPROMs on the C64 before soldering them permanently to a board.
I only have 5 in total, as I got a small order to try them out, but I don't know if I will order more, or make a variation with the small changes I mentioned before, but if I do, I won't share the project, as I don't want to take away from the work you put in and your share benefits.
I've only made one board so far, which is an internal Kempston interface for the ZX Spectrum, which goes into the CPU socket and the CPU plugs into the new board, but it doesn't have any ground planes done or anything, just traces, as I didn't know until now how to do it. I made it for my ZX Spectrum Plus to fit an internal joystick port om the side, instead of using an expansion interface. Last night I designed an adapter board to use an AY-3-8910 sound chip in the olace of the much more expensive AY-3-8912 sound chip on the Superfo Harlequin 128K that I'm building, but it's not ordered yet, and I plan to add the ground plane to that now I know how. The edge connector I needed to learn to make an NES cartridge for things like Zelda homebrew games, which I have the schematics done with CIC and mapper alternatives, but I haven't started on designing the board layout yet.
Thank you for this wonderful tutorial series! Im working on a personal project that turns a usb drive into an edge connecting cartridge
Let's check ERC to make sure there are no errors; 1 listed.... Great, no errors and moving on. Wait, what?
Looks great, couldn't stop watching even though I've already made the obligatory cartridge some time back. You make it look easy 😀
haha, must have been a long day that day. Great spot! I just opened the PCB layout and re-ran the ERC, yes one error! I need to pay more attention! Luckily it was only the top layer most right connection on the edge connector which is one of the many GND connections, so electrically it is still connected through all of the other GND pins. Thanks for the feedback. I'm working on another PCB video, so will double-check this time 😉😉
Been looking for a video on how to make card edge connectors possible in kicad, this is excellent!
Thanks, glad to hear it helped! If you didn’t watch Part 1 already, do check it out as it shows how to make the symbol in KiCad Eeschema.
Great Job! I am learning so much. Been wanting to learn KiCad for a long time! Thanx!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it. What projects do you have in mind?
Just finished your cart last night. Have a bunch of userport projects that I hand wired on perfboard that I can now make real PCBs for.
Great videos for learning how to make a cartridge and use kicad...
Thanks! Do you plan on making a C64 cartridge or do you have another retro computer in mind?
6.0 now has 'edge connector' type pads.
37:04 "Great, no errors". Yet it clearly shows "Unconnected Items (1)".
Why do you want paste on the edge connector?
Thanks for you feedback. Only reason I went this way is cost, cheaper than ENIPIG or a heavier weight of copper without HASL.
@@iNimbleSloth so your card edge is tinned with solder? That wasn't clear.
@@GigsVT yes, that's correct.
@@iNimbleSloth thank you. I'm designing a card edge now and your video was helpful
How well did the HASL contacts hold up over time?
So far so good, but I can’t say I’ve used the cartridge a lot. I tend to use my Pi1541 or Ultimate64 and USB. However, the edge connector seems on par with the edge connector on a ZX Spectrum motherboard.
@@iNimbleSloth Awesome thanks~