Electrical – Creating a new library: Pin association to footprints [Kicad 4.0.2]

footprintkicadlibrary

I'm trying to create a library for Lipo battery connectors. I started with the most common connector XT60. I drew the schematic, and then drew the footprints. On Eeschema, I can connect my XT60 to other components without a problem, even I can assign XT60 footprint to it on CvPCB. However, on PCB, no connection is created.

What exactly do I miss? Apparently it's a very essential part, but I couldn't just extract the necessary source from the internet. Thank you for your help in advance.

Best Answer

As you can see from the schematic screenshot, your signals are not connected to the battery. The small boxes indicates it. Running the ERC may warn about it.

My guess is that you are trying to draw without using a grid, or you're using something other than the default, mixing different grids.

All the pins in the schematic editor must be aligned to a 100 mil grid, so that they are compatible with each other.

Another reason, as the user himself points out in a comment, could be that the pins are actually flipped - you can only connect a signal to one end. This is difficult, if not impossible, to spot in the editor.

Related Solutions

Electronic – Importing component library on Kicad

It turns out I have to activate the library I want to use. Merely adding the library to my search path is not sufficient [1].

[1] https://forum.kicad.info/t/importing-component-library/574

Electronic – Wrong footprints in KiCad

When you chose the transistor for a package, there were a number of different options that had names like this:

Q_PNP_BCE
Q_PNP_BEC
Q_PNP_ECB
Q_PNP_EBC
Q_PNP_CBE
Q_PNP_CEB

These are the pin orderings, the last three letters correspond to pins 1, 2 and 3.

You chose a BCE version, which means the base is pin 1, the collector is pin 2 and the emitter is pin 3. These pins correspond to the pins on the footprint.

Unfortunately, for most packages, the pin numbers are NOT fixed to certain parts of the transistor. You can find TO3 transistors where the case is connected to the emitter or where the case is connected to the collector. This is why KICAD allows you to choose the pinout of your transistor when you put it in the schematic.

If you change the schematic symbol for the transistor, then the pins will be correct.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Electronic – Importing component library on Kicad

Electronic – Wrong footprints in KiCad

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