KiCad/C2/Designing-circuit-schematic-in-KiCad/English

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Title of script: Designing circuit schematic in KiCad

Author: Abhishek and Rupak

Keywords: video tutorial, schematic, Electronics


Visual Cue
Narration
Show slide Dear Friends,

Welcome to the spoken tutorial on “Designing circuit schematic in Kicad

Show slide Let us now see the steps involved in PCB designing
Show slide First step is to create schematic for the desired circuit.
Show slide Second step is to generate netlist.
Show slide Third step is to map components with corresponding footprints.
Show slide And fourth step is to create board layout for the circuit.
Show slide In this tutorial we will learn first step, that is,

Creating a schematic for the desired circuit.

Show slide We are using Ubuntu 12.04 as the operating system.

With KiCad version 2011 hyphen 05 hyphen 25 for this tutorial.

Show slide Basic knowledge of electronic circuits is a pre-requisite for this tutorial.
Show slide We will use Astable multivibrator as an example circuit for this tutorial.
(Go to 'Dash home' write Kicad and press Enter) To start KiCad,

Go to top left corner of ubuntu desktop screen.

Click on first icon (i.e) Dash home.

In the search bar type 'KiCad', and press Enter.


KiCad main window will appear on the screen

Hover mouse over KiCad's top pannel Note that in Ubuntu 12.04, the menu bar for KiCad appears on the top panel of Ubuntu desktop.



click on File and then click on New To start a new project, click on File and then click on New.



Type project1 Give a name to your project. For example, project1.



hover mouse over extenison .pro Note that project is getting saved with .pro extension


Let me resize this window for better view


Notice where your project is getting saved and change the directory if needed.

Click on Save. Click on Save.
Hover your mouse to the first tab Circuit schematics are made in KiCad using EESchema.


Let me show you how to start EESchema in KiCad.

The first tab in the top panel of KiCad main window is called as EESchema or schematic editor

Click EESchema Clicking on EESchema tab opens the schematic editor.
Click on OK


hover over drawing area

An Info dialog box will appear saying it cannot find the schematic.

Click on Ok.


We will create circuit schematic here.

click on Place a component button Go to right panel of EESchema window.


click on Place a component button.

Now click on the blank EESchema window. Now click on the blank EESchema window.
The component selection window will open up.
Now we will place 555 timer IC schematic in the EESchema window.
Type 555 and click on OK In the Name field of component selection window, type 555 and click on Ok.
Click on LM555 and then click on OK It will show the search result as LM555N.


Select this result and click on Ok.


The component’s schematic will appear on the EESchema window.

It would be tied to your coursor.

click in centre of the drawing area Place the component at the center of the screen by a single click.
Keep coursor on component and scroll To zoom in and out for better view use the scroll button of your mouse.


You can also use F1 and F2 keys to zoom in and zoom out, respectively.Keep cursor on component which you want to zoom in and out.

Hover over show/do not show hidden pins You may or may not see the VCC and GND i.e. the ground terminal on the 555 IC.


If you do not see it, go to the left panel of EESchema window.

Click on the Show hidden pins button.

click on EESchema Now we will place a resistor in the EESchema window.


The Place a component option was previously selected by us.


Hence, simply click on EESchema and you will see the component selection window.



Type r and click on ok In the name field, type r and click on OK.


Resistor schematic will appear on EESchema which will be tied to cursor.

Click somewhere in the drawing area. Place the resistor somewhere on the EESchema by a single click
right click on resistor and choose Copy component. We need two more resistors.


We can get the two resistors using the Place a component button.


But since we already have a resistor, let us see how to copy a component.


To copy a component, right click on the component and choose Copy component.


A copy of the component will be tied to coursor

Click on EESchema Place this resistor somewhere on EESchema by a single click.
keep the coursor on the component and then press c. This can also be done more quickly using the keyboard shortcut c.


For this, keep the coursor on the component and then press c.

Click on EESchema Again it will be tied to the coursor.


Click once to place it.

Press shift button and '?' simultaneously. A list of shortcuts can be obtained by pressing Shift and ?.
Show the list Here is the list of keyboard shortcuts.
Click close(X) close this window.
Click on EESchema Click on EESchema window to open component selection window.


Next we need two capacitors, electrolytic and ceramic.



Type cp1 and press enter Type cp1 to add electrolytic capacitor and click OK.
Click on EESchema.


Type c and press enter

Type c to add ceramic capacitor and click OK.
Click on EESchema.


Type led and press enter

We also need a Light Emitting Diode, know as LED.


In component selection window type led and click on OK



Click on “Place a power port” button Now we need a power supply i.e.Vcc and Ground terminals.


On the right panel of EESchema, click on Place a power port button.

Click on EESchema.


Click once on the EESchema to open the component selection window.
Click on list all button Click on list all button and you will see a list of various power notations.
Click on +5V and click on Ok. Choose +5V and click on Ok.
Click on EESchema. Place the component by single click on the EESchema window
Clkick on gnd and click OK Similarly, to get the ground terminal,

choose gnd from the list and click on OK


Let me choose the ground terminal

Click on EESchema. We also need a connector to connect the external power supply


Click once on the EESchema to open the component selection window.

Click on list all button Click on list all button and you will see a list of various power notations.
Choose conn option and click on OK Choose conn option and click on OK
choose CONN_2 and click on OK Scroll down and choose CONN_2 from the list and click on OK
Click on EESchema A two terminal connector will appear. It will be tied to your mouse pointer


Click once to place it.

Keep cursor on resistor and press m Now we will arrange the components, by moving them to appropriate places.


We will use the keyboard shortcut key m for moving the components.


To move a component, keep the coursor on a component, say resistor, and then press m.

Click on EESchema. We will place this resistor to the right of IC 555 by a single click on the EESchema.



keep the coursor on LED and then press r We will use the keyboard shortcut key r for rotating the LED and alligning it vertically.


To rotate a component, keep the coursor on a component and then press r.

Click on Place a wire button Now we will see how to interconnect or wire the components as per the circuit diagram.


Let us start with the interconnection of components.


On right panel of EESchema, Click on Place a wire button.

Click on either nodes of resistors We will now interconnect two resistors.


We will connect wire by clicking on either nodes of both the resistors.

Connect wire as directed Now we will connect the 7th pin of IC 555 to the wire connecting the two resistor.


Click on the 7th pin of IC 555 and then on the wire connecting the two resistors

Show the node Notice that this will automatically form a junction which appears as a node.
Go to file menu, click on open I have already interconnected the components and saved it.


I will now open and use this already made schematic to save time.


I will go to file menu, click on open.

Click on yes A confirmation window opens. Click on yes.
Open already created file I will choose project1.sch file from the desired directory and click on Open.


Let me resize the window


I will click on open

Show the schematic on EESchema Here is the schematic created earlier.


We would now see how to annotate components.


Annotation gives unique identification to each component.

Hover mouse over components and corresponding question marks. Annotation will replace the question marks on the components with unique numbers.
Click on “Annotate schematic” button On top panel of EESchema, Click on “Annotate schematic” button.


This will open the Annotate schematic window.


In this window, keep the default configuration.

Click on the Annotation Button. Click on the Annotation Button.


This will warn you that it will annotate only the un-annotated components.

Click on Ok. Click on Ok.
Click on Close button Click on the Close button on the Annotate schematic window.
Hover mouse over components in schematic Notice that the question marks on the components are replaced with unique numbers.
Click on File menu and then click on

Save whole schematic project

Click on File and choose Save whole schematic project to save this schematic.
Click on File and choose Quit Click on File and choose Quit.


This will close the EESchema window.

Click on File menu and then click on

Quit

Now go to KiCad main window.


Click on File and choose Quit


This completes the objective of this tutorial of creating circuit schematic in KiCad.

Show slide Let us summarize what we learnt in this tutorial.


In this tutorial we learnt,

To use EESchema in KiCad for creating circuit schematic


Annotation of circuit schematic.

Show slide Try the following Assignment,


Place component Inductor on EESchema using component selection window.


Explore shortcut keys a, x and y

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This script has been contributed by Abhishek & Rupak

This is Rupak Rokade from IIT Bombay, signing off. Thanks for joining.

Contributors and Content Editors

Chandrika, Pravin1389