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

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Time Narration


00.01 Welcome to the spoken tutorial on “Designing circuit schematic in Kicad”
00.08 Let us now see the steps involved in PCB designing
00.12 First step is to create schematic for the desired circuit.
00.16 Second step is to generate netlist.
00.19 Third step is to map components with corresponding footprints.
00.22 And fourth step is to create board layout for the circuit.
00.27 In this tutorial we will learn first step, that is,
00.32 Creating a schematic for the desired circuit.


00.35 We are using Ubuntu 12.04 as the operating system.
00.40 With KiCad version 2011 hyphen 05 hyphen 25 for this tutorial.



00.49 Basic knowledge of electronic circuits is a pre-requisite for this tutorial.
00.56 We will use Astable multivibrator as an example circuit for this tutorial.
01.04 To start KiCad,
01.05 Go to top left corner of ubuntu desktop screen.
01.08 Click on first icon i.e the Dash home.
01.12 In the search bar type 'KiCad', and press Enter.
01.19 KiCad main window will appear on the screen.
01.22 Note that in Ubuntu 12.04, the menu bar of KiCad appears on the top panel of Ubuntu desktop.
01.30 To start a new project, click on File and then click on New.
01.35 Give a name to your project. For example, project1.
01.42 Note that project is getting saved with .pro extension
01.47 Let me resize this window for better view


01.52 Notice where your project is getting saved and change the directory if needed.
01.58 Click on Save.
02.01 Circuit schematics are made in KiCad using EESchema.
02.06 Let me show you how to start EESchema in KiCad.
02.10 The first tab in the top panel of KiCad main window is called as EESchema or schematic editor
02.19 Clicking on EESchema tab opens the schematic editor.
02.23 An Info dialog box will appear saying it cannot find the schematic.
02.28 Click on Ok.
02.32 We will create circuit schematics here.
02.35 Go to right panel of EESchema window.
02.38 click on Place a component button.
02.42 Now click on the blank EESchema window.
02.46 The component selection window will open up.
02.49 Now we will place 555 timer IC schematic in the EESchema window.
02.56 In the Name field of component selection window, type 555 and click on Ok.
03.05 It will show the search result as LM555N.
03.11 Select this result and click on OK.
03.14 The component’s schematic will appear on the EESchema window.
03.19 It would be tied to your cursor.
03.22 Place the component at the center of the screen by a single click.
03.27 To zoom in and out for better view use the scroll button of your mouse.
03.35 Keep Cursor on Component which you want to zoom in and zoom out.
03.39 You can also use F1 and F2 keys to zoom in and zoom out, respectively.
03.46 You may or may not see the VCC and GND i.e. the ground terminal on the 555 IC.
03.56 If you do not see it, go to the left panel of EESchema window.
04.00 Click on the Show hidden pins button.



04.04 Now we will place a resistor in the EESchema window.
04.09 The Place a component option was previously selected by us.
04.13 Hence, simply click on EESchema and you will see the component selection window.
04.21 In the name field, type r and click on OK.
04.26 Resistor schematic will appear on EESchema which will be tied to cursor.
04.32 Place the resistor somewhere on the EESchema by a single click
04.37 We need two more resistors.
04.39 We can get the two resistors using the Place a component button.
04.42 But since we already have a resistor, let us see how to copy a component.
04.48 To copy a component, right click on the component and choose Copy Component.
05.01 A copy of the component will be tied to your cursor.
05.05 Place this resistor somewhere on EESchema by a single click.
05.11 This can also be done more quickly using the keyboard shortcut c.


05.16 For this, keep the cursor on the component and then press c.
05.22 Again it will be tied to your cursor.
05.27 Click once to place it.
05.30 A list of shortcuts can be obtained by pressing Shift and ? (question mark) key.
05.36 Here is the list of keyboard shortcuts.
05.40 Close this window.
05.43 Click on EESchema window to open the component selection window.
05.49 Next we need two capacitors, electrolytic and ceramic.
05.53 Type cp1 to add electrolytic capacitor and click OK.
06.00 Type c to add ceramic capacitor and click OK.
06.06 We also need a Light Emitting Diode, know as LED.
06.10 In component selection window type led and click on OK.
06.17 Now we need a power supply i.e.Vcc and Ground terminals.


06.22 On the right panel of EESchema, click on Place a power port button.
06.29 Click once on the EESchema to open the component selection window.
06.34 Click on List All button and you will see a list of various power notations.
06.40 Choose +5V (plus 5 volt) and click on OK.
06.48 Place the component by single click on the EESchema window
06.52 Similarly, to get the ground terminal,
06.54 choose ground from the list and click on OK
07.01 Let me choose the ground terminal
07.08 We also need a connector to connect the external power supply
07.14 Click on the EESchema to open the component selection window.
07.19 Click on List All button and you will see a list.
07.24 Choose conn option and click on OK.
07.31 Scroll down and choose CONN_2 from the list and click on OK.


07.41 A two terminal connector will appear. It will be tied to your mouse pointer
07.48 Click once to place it.
07.56 Now we will arrange the components, by moving them to appropriate places.
08.01 We will use the shortcut key m for moving the components.
08.04 To move a component, keep the mouse pointer on a component, say resistor, and then press m.
08.15 We will place this resistor to the right of IC 555 by a single click on the EESchema.
08.28 We will use the keyboard shortcut key r for rotating the LED and aligning it vertically.
08.40 Now we will see how to interconnect or wire the components as per the circuit diagram.
08.45 Let us start with the interconnection of components.
08.48 On right panel of EESchema, Click on Place a wire button.
08.56 We will now interconnect two resistors.
08.58 We will connect wire by clicking on either nodes of both the resistors.
09.11 Now we will connect the 7th pin of IC 555 to the wire connecting the two resistor.
09.18 Click on the 7th pin of IC 555 and then on the wire connecting the two resistors.
09.30 Notice that this will automatically form a junction which appears as a node.
09.35 I have already interconnected the components and saved it.
09.39 I will now open and use this already made schematic to save time.
09.44 I will go to file menu & click on open.
09.53 A Confirmation window opens. Click on Yes.
10.04 I will choose project1.sch from the desired directory.
10.18 Let me resize this window first .
10.22 and then I will click on open.
10.29 I will click on open.
10.33 Here is the schematic created earlier.
10.36 We would now see how to annotate components.
10.39 Annotation gives unique identification to each component.
10.43 Annotating will replace the question marks on the components with unique numbers.


10.50 On top panel of EESchema, Click on “Annotate schematic” button.
10.58 This will open the Annotate Schematic window.
11.02 In this window, keep the default configuration.
11.05 Click on the Annotation Button.
11.09 This will warn you that it will annotate only the un-annotate components.
11.13 Click on OK.
11.15 Click on the Close button on the Annotate schematic window.
11.20 Notice that the question marks on the components are replaced with unique numbers.
11.30 Click on File
11.37 and choose Save whole schematic project to save this schematic.
11.43 Click on File and choose Quit.
11.48 This will close the EESchema window.
11.50 Now go to KiCad main window.


11.53 Click on File and choose Quit
11.56 This completes the objective of this tutorial of creating circuit schematic in KiCad.
12.01 Let us summarize what we learnt in this tutorial
12.05 In this tutorial we learnt,
12.07 To use EESchema in KiCad for creating circuit schematic


12.11 Annotation of circuit schematic.
12.15 Try the following Assignment,
12.17 Place component Inductor on EESchema using component selection window.
12.24 Explore shortcut keys a, x and y
12.31 Watch the video available at the following link
12.35 It summarises the Spoken Tutorial project
12.37 If you do not have good bandwidth, you can download and watch it
12.43 The Spoken Tutorial Project Team
12.45 Conducts workshops using spoken tutorials
12.48 Gives certificates for those who pass an online test
12.52 For more details, please write to contact at spoken hyphen tutorial dot org
12.59 Spoken Tutorial Project is a part of the Talk to a Teacher project
13.03 It is supported by the National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD, Government of India
13.09 More information on this Mission is available at
13.13 spoken hyphen tutorial dot org slash NMEICT hyphen Intro
13.20 This script has been contributed by Abhishek & Rupak
13.25 This is Rupak Rokade from IIT Bombay, signing off. Thanks for joining.

Contributors and Content Editors

Krupali, PoojaMoolya, Pratik kamble, Sakinashaikh, Sandhya.np14