KiCad/C2/Designing-printed-circuit-board-in-KiCad/English-timed

From Script | Spoken-Tutorial
Revision as of 12:58, 9 July 2014 by Pratik kamble (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search
Time Narration
00:01 Dear Friends,
00:02 Welcome to the spoken tutorial on Designing printed circuit board in KiCad.
00:07 In this tutorial we will learn,
00:09 To design printed circuit board in KiCad.
00:12 We are using Ubuntu 12.04 as the operating system.
00:16 With KiCad version: 2011 hyphen 05 hyphen 25 for this tutorial
00:25 Basic knowledge of electronic circuit is a prerequisite for this tutorial
00:30 The user should also know how to design circuit schematic in KiCad,
00:35 To do electric rule check ,
00:37 To do netlist generation,
00:39 To do mapping of components with footprints
00:43 For relevant tutorials, please visit http://spoken hyphen tutorial.org
00:50 To start KiCad
00:52 Go to the top left corner of Ubuntu desktop screen.
00:56 Click on the first icon (i.e)Dash home
01:01 In the search bar write KiCad and press Enter.
01:09 This will open KiCad main window.
01:12 To open EEschema, go to the top panel and Click on EEschema tab.
01:19 An info dialog box will appear which says that it cannot find the schematic.
01:25 Click on OK.
01:28 I will use the circuit schematic of Astable multivibrator which was created earlier.
01:35 To do this, I will go to the File menu, click on Open.
01:42 Choose the folder in which file is saved.
01:49 Select project1.sch and click Open.
01:56 I will resize the window.
02:00 So, now I will click on Open.
02:06 This will open the circuit schematic.
02:08 I will zoom in using the scroll button of the mouse.
02:13 We have already generated the netlist for this circuit,
02:16 and done mapping of components with corresponding footprints.
02:20 The next step is to create the printed circuit board layout.
02:26 To start with this, Click on Run PCBnew button located on the top panel of EEschema window.
02:36 This will open PCBnew window.
02:39 An info dialog box appears saying it did not find project1.brd
02:44 click on OK to close this dialog box.
02:49 Now you can import the footprints by clicking on Read netlist button on the top panel of PCBnew window.
02:57 Here the netlist window opens.
03:01 Keep all the default settings as it is.
03:03 Click on Browse netlist Files button.
03:07 This will open Select netlist window
03:13 I will now resize this window for better view.
03:20 Select project1.net file from desired directory and click on Open.
03:27 Click on Read Current Netlist button.
03:30 It will show warning saying project1.cmp not found.
03:35 Click on OK.
03:37 Now close netlist window by clicking on Close button.
03:42 You can see that all the footprints are imported and placed in top left corner in PCBnew window.
03:49 Now we need to place all footprints in centre of PCBnew window.
03:56 For this click on Manual and Automatic move and place of modules button located on the top panel of PCBnew window.
04:08 Now right click once in the centre of the PCBnew window.
04:14 Go to Glob Move and Place. Then click on Move All Modules.
04:22 This will open a Confirmation window. Click Yes.
04:28 I will zoom in with scroll button of my mouse for better view.
04:35 You may or may not see white wires connecting the terminals of footprints.
04:39 If you do not see them, click on Show or Hide board ratsnest button located on the left panel of PCBnew window.
04:51 White wires are also called as airwires.
04:55 Now we will arrange the modules such that minimum number of airwires cross each other.
05:01 Now right click on IC 555 footprint.
05:07 Go to Footprint options, and click on Move.
05:12 You can see that footprint is tied to cursor.
05:16 You can see that the component moves according to the grid displayed in the background.
05:25 Now click once to place the component wherever required. I am going to place it here.
05:33 It is possible to change the grid spacing using Grid options drop down menu on the top panel of PCBnew window.
05:44 For now, we will go ahead with the default value that is Grid 1.270.
05:53 For moving components you can also use the shortcut key M
05:58 For example, let me show you how to move the capacitor.
06:02 Point the cursor on capacitor.
06:05 Press M. The module will get tied to cursor. You can move it wherever required.
06:14 To place component click once.
06:17 To rotate component, Press R.
06:22 For example, let me rotate the resistor. Place the cursor on the resistor and press R.
06:29 Similarly you can arrange all the components.
06:32 I have already arranged footprints to get minimum intersection between airwires. This is shown here.


06:41 Now we need to convert these airwires in to actual tracks.
06:46 Under the Layer tab on the right side of the PCBnew window select Back layer if not selected. Back layer is represented by green colour.
07:01 Layer selected is pointed by small blue arrow.
07:06 For creating tracks, select Add tracks and vias button located on the right panel of PCBnew window.
07:17 Now let us click on one of the nodes of R1.
07:22 Then we will double-click on node of R2 where wire needs to be connected.
07:31 Similarly we will connect one more wire between Resistor R3 and capacitor C1.
07:38 Let us click on one of the nodes of R3.
07:41 Click once to change direction of wire.
07:46 Then we will double click on the node of C1 where wire needs to be connected.
07:51 The green track created represents actual copper path created on the printed circuit board.
07:59 It is also possible to change the track width.
08:02 This can be done by clicking on Design Rules menu option in the menu bar of PCBnew window.
08:11 Click on Design Rules.
08:14 Design Rules Editor will open where you can change the track width.


08:19 We will change the track width to 1.5. To do this double click on the value of Track Width. Type 1.5 and press Enter.
08:34 For creating the track, we could also use the X key on the keyboard.
08:39 Let me show this to you. Keep the cursor over one of the nodes of LED D1. press the key X.
08:48 Then we will double click on the node of R3 where wire needs to be connected.
08:54 You can see that the width of the track has increased. In this way you can complete the design of the board.
09:03 I have already completed the design for this board here.
09:08 Let me open the completed design board file.
09:19 We also need to draw the PCB edges for completing this design.
09:25 For this we need to select PCB Edges option from Layer tab on the right side of PCBnew window.
09:34 Now click on Add graphic line or polygon button located on the right panel of layout editor window.
09:44 Now let us create a rectangle around this Printed circuit Board.
09:49 Click on the Top left side of layout.
09:52 Move the cursor horizontally towards right.
09:56 Click once to change direction of line.
10:00 Move the cursor vertically downwards.
10:04 Similarly we can complete the rectangle.
10:11 Let me complete this rectangle.
10:16 End the rectangle by double clicking left mouse button.
10:24 Now let us click on File menu and click on the Save option. Please note that this file is saved with the extension .brd
10:38 This completes the board layout for Astable multivibrator circuit
10:44 In this tutorial we learnt to design printed circuit board in KiCad using PCBnew.
10:50 Watch the video available at the following link
10:54 It summarises the Spoken Tutorial project
10:56 If you do not have good bandwidth, you can download and watch it
11:00 The Spoken Tutorial Project Team
11:03 Conducts workshops using spoken tutorials


11:06 Gives certificates for those who pass an online test
11:10 For more details, please write to contact at spoken hyphen tutorial dot org
11:15 Spoken Tutorial Project is a part of the Talk to a Teacher project
11:19 It is supported by the National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD, Government of India
11:25 More information on this Mission is available at
11:29 spoken hyphen tutorial dot org slash NMEICT hyphen Intro
11:35 This script has been contributed by Abhishek Pawar
11:38 This is Rupak Rokade from IIT Bombay, signing off. Thanks for joining.

Contributors and Content Editors

PoojaMoolya, Pratik kamble, Sandhya.np14