Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 13 replies
  • Subscribers 124 subscribers
  • Views 7361 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Symbols and footprint support for Arduino in KiCad 7.x

colporteur

I've encountered some Design Rules Checker warning messages when creating a PCB, that appear to be related to the libraries provided at https://github.com/Alarm-Siren/arduino-kicad-library . I'm wondering if members have any experience using the libraries provided at this link.

image

The libraries appear to be the official support for the Arduino. I used the Arduino_Mega2560_R3_shield footprint on a test PCB without adding any components and received the same warnings.

image

This is the first time I have used these libraries. I followed the install instructions at the site and also tried installing the libraries manually. I get the warning no matter how they are installed. I noticed some anomalies when I looked closer at the templates. The lines highlight some of them. (i.e. there are a few orphaned D0's). These appear to be what DRC is complaining about.

Since I haven't used these libraries before I curious if anyone can share their experience.

Parents

  • Hi Colporteur,

    I am the creator of this library, and I'm sorry that you have had trouble with it.

    From what I can see, some of your warnings are unrelated to the library - the only four I can replicate are the Text Thickness warnings. These are not errors per se, the minimum silkscreen thickness is configurable in the DRC settings. It just so happens that the default minimum silkscreen thickness in the DRC settings in Kicad 7 is larger than I use in the library. This is something that I missed in my testing and I apologise: I have raised a bug and will endeavour to fix this in the next release of the library (see: https://github.com/Alarm-Siren/arduino-kicad-library/issues/93). However, as a temporary measure, it is very easy for you to fix yourself - you can update the label's text thickness, or you can change the DRC settings so it won't complain. Alternatively, you can safely ignore these warnings if you prefer.

    Though I don't know why they are in the positions they are - perhaps you moved them? - the D0s are deliberate and are originally placed to mark the 'D0' pin on the footprint, for orientation and troubleshooting purposes. There is no reason why these would generate any warnings (beyond the text thickness issue already mentioned), and do not do so in my testing.

    As to the replacement of the symbol with an updated version that moved the voltage pins around, I'm sorry that this caused you some consternation. However, this was an improvement applied to all the symbols in version 3.0.0 back in Feburary, and clearly documented in the release notes for that version (see: https://github.com/Alarm-Siren/arduino-kicad-library/releases/tag/v3.0.0). Additionally, the library uses semantic versioning such that when the major number increments (e.g. from v2.x.x to v3.x.x, as happened in this case) this is a signal to the user that breaking changes have been implemented.

    For the future, if you're having a problem with someone's library on GitHub, the best place to get help is in the bug tracker of the library itself (in this case of this library, here: https://github.com/Alarm-Siren/arduino-kicad-library/issues), as mentioned in the README file. Posting about the problem in a totally unrelated forum, which I only came across by pure chance, and being quite rude about something I work very hard to maintain for free, is not helpful either for you or for me. I'm only human, and I make mistakes as everyone does, but if people don't tell me about those mistakes how am I supposed to fix them?

    As Shabaz said, and for the avoidance of doubt, no the library is not created by nor affiliated with Arduino in any way (as stated in the README file), and the library is provided as-is without any warranty of any kind - you use it at your own risk. That being said, aside from the occassional niggle, I am confident in the quality of my work: I've personally used many of the footprints in my own designs without issue, and all of them are verified against official Arduino documentation. I do all of this, for free, to give back to the community, because I feel like being helpful.

  • in reply to alarmsiren

    Thanks for providing the info and updating your library. Nice to see people maintaining their content. By the way I dont think anyone meant to offend or criticize (although engineers nature/spirit is to enjoy picking holes even if the holes are tiny).

    I believe we just assumed at the time there could be any small problem, and just tried to fix using whatever quick methods were available. A lot of beginners will be unfamiliar with using GitHub for raising problem reports and might feel more comfortable asking those they know (e.g. on a forum). It would have been good to notify you, but I think we just assumed it was some minor issue at the time with CAD versions etc and sometimes its just quicker to self-solve in any way and raising the report gets sometimes forgotten : (

Reply
  • in reply to alarmsiren

    Thanks for providing the info and updating your library. Nice to see people maintaining their content. By the way I dont think anyone meant to offend or criticize (although engineers nature/spirit is to enjoy picking holes even if the holes are tiny).

    I believe we just assumed at the time there could be any small problem, and just tried to fix using whatever quick methods were available. A lot of beginners will be unfamiliar with using GitHub for raising problem reports and might feel more comfortable asking those they know (e.g. on a forum). It would have been good to notify you, but I think we just assumed it was some minor issue at the time with CAD versions etc and sometimes its just quicker to self-solve in any way and raising the report gets sometimes forgotten : (

Children
No Data