Symbol library missing?

[iosonofabio]

hi there and thanks for sharing your awesome design! I really like it!

I'd like to open and edit the design in kicad, but it does not seem to be able to find the schematic library for the keyboard parts. Could it be that it's missing from the repo?

Thank you for your time!

[MvEerd]

Hey, thanks for your interest, much appreciated!

I've just tried downloading the repo as zip and opened Wubbo.kicad_pro (in KiCad 8.0) and was able to open Wubbo.kicad_pcb and Wubbo.kicad_sch with seemingly no errors

Where are you getting the error and what does it say exactly? If it points to a specific library I'm happy to see if I have it locally and add it to the repo for you!

[iosonofabio]

Thank you for the quick reply!

I must be doing something wrong. The PCB does load but when I click on "Update PCB from Schematic" it throws a bunch of errors like this:

Cannot update SW15 (footprint 'kiboard_cache:PG13500-reversible' not found).

(17 errors in total, one per key I guess).

I tried to import the footprint from the same folder but still get the error.

If you could give me a tip in the right direction I'd really appreciate, apologies beforehand if it's a beginner mistake.

[MvEerd]

No worries!

Unchecking 'Replace footprints with those specified in the schematic' in the Update PCB from Schematic would get rid of the 17 errors you are seeing for the keys.
I thought there should be no need to Update the PCB from Schematic since when I open the PCB and the schematic side by side it already highlights the components I click in the schematic in the PCB view so it already seems up to date.

It would be good to add the footprint to the repository though so I just re-extracted it from the PCB and uploaded the kiboard_cache library here kiboard_cache.pretty.zip

By importing this library into your footprint editor, relaunching the PCB editor and trying to Update the PCB from Schematic again it should get rid of the error.
Another way is to import the footprint to any of your own libraries and double clicking the switch symbols in the schematic, there you can browse for the footprint you imported locally.

I will get this added to the repository or upload a library as a separate repo, thanks for the heads up!
Feel free to let me know if you're still getting stuck on this.

[iosonofabio]

Thank you, wow that was fast!

i got it to work both ways ;-)

now when I actually press Update PCB it comes up with 24 errors:

...
Error: U1 pad 44 not found in nRF52840_holyiot_18010.
Error: U1 pad 45 not found in nRF52840_holyiot_18010.
Error: J1 pad B9 not found in USB-C-12-Pin-MidMount.
Error: J1 pad B4 not found in USB-C-12-Pin-MidMount.
Error: J1 pad A9 not found in USB-C-12-Pin-MidMount.
Error: J1 pad B12 not found in USB-C-12-Pin-MidMount.
Error: J1 pad B1 not found in USB-C-12-Pin-MidMount.
Error: J1 pad A12 not found in USB-C-12-Pin-MidMount.

Not sure if that matters, it seems like perhaps the holyiot symbol is incomplete even though the PCB looks good

[MvEerd]

Going back through this I realize I actually made some changes like supporting hotswap without fully updating the schematic so I would be wary of the automatic updates KiCad does and look through them to see what it changed. I have not had the need to use this functionality at this stage of the project.

The Holyiot footprint comes from ebastler's library here https://github.com/ebastler/kicad-keyboard-parts.pretty (I may have manually removed the unused underside pads)
The UCB-C-12-Pin-MidMount comes from Keebio's parts library https://github.com/keebio/Keebio-Parts.pretty/blob/master/USB-C-12-Pin-MidMount.kicad_mod
I think importing those libraries would solve your other errors.

I will look into proper ways to include these footprints and libraries in the repository itself so it's all self-contained

[iosonofabio]

Thank you! It's already super useful as it is, but of course appreciate any improvements.

I'm playing around with the concept of a third thumb button which is why I'm bothering you. I got some homework to do now :-P

[iosonofabio]

hey @MvEerd, apologies for the barrage, I wonder if you soldered everything yourself or got a partial assembly from JLCPCB?

Looks like the holyiot, two LEDs, reset button, and J2-5 (plus obviously the switches) are not included in the CLP, and perhaps the schottky D3 and the USB port J1?

[MvEerd]

@iosonofabio No problem!
I never got around to build guide but see how that would have been useful here 🙃

v0.1 and v0.2 were hand soldered, v0.3 is indeed only partially assembled by JLCPCB

The HolyIot module (U1) was not available from JLCPCB at the time I ordered, as well as the mid-mount USB C port I wanted to use (J1)

I had a bunch of reset buttons laying around and wanted those on alternating sides for each half so opted to use those instead of picking an alternative from JLCPCB (R_TACT1). The same goes for the power switch (SW_SPDT)
The LEDs were manually soldered because - besides also wanting these on alternating sides for each half - I mount those upside down from the back side of the pads, the middle part of that footprint is clear FR4.

The schottky diode (D3) is included in the assembly BOM and POS https://github.com/cacheworks/Wubbo/blob/main/KiCad/jlcpcb/assembly/POS-Wubbo.csv

I'm not sure what J2-5 is referring to, I fail to see those on the BOM (?)

[iosonofabio]

Thank you @MvEerd , really appreciated! The Js must be jumpers I guess. I'm iterating a few designs at the moment, I think we can close this if you want.