KiCad 7 STM32 Bluetooth Hardware Design (1/2 Schematic) - Phil's Lab

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks a lot for watching - if you like the video, please leave a like and a comment - this really helps me out! Part 2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hp27lWaigb9nrMU :) A note on impedance matching: The RF matching network changes depends on the package of STM32WB you use (as the impedance at the RF1 pin depends on package, see application note). You can also use an integrated part by ST (e.g. for this package, MLPF-WB55-01E3) that does this for you. You will probably have to tune the final impedance matching network in any case on the real PCB. Finally, if you have an antenna that isn't matched to 50 Ohms, you will require an additional matching network (again, see application note).

[@warchiefgaming4690]

Thank you for such a great video. It's helps beginners like me who can't afford buying courses. Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH BRO :)

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, you are very welcome! :)

[@Ajaykrishna97_]

MLPF-WB55-01E3 does this give better performance that a LC impedance matching circuit ?

[@Ajaykrishna97_]

one more doubt , what is the final impedance matching that we need to do on real PCB , can you please give me some pointers

[@giacomoa.5114]

❤

[@sigicnc]

This is type of content that makes YT (still) valuable. Among tons of BS stuff, videos like this are as rare as gold and valuable as gold at the same time. TOP MATERIAL, HAT OFF!!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much!

[@Otakunopodcast]

Thank you for continuing to put out updated KiCAD content, even though you usually use Altium these days. Not all of us can afford (or can justify the cost of) an Altium license (or qualify for their student license.) In my case, not only can I not afford it, but even if I could, I couldn't really justify the expense, since electronics is a hobby for me rather than my livelihood. Your videos are always excellent, very informative, well edited, and to the point, without needless frills that distract from the message that are so common on YT these days. Also, if I may, would you please consider putting out a video comparing/contrasting Altium to KiCAD, specifically what situations/types of designs where moving to Altium would be a better choice. I vaguely recall you mentioning things here and there in videos past, but my memory is fuzzy, and it would be nice if you could elaborate on these differences all in one place.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for your kind comment! Regarding making a video comparing Altium and KiCad, I'll add that to the list of videos I want to make. Thank you :)

[@PatrickHoodDaniel]

Still watching, but I want to mention that it looks like this video can literally serve as a companion while designing. Excellent work.

[@PhilsLab]

That's great, glad to hear the video still holds up! :)

[@justinreddick5876]

Software Developer here, coming across this for the first time. This is an excellent resource that I'll continue to reference while learning!

[@fouzaialaa7962]

amazing work im a software engineer by trade and i do electronics on the side. this is exactly the type of content i look for .i love the extra explanations your throwing on each decision you take ,its exactly what i want to hear instead of someone speed working and finishing the design in the standard youtube from idea to pcb in 20 min format. also keep the low power Bluetooth device content coming, my pebble smartwatch broke after 6 years and i want to make a new one .the mobile app is easy for me ,this right here is what im missing ! again amazing.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much! I'm glad to hear that the level of detail is about right on this video - I'm always a bit unsure how much to add vs how long the video end sup being.

[@martinexex]

Okay, this is definitely the best tutorial out there to design your first STM32 based PCB using KiCAD. Everything important is covered in detail plus some useful tips and suggestions. You could literally design your board form zero knowledge to working board following this. Thanks so much for this valuable resource!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Martin! I tried to squeeze in the fundamental KiCad workflow/commands one may need for most designs, hopefully this'll be a useful resource.

[@CanadaElon]

I benefited so much from your first KiCAD stm32 PCB design video, and this is a great work again 👍

[@PhilsLab]

I'm very glad to hear that, thank you. Hopefully this one is useful as well!

[@benjo77]

this content is so awesome!! Thank you so much.@@PhilsLab

[@sskimbox]

@@PhilsLab Totally agree with @CanadaElon. I made my first PCB 4 years ago with the stm32 with KiCad5 (4?) video. This upgraded version is much appreciated.

[@AmRadPodcast]

You’re doing a great service by making these STM32 videos. I often use them as a sanity check. Please keep up the awesome work.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much!

[@SalvagedCircuitry]

Phil, you are the man for keeping the kicad design series alive alongside the equally excellent altium design videos. Thank you tremendously!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you so much, you're very welcome!

[@kevinzembower9149]

I'm really thankful that you've created this tutorial with KiCAD. I've learned a lot from your tutorials using Altium Designer, but KiCAD is the tool I use, and I was afraid you had abandoned it. Thank you.

[@tobiasjacob1969]

This is awesome, I just started PCB design with phils lab and now i work as an electrical engineer!

[@tadebaka]

This is so helpful to a beginner like me to understand how all the pieces are put together. Can't wait for part 2 to see the thought process for placing and routing on the PCB.

[@PhilsLab]

Very glad to hear that, thank you! Hopefully part 2 is useful as well :)

[@mitchellhw2006]

Terrific video plus I learned a few more handy skills in Kicad. Eager to see part 2. Thanks Phil.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you so much! Part 2 coming soon :)

[@scrubbyposh]

Every time I watch one of your videos, I am simply in awe of the quality of the information and of the delivery.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much for your kind words!

[@praschta]

This would have been so helpful last year when i did a custom pcb with stm32wb15 for my master thesis, especially the firmware part. i still used your general stm32 design videos, could not have done it without you. thanks phil!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! Shame the video came a bit late, but I still hope it's useful - and hope everything went well with your master's thesis :)

[@praschta]

yes its done now, the actual hard part of the tesis was documentig everything ;)

[@hakankarapnar1859]

As a graduate electronic engineer, I have an interest in the hardware side but couldn't find a job due to a lack of experience. However, your videos motivate me to get on my feet and continue trying. Many thanks.

[@PhilsLab]

Wishing you all the best for your job search! What helped me the most is having real, physical projects to show (and also to send along with my application as attachments).

[@BrightBlueJim]

Bring a completed PCB that works, and you've got a job.

[@mikehibbett3301]

Brilliant. Just brilliant. In this video you share so many "gotchas". And I love the breadth of the design you cover, including searching for an LDO that is in spec but also included in the KiCAD library - just what I do each time, to avoid more work :) I still learned a lot, so thank you.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Mike! Glad to hear that the level of detail is about right!

[@AliAlSaibie]

Great video Phil, not only covers how to use the tool (KiCAD) but many of the design features and practices behind them. Well done.

[@TheElectronicDilettante]

Like others have stated in the comments, the videos you produce are excellent educational resources. It’s your channel and a few more like it, that are all that keeps KZbin relevant. Without your level of quality, YT would just be the 21st century equivalent of a “Global Funniest Home Videos “ show. Thanks for all the great material.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much for your kind words!

[@PatrickHoodDaniel]

Excellent tutorial. I am about to do a LoRA circuit and this is a great refresher on the basics.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Patrick!

[@bones1225]

And now it’s 4am. Well worth watching the vid. Many thanks.

[@harrydewinton]

Thank you so much Phil. These videos make board design more accessible than I could possibly have dreamed.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Harry - glad to hear the videos are having the desired effect! :)

[@ZbzOn7]

I really appreciate all the work you put into your videos, your hard work shows every time. They are always through, concise, easy to follow, and no fluff. Thanks for keeping it simple, and making it useful! Looking forward to part 2! Stoked you did this one in KiCad btw; it fits my budget and is more realistic to my workflow :)

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much for your kind words! Glad you say that there is 'no fluff', as I was a bit worried, as this video (+ the second part) are considerably longer than any other video I've done for the channel.

[@eleclab4244]

Part 2 please!! Great job as always phil !

[@PhilsLab]

Coming soon! Thank you!

[@NigeyS]

To be honest i'm a bit thick when it comes to schematics and pcb design, but i was able to follow this video with ease, and most importantly i was able to understand what i was doing and why, that is a testament to the way you present the information, and explain it, so thank you so much for taking the time and effort to produce this, and all of your videos. :)

[@isaacclark9825]

Yes, it is great to see more microcontroller design content and I personally like the occasional Kicad-based video.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Isaac!

[@ivolol]

"Scratch the surface", "fairly short youtube videos" > 2 hours long! You are a gem for making this sort of knowledge available for all beginners in very approachable format. Great content!! I have grown more confident in kicad for my own projects learning a lot of tips from you. My 0.0002 cents would be to ask if you are interested in exploring other MCU platforms as well as STM's for these types of tutorials for the future. By golly I wouldn't be surprised if your videos ended up driving many thousands extra sales to STM now and into the future.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much! Great to hear that the videos have been helpful. Regarding other MCU platforms, this is definitely something I'd like to have more of on the channel. For example, I've been wanting to design an NRF dev board for some future videos but haven't gotten round to it just yet. I just find the STM32 line of products so accessible that I keep coming back to them (and this is said without sponsorship or similar).

[@platin2148]

I like your kicad vids very much i made my first pcb thanks to your old tutorials.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, glad to hear the tutorials helped!

[@amiteshwarsingh6099]

Hey thanks for the kicad tutorials , most learners cant afford altium thank you so much

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Amitesh - you're very welcome!

[@THEELECTRICGUY]

1:36:00 For PCBs that will be working over a battery, we should also consider minimum Quiescent Current to give max battery life. For example, LM7805 has a quiescent Current of 5-10mA (this is when the circuit is not consuming power, i.e., sleep mode) which is huge!!! A good LDO will have a quiescent Current in uA or nA.

[@PhilsLab]

That's right. The MIC5365 used in this design is also pretty decent at around 32uA.

[@kikisurface]

As you asked : I am going to follow that video step by step, produce the board and play with it. Thanks man, it is way better to watch your video than tv's crap

[@JG-mz7hg]

I tried the PCBWay assembly a few weeks ago and I was really impressed with the quality, speed and price. They even dealt with half-empty BoM because I was a bit lazy to select all the passive components. And I didn't need to manually pre-order non-stock components which in my opinion is the main disadvantage of JLCPCB assembly.

[@PhilsLab]

Glad to hear you were happy with PCBWay! Yeah, they definitely have more room for flexiblity/customisation, which is great.

[@stevehorton8889]

Very useful introduction into using KiCAD for Schematic capture. Also lots of useful component selection principles.

[@sebastiank686]

This is worth pure gold. Best quality yt video about mcu that I found ever

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks a lot, Sebastian - glad you think so!

[@JustPlainRob]

Thank you for making this. I recently picked KiCad back up and was reviewing some tutorials on here but the features and interface have changed so much in the last 2-3 years.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching, Rob!

[@agure]

Very useful video, thanks Phil! A quick tip regarding when you are calculating the coordinates for the pad placement, you can enter the calculations inside the Position X/Y in the Footprint Editor.

[@brado.y.7919]

Thank you so much for the videos you make on altium and kicad. It's been really helpful and has really helped me with learning more about proper PCB design, as well as cool tricks I didn't know Kicad or altium could do.

[@HipocratesAG]

I love it, i usually watch your videos several times, this one have a LOT of info. Thank you very much!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, hope the videos deliver! :)

[@alexcocan]

Thanks very much for the tutorial. I've recently started working on a zigbee thermostat using the same uC you're using in this tutorial. I had no experience with RF and this video and you're review on the reflow station helped me a lot on troubleshooting my design. Keep up the good work :)

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks, Alex - glad this is helpful!

[@impulse_ger]

This is like an early christmas gift. Thank you! I wish you a healthy and great time with your family my friend!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much! All the best for you and your family as well, happy holidays :)

[@kanto_kome]

Thanks sooo much for all your very resourceful videos. I've learnt a lot from them. God bless you Phil.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you so much for your kind comment - I'm glad to hear that the videos have been helpful! :)

[@robymichael7346]

Well done for the efforts and patience doing all these long videos!! With Christmas time around the corner, i thought that i won’t have anything to watch, but surely your videos will keep me busy for the weekend.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! Glad to hear this will give you something to watch - next part is coming out very soon as well :)

[@bottlerocketlabs]

I really appreciate the little details like explaining why there are capacitors on the power pins 👍 thank you

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, glad to hear that! :)

[@tangocharlie5509]

Thanks so much for this detailed video. There is always a small trick I can grasp. This time it was the Net Classes colors and the Bulk Editor !! A trick I use, instead of adding pwr_flag like at @1:54:03 is to add in one corner one PWR_FLAG connected to a GND symbol and one to a +3v3

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for watching! :)

[@LasDesventurasdeVirus]

I wish I had this tutorial 6 years ago when I had to design one of these at my former job. Thank you for your detailed video!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you!

[@nlhans1990]

One of the tricky things with RF design is that those matching component values also depend on the PCB design and stack-up. The capacitance between pad area and GND plane can easily form a capacitor in sizes of hundreds of femtoF to some pF. A design I did recently on Eurocircuits with its DEFINED IMPEDANCE pool showed me this same problem: I calculated a 0.9pF capacitor for a Pi impedance matching filter at "only" 434MHz. I ended up redesigning the PI filter while incorporating 1.75pF impedance from PCB tracks and 2 SMT pads (!). The DEFINED IMPEDANCE pool is nice, since the dielectric constants of core materials is well defined, along with using thin materials between outer and inner layers. Thus 50Ohm tracks are thin and well defined. But it also adds a lot of parasitic capacitance on the PCB. 0.3pF could be the "just" amount of extra(!) capacitance they needed on their PCB design with their layer stackup (which is presumably unknown). But on a "proper" RF stackup, it may very well be different.. Realisitically, the safest thing is to keep those parts TBD at design time, and then tune them with layout solutions in tools such as ADS, or better on the real boards with VNA equipment. But these options are not cheap or trivial to do neither. It requires some extra reading into this stuff. So I recognize why you tried to gloss over these complications and just recommended copying those devboard values as initial design values. (Good job)

[@PhilsLab]

Yes, that's exactly right. As per my pinned comment, the values need to be tuned on the actual physical PCB itself, as you also said. Those 0p8 and 0p3 values are tiny and definitely can be near pad/stray capacitances. Due to time I have to gloss over quite a few topics unfortunately, but at least those values serve as placeholders/a starting point. A future video will be dedicated to matching and tuning on a "real-world" PCB :)

[@Veilands]

Absolutely stunning, awesome stuff. Love your content and the way you present it, highly valuable for all of us, Thank You very much indeed, love and respect.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much for your kind words!

[@sc0or]

For people who needs to use that MC as a controller for a BT audio and an advanced peripherals, I'd like to let you know an optimal pin layout: PA0, PA3, PA8-PA-10 go to SAI1 ch A (no SAI-PDM) PA1, PB8, PB9 go to I2C1 PA7, PB2, PB4 go to I2C3 PA4-PA6 go to SPI1 PA11, PA12 got to OTG USB PB9 can go to IR_OUT PA13, PA14, PB2 go to SWD and PA2, PA15, PB0, PB1, PB8 go to GPIO .. I spent an hour yesterday for that puzzle )

[@fra5715]

Thank you Phil, this is a good exercise for me this holiday

[@PhilsLab]

Awesome, thanks for watching! :)

[@zhaojia511]

Thanks for your work Phil's, I will share the link on my wechat to more people who's interested in pcb design.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you so much for sharing!

[@L2.Lagrange]

*Bookmarked for later. This is almost exactly what I need for my current project, and I'll have time to watch the entire thing and follow along.

[@PhilsLab]

Glad to hear that - thanks, Jim!

[@jboy6944]

Like when i say Phill you are the BOSS. I truly mean it. God bless you BOSS Man! I Love you bro!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much!

[@johngreen1060]

Excellent video and a great service to the community. Thank you.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, John!

[@sriyugenther2227]

Being a ECE student in India i was inspired by you the most sir thank for your work sir

[@PhilsLab]

I'm very glad to hear that, thank you!

[@paulcrandall2534]

Thank you very much for all that you do Phil. Your videos have been such an invaluable resource for helping me understand electronics. I hope you realize how appreciated your efforts are.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much for your kind comment, Paul!

Thanks a lot. Yet another superb video. Exactly the right level of detail for my taste - spot on! Looking forward to part 2.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Niels - glad to hear the level of detail is right!

[@fotosdelviaje]

Thank you Phil, your guides are so good.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much!

[@blcouz]

Thank you. There aren't many people like you.

[@PhilsLab]

That's very kind, thank you!

[@Kuro-ik3qn]

Two tips for footprint creation: 1. You can type formulas directly in the position and size fields and KiCAD will automatically calculate them for you. 2. Use Shift+M to move a part precisely. This can be used when you know the distance between two pads, but not it's final position. Position the pad centered to the other one, then use Shift+M to move. You can use these in PCB layout too.

[@mohamedyahia809]

Your videos are special Phil ❤

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much, Mohamed!

[@gbernazzali]

Thanks a lot for your interesting tutorials. I bought your courses and I am learning pcb design techniques very easily

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much for your support

[@Gengh13]

At 33:08 I'm guessing the extra 10nH inductor in series is recommended because it has lower parasitic capacitance therefore higher impedance at higher frequency, right?

[@PhilsLab]

That's right - the smaller inductor will have a higher self-resonant frequency (due to lower inductance, lower parasitic capacitance, therefore near the 2.4GHz RF band) and thus higher impedance at that point.

[@andrewlloydwebber2616]

Absolute first class as always, Phil 💪🏻

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much!

[@zDoubleE23]

Thank you for putting out this quality content!

[@williampatterson6764]

-At --33:30-- how did you know to use the 4 MHz switching frequency rather than the 8 MHz?- The explanation is under section 3.3 of AN5165. Good video btw, thanks!

[@giovannitroncosobordoni461]

Thanks you very much Phil for all the content you create and post, i´ve learn a lot with them and have design and manufacture PCBs successfully thanks to your insights and teching!! thanks again!!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you for your support, Giovanni - great to hear that the content has been helpful!

[@terranceparker2015]

Great tutorial and I now know how to assign net class. New Year resolution is to sign up for your courses...and finish them:)

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! Awesome, hope to have you part of the courses soon :)

[@erictrexel2503]

Another incredible video with a wealth of information, thank you! Do you plan to have any videos covering your process for integrating a chip antenna instead of the u.FL connector? You have a couple videos covering designs with RF signals and some of them even feature a board with a chip antenna in the b-roll, but the walkthrough includes the connector. I also watched one of your design reviews for someone who integrated a BLE chip antenna and you mentioned some guidelines to follow with respect to skirting vias which I hadn't considered in my own design. I have looked through datasheets for these antennas and a lot of times they are sparse, so if there are any additional things to consider that would be awesome to see (noting that this is probably a complex topic).

[@mukund22kar]

Thanks Phils each and every videos are helpful.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much!

[@marlonkha6092]

Hi! Thanks for the amazing video, and every other amazing video you put out. One question: do we still need a 1.5k pullup on the D+ line (for identifying as a full-speed device during enumeration)? Thanks!

[@perceptron9834]

Great learning video, I'll start implementing it next week. I think once you've done all that you can definitely get a job as a junior hardware designer

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you very much!

[@Triple8_by_RLC]

Phil. keep it up. I wish you go 1M subs soon.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you!

[@NickGarvey]

Love the full length videos!

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks a lot, Nick!

[@xani666]

I generally use labels connected to the chip and do all of the power stuff in separate little block on schematic. It keeps the area near MCU free for actual schematic

[@Knolraab]

Thanks for the timestamps!

[@PhilsLab]

You're very welcome - let me know if they're 'granular' enough!

[@gersonfer]

Thank you very much for this goldmine of knowledge.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching!

[@omaraittaara2657]

Thanks a lot Phil ! Amazing as always

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Omar!

[@PolokoNkaditswa]

Excellent video. Please do introductory videos to the ESP32 modules in kicad

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! Yes, that may be the next full-length design!

[@imoldovan]

Welcome back to KiCad :)

[@PhilsLab]

Haha thanks :)

[@kiprof4350]

Great Video Phil! Nice Job! ☺

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! :)

[@kamu38]

Great tutorial. Thank you. Those tag-connect devices are cool, but damn they're not cheap for what they are! I was wanting to get some but it's over $100 AUD for one plus the retainer clips!!!!

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks! Yeah, the initial cost seems a bit much, but they're incredibly useful/easy-to-use and pay for themselves after a number of boards.

[@zDoubleE23]

In AN5165, it's recommended that the 4-layer stack goes components/critical signals (RF), ground, power/signal, and ground/signal. However, it seems typical that designs are constructed in a similar manner as this video where it's signal, ground, ground, and signal. Is there a reason for this?

[@jaysonbutcher1178]

Love your videos! Thanks for taking the time to make them.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for watching, Jayson!

[@mahdisaad5041]

Hi phill , would you mind sharing an Altium version video?

[@PhilsLab]

I have this Altium STM32 tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hn6ooYSQbpWZaZY - I'm afraid is isn't BT-based but hope that's useful in any case.

[@I_hu85ghjo]

why did you change the method of wiring? In one of the first stm32 kicad tutorials you used global labels and sectioned each section. Is there any reason why?

[@Ajaykrishna97_]

You are a life saver, just in time

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you!

[@Ajaykrishna97_]

​@@PhilsLab Can you tell me when part 2 is coming

[@PhilsLab]

In about 2h 25min :)

[@Ajaykrishna97_]

@@PhilsLab great 😃

[@Ajaykrishna97_]

​​@@PhilsLab Iam using Stm32wb55rg with VFQFN68 package. In that there is no VSS pin , is the Exposed pad acts as VSS , in my pcb i have not connected the epad to gnd. I cannot program the MCU I wanted to know did I screw up with the epad. Please take some time to check my query I don't know who else to ask.

[@medicallyunexplainedsymptoms]

Good, interesting stuff there, and a good deal of it not specific to KiCAD - most of it is just good project and design practice. One point about using datasheets from suppliers' websites, though. Some suppliers (yes, RS and Farnell, I'm looking at you) don't update their datasheets beyond the first version. The difference between the ATTiny-0 datasheets from Farnell or downloading them from Microchip's website was the difference between a project working or not. There had been a few revisions since it was first published. I appreciate it's a lot of work keeping that up to date when you stock so many items, though.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks! Yes, that's a very good point!

[@L2.Lagrange]

Your videos are so incredibly helpful. I am looking to add Bluetooth/wifi functionally to an STM32F4 project. I was not familiar with the Bluetooth family of chips they have. I can use that as my Bluetooth receiver for my STM32F4 project, as well as use it for small standalone projects. I was wondering if you have a comment on whether or not it would be better to use a standalone MCU like this, or a specified Bluetooth chip? I have some Bluetooth chips on hand, along with some smd antenna to use for them. That being said I feel like it may be easier to use the STM32 platform I am already used to, and be great for standalone projects like I said.

[@mihirpatil8713]

1:29:48 Why can't you route the two signals together for high speed USB?

[@simonrichards150]

The MCU doesn't support HS, only FS

[@PhilsLab]

You're probably still okay for USB HS, but for faster edge rate/higher bandwidth signals, you don't want to add stubs to your routing (negative impact on signal integrity, for one).

[@Good0Music0for0you]

I love your channel , so informative

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you!

[@pyrhockz]

Invaluable content, thank you!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you!

[@mikewhite5511]

I've now got the hang of creating Global symbol & Footprint libraries - I can see why Phil starts us on Project libs, since they then get stored with the project files. For Global, I create an initial MyLibs directory under the KiCad/7.0 (or version number). I then download the manufacturer's model, symbol files zip, and extract them there. Using Symbol editor, create (or select, if already exists) your library name, I have decided on "my_" as a lib prefix since I can just filter on my_ libraries! - as Phil says, best to keep libs small and purposeful (eg my_usb for related devices and connectors). Import the sym file from the extracted model file. Save, save save! Then open Footprint editor, go through similar steps for the footprint file. (Not yet done 3d models) Last step is to tie sym and footprint together, go back to Symbol editor, select your lib component, File-Properties. In the list of properties, go to the Footprint section and find the correct footprint lib file that you created in the previous step. Save, save, save - and check ! I've found it handy to store my Kicad projects in Box, for backup purposes. Also, the connector model files from Samtec are great !! Thanks again to Phil.

[@adjbutler]

love your videos as always

[@awocrf]

Great tutorial! Do you plan on making a video about designing a schematic and PCB for LIPO operated STM32? Charging, battery protection, regulators, buck/boost converters, battery level measurement, maybe a second power source for STM32's RTC? Do you have such a design available to the public?

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you! I'd like to make a video on designing for battery-powered devices (typically, Li-Ion) - as you say, those aspects and what needs to be included I believe would make for an interesting video, hopefully!

[@awocrf]

@@PhilsLab Do you have such a design or simmilar available to the puplic somewhere by any chance?

[@haraldh.9354]

you are really a professional -thx

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Harald!

[@michalpesko5598]

These videos are really helpful, thanks a lot!

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, Michal - I'm glad to hear that!

[@insanelydigitalvids]

Informative and fascinating! Thank you.

[@PhilsLab]

Thank you, glad to hear that!

[@paulcrandall2534]

I do have a couple of questions/suggestions for possible future topics. I really enjoyed your overdrive circuit that models diode clipping. How can that concept be applied to modeling a vacuum tube circuit? Also, I've been researching a lot about analog front end/back end design using discrete components instead of a CODEC. Something that keeps popping up is the use of MDACS. How exactly do MDACS work for designing a low pass/anti-aliasing filter for example. Are there any online resources that cover that specific use case? Again, thank you for everything Phil.

[@PhilsLab]

Thanks for the questions! Regarding modelling vacuum tubes, I'd recommend checking out 'DAFX' by Udo Zolzer. There are also some papers/PhD thesis on vacuum tube modelling for DSP (e.g. www.jstor.org/stable/40301029). I'm actually working on a vacuum tube design, which we will later model in firmware for a future video. I'm afraid I haven't done much work on MDACs, so can't supply any info on that I'm afraid.

[@paulcrandall2534]

@@PhilsLab Thanks you for the link and recommendations. I'll be sure to check out your suggestions. I've read quite a few white papers on tube modeling and understand the concept. I'm a little rusty on my Calculus, so the math is above my head. A practical example would be terrific. I think seeing it done would make everything "click" so to speak. Thanks again Phil.

[@gcaricato]

Are you back-feeding the linear regulator while programming through ST-Link?