First part for review

So, I have finally managed to get a very simple part created and apparently (as far as I can see anyway) working the way I want it. If the more experienced parts creators (which will be almost anyone :slight_smile: ) would take a look at it and point out any errors, style violations or the like I would appreciate it Hopefully the upload worked correctly (my first try at that as well). Inkscape appears to be a suboptimal solution as its coordinate system and Fritzing’s appear to be different. In the end I left the bounding box the way it was (over large) because if I change it the edits for the connector pins in the xml screw up.

Peter Van Epp

PM6078-004.fzpz (7.0 KB)

I didn’t actually check the dimensions to the datasheet, but wow. I wish my first part was that good because I can’t see anything out of place when I use the part.

In Edit the fonts look funny - even I don’t know how fonts work - , but as long as it works properly it’s a win.

EDIT
A minor thing. I was just playing in EDIT and you might want to add some more info in the Metadata to make it more descriptive, like DC to DC converter to the title, because that is what is displayed in the Inspector. And 24 pins.

Hi Peter,

Couldn’t find a datasheet… looks good, but Old Gray is right, you need to clean up your Metadata, there is still stuff left in there from the FZ Core chip generator. I would renumber the pins in the schematic to 1, 2, 3, 4 since there are only 4 pins. And remove the 24 pins in the properties, you really don’t need that at all.

Yes the data sheet has gone missing :slight_smile: its original use was in coax cable Ethernet adapters so it is more than 30 years old (and probably obsolete for 25 years or so) but B+G seems to have a ton of them and they are still useful. I had a data sheet at one point but can’t currently find it and all that is currently around on the internet is a catalog page. It is basically a module the same size as a 24 pin .600 wide IC that fits in a 24 pin through hole IC socket which is why I used the 24 pin as a start. The pin numbers match up with where they connect on such a socket which is why I left them like that. I thought I had cleaned up the metadata, but I’ll have another look. Thanks for the input!

Peter Van Epp

Thinking about your comment I realize that I made a mistake in deleting the unused socket pins as that precludes using a socket (since they don’t make 24 pin sockets with only 4 pins like they do for 8 pin DIPs for oscillators). So I’m trying to add back in holes without connection points as in the various prototyping boards. However I can’t get any of the existing parts (at least that I’ve looked at) to show me how they get just bare pads without connections. Exporting the part and looking at it in Inkscape shows the pads with connections but the bare breadboard pads don’t show up. One of the documents I read talks about doing it (but as usual I can’t now find that document) in somewhat unclear terms about ncon$sequence number I think. Can someone point me at an example of how to create a pad that doesn’t have a connection pin in pcb view please?

Peter Van Epp

I suppose you could cut the pins off the socket that you’re not using or direct soldering to the PCB.

Anything in copper is a hole, and if it’s a just a non connected contact just do it in the usual way. I don’t even bother naming contacts in Ink XML, I just use a circle with stroke and FZ knows what is going on. I think labeling contacts in Ink helps auto select pins in FZ Edit.

If I understand your question correctly… Just add the pads back into the pcb.svg. Try this one… is this what you want? PM6078-004_v2.fzpz (6.6 KB)

Yes! Thank you, that looks to be what I want, now all I have to do is figure out how you did it :slight_smile: . Parts editor doesn’t seem to be complaining about unconnected pins and the appropriate pads have re appeared. As well the fonts have been eaten as happens to me (and thus it isn’t only me that it happens to). Check the breadboard view or schematic view of your file. The font size has reduced from what I think is the standard size to something unreadable which is what happens to me if I use the parts editor on the part more than once. On the first edit the fonts remain the correct size on the second edit they reduce like this. Is this a known bug or am I doing something wrong with the fonts in Inkscape somehow (I have the fritzing fonts from templates loaded on this machine and Inkscape seems semi happy with them and seems to leave them in the XML)?

Peter Van Epp

I just replaced my pcb.svg file with the one from your part and all is well, the new pads show up and the fonts are the correct size. So now all I need to do is go look at the xml and see if I can figure out how to do this for future reference. Although interestingly enough, in parts editor the fonts are again too small (but since I don’t intend on saving it, at this point it doesn’t matter for now but I would like to find a fix before uploading the part!).
While I’m here another question: while the graphic standards suggest no silkscreen text in the part I’d like to put a label of the form PM6078-004 DC-DC Converter (and possibly +5V GND and +9V and 9V GND on the appropriate pins) as this is an odd part. Is that acceptable?

Peter Van Epp

I was going to explain how to fix your pads but it was a lot easier just to fix them. It is really pretty straight forward… I will write up something for you so you know how it works…

I saw this font think once before, just don’t remember what it was… I will look into that too to find out what is causing it… … I know… “idiosyncrasies” :grin: Dahhhh!

Thanks, a write up would be appreciated, but it looks pretty easy. I’ve got the two files up in Inkscape and (other than the fact Inkscape has lost the left side and top lines on your file, fritzing seems to find it fine) it looks like I just needed to add a circle without connector ids at the appropriate grid points. If there is an easier way than manually editing the xml I’m all for it thought. Every piece of software I’ve ever used has idiosyncrasies but at least with open source if you care enough you can fix them and fritzing is doing an awesome job. I hope the various companies that are using fritzing for their tutorials are also providing funding (as there seem to be a lot of them …).

Peter Van Epp

Yep, that is it, just add a bunch of circles… I do it all in CorelDraw with the duplicate button… only takes a few seconds.

Wired, I didn’t touch the breadboard or schematic .svg’s, but when I exported the part as .fzpz it made all the fonts smaller. :confused:… I will fix it :grinning:

I am going to try that in Inkscape and see if it will duplicate only the pad without also copying the
terminal pins. At the very worst I can use XML editor to delete only the pin parts I expect and let Inkscape do the x/y positioning for me. Yep it duplicates just the pad not the terminal pins so that is easy to do. Now on to cleaning up the metadata and trying to make a part for one of the cheap Ebay volt/amp meters that the Valor connects to. Thanks again!

Peter Van Epp

We having fun yet!!! :relaxed:

The schematic.svg appears to be a raw inkscape .svg, When I exported the part. FZ rewrote it into FZ format. The inkscape fonts were sized in pixels instead of points. There are also some other weird things in that file… I don’t believe FZ know how to convert pixel fonts to points… all of the fonts were resized to font-size=“0”.

I may have to look into the inkscape thing to see what you guys are doing… or not doing… :confounded:

Try this one… PM6078-004_v3.fzpz (6.4 KB)

I actually click on the node in Ink’s XML Editor to select it, like the circle, then go to the drawing and right-click the boxed node - must be arrow select - and select duplicate. That way you know you have the circle and not the connector node.

I practically do no drawing in Ink. I select nodes in XML Editor and adjust size and position with the with the top toolbar. At most I do a rough drawing of the shape, shuffle it Up. Down. Indent, Unindent. in XML Editor to group it, Fill and Stroke with side box, resize with toolbar, and drag it to a custom made grid until it snaps.

Yep that one works fine. Knowing what the issue is helps a lot too. It looks like font size in pixels is a feature in Inkscape (i.e. the manual shows no way to change it to points, only how to resize it in pixels.) but knowing that I can maybe figure out how to modify the xml to set the font size in points before saving it. I’ll try it and see what happens. Its a PITA but if it works I’m willing to do it :slight_smile: . At the very worst I can use a text editor outside of Inkscape to fix up the xml. I’m coming to think that Old_Grey may be correct and editing the xml directly may be the best answer. I loaded the perl simpleXML parser on cygwin yesterday and I can get it to dump the XML (mostly, I think some of it was missing perhaps) so that may be an avenue as well. It should certainly work for checking that I haven’t missed deleting something at the very least which is why I started exploring it. When I feel get a bit more competent at parts editing perhaps I’ll write up a tip guide for the next poor bastard. Thanks again progress is being made!

Peter Van Epp

I’m not good at direct XML coding of the .fzp file, I meant the XML Editor in Inkscape. It’s simple shuffling stuff, adding nodes, renaming, etc.

In Ink File/Properties you can set global pt, maybe do that when you do fonts and switch it for other stuff.

:confounded: Inkscape :confounded:

It took me ages to learn Ink - it’s a hell of a lot more complicated than GIMP - , so I don’t want to have to learn another, and now I’m kind-of used to it.