Adding a connector

beginners
1

I have a 4-pin device. I would have been happy with a 4-pin mystery device, but there isn’t one. So I started with that one, and have tried to create a 4-pin device. I went into CorelDraw and widened the body, changed the appearance, and did a “copy” of one of the pins followed by a “paste” and “move”. It complained that I had two IDs the same. A bit of poking around revealed how to change the ID of my new connection from a duplicate “connection2” to “connection3”. But when I try to use the part, the fourth pin is not recognized as a connection. I have looked at the XML description, and the descriptions of the pins look the same. I went to the metadata tab

fritzing1.png1152×738 62.6 KB
in the parts editor and increased the number of connection pins from 3 to 4, but it still does not recognize the new connection pin; it still only gives me the option of editing only three pins. Since none of the components I want to use seem to have drawings, I will have to create them, so this will be an ongoing problem. For right now, I am working only with the breadboard view; I have not generated the PCB geometry, Schematic symbol, etc., although I will need those in the days to come. The XML file shows no difference between the representations of connection0, connection1, connection2, and connection3. The description is short enough that I’m including it here. I have uploaded a screenshot of the updated part, showing the fact that I have set the number of pins to 4. Unfortunately, your system has decided that as a new user I am entitled to only one image per post, but in the breadboard view I still see only three editable pins. You will have to use your imagination here.

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2

four pins in a row? you can try the generic female header under core tab and select 4 pins. if its 2 by 2 dip, have you checked under the connection tab then top left 4 pins?

3

Yes, it is four pins in a row. I can actually tell four pins in a row from a 2x2 DIP. Perhaps 50 years of experience in electronics has given me this skill. But that is not up to one day of trying Fritzing. I know what I want, what I can’t figure out is how to get this program to give me the part I need, hence the question. Not sure how a 4-pin female header is going to help me generalize the 3-pin mystery part to a 4-pin mystery part, which is what I need. The advice was to start with a part that resembled the part I wanted, and the 3-pin mystery part was the shortest Hamming distance from the part I need.

4

Hi supuflounder,

In your Parts Editor, the Connectors tab, set the “number of connectors to 4” this will add the fourth pin to your .fzp file. There is a problem with this depending on how your pins are numbered… Look at your 4th pin “connector ID:”. If it had skipped a number ad read “id: connector4” and instead of "id: connector3. this can be resolved by: “It wants to add the consecutive connector# from the previous pin Name”

Reset the "number of connectors to 3"
Change the pin number “3” to “2” on "id: connector2"
Change the "number of connectors to “4” (this will add connector3)
Change connector2 Name to “3” and connector 3 Name to “4” (Note: it may be pin 3 and pin 4, how ever they are previously named.