couple of quick eagle questions

[danrogers]

Hi all, im having a slight issue with some leds. they are the superflux type with 4 pins. in the schematic mode they appear as a standard two pin led so i connect them up. When i switch to board view only two of the four pins get connected. I cant manually connect them in board view, it says i must do it in schematic view first?

Second question is how can i make the dip pads bigger? I printed something out to test and they are a quite small diameter?

thanks!

Edit one more question,
I jumped straight into the board view and layed some bits out but it doesnt seem to have a board boundry that i can see even with that layer turned on?

 

[vne147]

Hi all, im having a slight issue with some leds. they are the superflux type with 4 pins. in the schematic mode they appear as a standard two pin led so i connect them up. When i switch to board view only two of the four pins get connected. I cant manually connect them in board view, it says i must do it in schematic view first?

The symbol used for that device has overlapping pins since each pair of pads is electrically connected. I was able to figure that out because I opened the device in the LED library and noticed the symbol used multiple overlapping pins. You can see this in the picture labeled "symbol view in library editor" in the attached image. If you connect the part in your schematic as it's shown in "schematic view" in the attached image, it should work the way you want it to.

Second question is how can i make the dip pads bigger? I printed something out to test and they are a quite small diameter

Go to Library -> Open in the menubar at the top. Select led.lbr from the popup box.

Once the library is open go to Library -> Package in the menubar. Select SUPERFLUX-7.6X7.6.

Once the package editor opens up go to Edit -> Change -> Diameter -> (desired size).

Next, click on the pad that you want to change the size of. The pad should change size. Do this to all or some of the pads and to whatever size you want.

Once done, go to File -> Save.

Next open your board editor window and go to Library -> Update All.

You should see the new pad size on your board.

Edit one more question,
I jumped straight into the board view and layed some bits out but it doesnt seem to have a board boundry that i can see even with that layer turned on?

For some reason if you just create a .brd file without making it from a .sch, it does not include the default board outline. At least that's what happened when I just tried it. You can create a board outline by drawing on the "dimension" layer.

 

[danrogers]

thanks so much for doing that vne, helps a lot!

Just been looking at the test that i printed out and it looks slightly small, the pins on the superflux led overhang by about 1mm. exported it from eagle as a pdf then printed on another machine. I guess somehow its scaled down.

Whats the most accurate way of printing would you say, direct from the eagle menu?

 

[vne147]

Whats the most accurate way of printing would you say, direct from the eagle menu?

I always print directly from the Eagle menu in the board editor. The print quality is good and I have never had a problem with scaling. I wouldn't go as far to say it is the most accurate way but it has always worked for me and I've etched some pretty small foot prints before.

 

[danrogers]

thats a shame in a way because I would like to print from a different machine ideally. Thanks again though I will try and print direct and see if that looks more accurate

 

[vne147]

thats a shame in a way because I would like to print from a different machine ideally. Thanks again though I will try and print direct and see if that looks more accurate

Depending on the permissions on the machine you want to print from you may be able to just run Eagle from a thumb drive. Eagle doesn't require installation onto every machine you will use it on. I have Eagle and all my projects on an thumb drive so it doesn't matter what computer I'm on, I can still work on my projects and print from wherever.

 

[danrogers]

That sounds usefull, is there a special trick to do that or do you simply copy all the eagle folders and libraries to the thumb drive and run from there?

Thanks for all this help, I would be stuck at square one scratching my head otherwise!

 

[vne147]

do you simply copy all the eagle folders and libraries to the thumb drive and run from there?

Yes.

I also find it useful when working with user created or user modified libraries (as you are now). In the past before I learned about the thumb drive trick I had multiple Eagle installations on multiple comps. It was a pain when I created a part or modified one on one comp and then tried to work on my project on another comp. Now I carry all my .lbr files with me so it's no problem. I just make sure to back up often so I don't put all my eggs in one basket.

Good luck with Eagle. It's not always super intuitive but once you get the hang of it, it's really useful. Especially considering it's free.

 

[danrogers]

Thats what I was thinking I've now modded the pads as you kindly explained but that sounds very usefull being able to move it with you!

Thanks very much, I'm gettin alot more used to the functions than I was when I first loaded it up and its getting more enjoyable to use. What are the differences with the paid version?

 

[vne147]

The main differences are there is no restriction on board size, you can have more than 2 signal layers in your boards, and you can have multiple sheets schematics. I think there are more but those are a few.

 

[Space Varmint]

You might find this helpful. I made this little help file a while back and covers most all functions using Eagle.

 

[danrogers]

thanks Space Varmint, that looks usefull

 

[Space Varmint]

No prob. I slapped it together clumsily as I learned the functions and do find myself falling back on it quite often. Not a grammatical master piece for sure...lol.

 

[danrogers]

Oh well mate, functional is the key and that it is

 

[Space Varmint]

Yes.

I also find it useful when working with user created or user modified libraries (as you are now). In the past before I learned about the thumb drive trick I had multiple Eagle installations on multiple comps. It was a pain when I created a part or modified one on one comp and then tried to work on my project on another comp. Now I carry all my .lbr files with me so it's no problem. I just make sure to back up often so I don't put all my eggs in one basket.

Good luck with Eagle. It's not always super intuitive but once you get the hang of it, it's really useful. Especially considering it's free.

Well, I have moved my library files from one computer to another several times and did all the Eagle upgrades and never had a problem with the libraries working. Did you go to the "library" function and say, "USE xxxxxxx" <-----go through directories and find personal library then click "OK"? As long as I put it in the list of libraries to use it works fine.

 

[vne147]

Well, I have moved my library files from one computer to another several times and did all the Eagle upgrades and never had a problem with the libraries working. Did you go to the "library" function and say, "USE xxxxxxx" <-----go through directories and find personal library then click "OK"? As long as I put it in the list of libraries to use it works fine.

Space,

The short answer to your question is yes. The "pain" I was referring was having to do all the steps you just listed everytime I changed or made an addition to a library (which was pretty often). I didn't have any problems making it work, I just prefer avoiding the issue altogether by taking my Eagle and all my libraries with me.

 

[Space Varmint]

Space,

The short answer to your question is yes. The "pain" I was referring was having to do all the steps you just listed everytime I changed or made an addition to a library (which was pretty often). I didn't have any problems making it work, I just prefer avoiding the issue altogether by taking my Eagle and all my libraries with me.

Well, I didn't have to do all that. I just did when new updates came available. Wait, I see what you are saying.....

What you do to get around all that is find where Eagle put it's current libraries that it is using. I noticed on the newer upgrade they use a different sub-directory than before. So, just find the new directory and copy you "xxx.lbr" to that directory and it will pull it right up with the rest of them.

For instance: My Eagle programs are now at c:\program files\Eagle 5.6.0\lbr

So I will put my library file in there and I won't have to do all that anymore......

Yes! It works!

Another neat thing you can do is rename your library in all Capitol letters and it will be the only one in your library that will read that way. Makes it easy to find when your adding a part to your schematic.

 

[DirtyLude]

I keep all my custom library files in a separate directory. In the main control panel you can select Options->Directories and add your directory to the list under Libraries. That way I don't need to keep copying all the custom directories every time a new version of Eagle comes out. EDIT-> Sorry, I see you already mentioned this. It's the moving to the other directory which is the pain.

I also add 'zz-' to the front of all the custom libraries so they are at the end of the list.

 

[vne147]

Well, I didn't have to do all that. I just did when new updates came available. Wait, I see what you are saying.....

What you do to get around all that is find where Eagle put it's current libraries that it is using. I noticed on the newer upgrade they use a different sub-directory than before. So, just find the new directory and copy you "xxx.lbr" to that directory and it will pull it right up with the rest of them.

For instance: My Eagle programs are now at c:\program files\Eagle 5.6.0\lbr

So I will put my library file in there and I won't have to do all that anymore......

Yes! It works!

Another neat thing you can do is rename your library in all Capitol letters and it will be the only one in your library that will read that way. Makes it easy to find when your adding a part to your schematic.

I seem to be miscommunicating. I'll try to clear things up.

If I have two seperate computers each with an installation of Eagle, then I have two seperate library directories stored locally on each computer. If I change a library on one computer, the modified library does not automatically show up on the other computer unles I manually copy the .lbr file from the first computer to the second computer.

That is the pain in the butt I'm talking about. Unless you have your library directory on a network drive, you have to copy over the .lbr file (thumb drive, CD, email, 5¼" floppy, punch card, whatever) manually. If you only do this every once in a while it's not that big a deal but if you modify libraries often, it can become tedious.

By running my Eagle off of a thumb drive, the entire directory structure (including the library folder) is stored on the thumb drive so no matter what computer I'm on, I have the latest versions of all my libraries.

I hope that made sense

EDIT-> Sorry, I see you already mentioned this. It's the moving to the other directory which is the pain.

Exactly!

 

[Space Varmint]

I seem to be miscommunicating. I'll try to clear things up.

If I have two seperate computers each with an installation of Eagle, then I have two seperate library directories stored locally on each computer. If I change a library on one computer, the modified library does not automatically show up on the other computer unles I manually copy the .lbr file from the first computer to the second computer.

That is the pain in the butt I'm talking about. Unless you have your library directory on a network drive, you have to copy over the .lbr file (thumb drive, CD, email, 5¼" floppy, punch card, whatever) manually. If you only do this every once in a while it's not that big a deal but if you modify libraries often, it can become tedious.

By running my Eagle off of a thumb drive, the entire directory structure (including the library folder) is stored on the thumb drive so no matter what computer I'm on, I have the latest versions of all my libraries.

I hope that made sense



Exactly!

OK, sorry man. I really don't think it's that big of a hassle though. You only have to do it once. And if you forget your drive Eagle probably bitches like hell. Don't know, never tried it.