Off board components

Drawing Schematics, Hierarchical Design, BOM, Exporting net-lists, etc.
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therat
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Joined: 14 Sep 2010, 11:47
Location: Australia

Off board components

#1 Post by therat » 07 May 2011, 23:28

When drawing a schematic is there a way to speicify that a component will not actually be on the pcb, but connected with flywires?

As an exmaple, using a DS18S20 temperature sensor, whcih is a TO92 package, but that needs to be remoto to the board.

Cheers
Simon

Alex
Technical Support
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Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: Off board components

#2 Post by Alex » 10 May 2011, 00:14

Hi Simon,
You can modify patterns for components that will be connected with flywires and keep only pads for soldering wires.

A-sic Enginerd
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Joined: 12 Aug 2011, 12:46

Re: Off board components

#3 Post by A-sic Enginerd » 12 Aug 2011, 18:10

To take it to the next step - what if I want to use a connector instead of just flywires?

I realize I can just create the pattern for the connector I want and assign that to the component, but it would still be missing from my BOM. It would be nice if there were a way to show it.

Thoughts?

thanks.

mpaalanen
Posts: 47
Joined: 21 Jul 2010, 10:05

Re: Off board components

#4 Post by mpaalanen » 24 Aug 2011, 08:21

I am designing a power supply with all the usual switches, fuse holders etc, in addition to which the design itself will consist of multiple PCBs like input filter, PFC, converter, control processor etc. I would prefer to do the design as one hierarchical multipage document to keep it all together. This would mean however that not only are there components in the schematic that have no footprint at all on any PCB, but also the schematic would be split between multiple PCBs. Any hope of that being supported anytime soon?

Alex
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Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: Off board components

#5 Post by Alex » 29 Aug 2011, 02:04

It is not possible to have single schematic for multiple PCBs. One schematic should be used for one PCB.
We will consider this option for future versions. Thanks.

electronics-engineer
Posts: 70
Joined: 16 Jul 2011, 12:54

Re: Off board components

#6 Post by electronics-engineer » 31 Aug 2011, 05:51

Alex wrote:It is not possible to have single schematic for multiple PCBs. One schematic should be used for one PCB.
We will consider this option for future versions. Thanks.
It seems like it might be an acceptable workaround to treat the multiple PCBs as one and to lay them out side by side on panels on a single larger PCB. Just make sure no traces cross between the two (use GND1 and GND2 rather than GND) and specify scoring between the two.

Hamp
Posts: 1
Joined: 14 Sep 2011, 05:38

Re: Off board components

#7 Post by Hamp » 14 Sep 2011, 06:44

Alex wrote:Hi Simon,
You can modify patterns for components that will be connected with flywires and keep only pads for soldering wires.
Alex,

Could you explain how to do this? Are there patterns where the pads can be moved relative to each other?

For instance, with a pot that is connected to the PCB by wires, I can specify a pattern with three pads. However, the relative placement of the pads is fixed in the pattern, whereas what I need is for one pad to be located on a ground trace, the wiper to be connected by wire to another location on the PCB, and possibly the third to be wired to an off board switch.

I have so far been adding a "pin" component that has a single pad as its pattern to the schematic on each trace going from the pot. The "pin" component has no usefulness to the schematic (though it does add to the clutter) other than to provide a pad pattern to the pcb. I do the same thing for each wire connection to an off board component.

If I ungroup the pattern, then verifying against the schematic or renewing the design from the schematic does not work (at least the last time I tried it) because the refdes of the POT is missing. Is this what you mean in the quoted phrase above?

There must be a better way to do this, or am I approaching this from the wrong direction. Is there a conventional approach? Should I just be adding pads in the PCB editor manually instead of using the "pin" method described above.

If this is described in the tutorial, I must have missed it.

Thanks.

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Ford Prefect
Posts: 43
Joined: 17 Mar 2017, 08:32

Re: Off board components

#8 Post by Ford Prefect » 14 Feb 2018, 08:37

I wish someone would answer this question I have the same but do not know how to do this.
I want to add a potentiometer within a schematic but the potentiometer is located off board on the inside of a enclosure.
The pads on the PCB for the potentiometer are to be placed in different positions on the PCB and connected by flying wires.
Therefore I would like to create a new component (potentiometer) within 'Component Editor' (which I have done) with 3 connections..that's the easy bit. But now I would like to create a new pattern within the 'Pattern Editor' (3 pads) so that each of the pads can be moved around on the PCB layout independently.
Is this possible to do? If so, how?
Thanks
Last edited by Ford Prefect on 11 Aug 2018, 21:48, edited 1 time in total.

Tomg
Expert
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Joined: 20 Jun 2015, 07:39

Re: Off board components

#9 Post by Tomg » 15 Feb 2018, 04:06

For the fully-wired, external potentiometer you could try creating a "dummy" drawing that shows how to connect it to individual PCB wire pad components. Since these are singular wire pad components, they can be moved to separate locations on the PCB layout. Here's one example of how it might be represented in the schematic...
1.gif
1.gif (42.26 KiB) Viewed 741 times
Also, because the potentiometer does not reside on the PCB it does not need to be included in the PCB's bill of materials. It would be treated as an external component (e.g. chassis, rubber feet, handle, knob, individual connecting wires, etc.) and included in a parent BOM, instead. This same parent BOM would also include the part number for the fully-assembled PCB.
Tom

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Ford Prefect
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Joined: 17 Mar 2017, 08:32

Re: Off board components

#10 Post by Ford Prefect » 22 Feb 2018, 00:20

Yes thank you. :)
I see what you have done and this suggestion seems to solve the problem.

I created a component in Component Editor...
WireConnector1.JPG
WireConnector1.JPG (12.16 KiB) Viewed 726 times
Then attached it to a suitable pattern....
WireConnector2.JPG
WireConnector2.JPG (33 KiB) Viewed 726 times
and the result is this... which you are able to move the pattern anywhere on the PCB.
WireConnector3.JPG
WireConnector3.JPG (30.73 KiB) Viewed 726 times

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