Quadcept : Creating Components

STEP 7: Confirming Pin Settings

The next step is to configure pin settings. For pins, you can configure setting for "Pin No.", "Pin Name", "Toggle Display", "Electrical Characteristics", "ERC Allowable Voltage", "SPICE Pin Order" and "Remarks".

Ex.) Pin Settings


Item Description

Pin No.

Sets the Pin No. This is the reference for the Netlist and PCB linking.
It is also possible to register letters such as A and K.

Pin Name

Indicates the Pin Name. It is possible to display this on the schematic to make the pin characteristics easy to understand.

Toggle Display

You can select from "Hide", "Show All", "Show Pin", "Show Pin + Name", and "Show Pin + No.", and toggle the pin display status.

Electrical Characteristics

You can select from "Input Pin", "I/O Pin", "Output Pin", "Open Collector Pin", "Passive Pin", "HiZ Pin", "Emitter Pin", "Power Supply", "NC Pin", "Undefined Pin", and "Unused Pin", and set the Electrical Characteristics of the pin.
For Electrical Characteristics, you can check the connection status using the Pin Connection Matrix check.

When the electrical characteristics of a pin is set as "NC", the checkbox of "Non Connection" for the pin will be automatically checked when the component is placed on a schematic sheet. The pin point of the "Non Connection" pin will change into a "X"-shaped mark and the pin will not be checked by an ERC item, "Unconnected Pins". Also, if a wire is connected to the "Non Connection" pin, you can find it by a check item, "Connection to the unconnected pins" of ERC.

If you set "Unused Pin" when there is a difference in the Pin Count between the symbol and footprint such as "Mounting hole (Boss hole)" or "Heat Pad", you can avoid "Assignment" violations.

ERC Allowable Voltage

Use this field to specify the allowable voltage for the pin.

Example)
 - If the allowable voltage is 5V, then "5" is entered in this field.
 - If the allowable voltage is 3.3V, then "3.3" is entered in this field.
 - If the allowable voltage is between -12V and 12V, then "-12 to 12" is entered in this field.
* In this case, the connection of the voltage between -12V and 12V is allowed. You can specify a voltage range by inserting "to" between voltages. You do not always have to put a space in between a voltage and the "to" string. It is also possible to put the larger value on the left side like "12to5".

The allowable voltage for each pin will be checked by ERC when the pin is connected to the net specified in the ERC-Pin Allowable Voltage settings. If the connected voltage is out of range, an ERC error will occur.

The pins without any values in their ERC Allowable Voltage field will not be checked by ERC. (They will also not be checked if only spaces are entered.)

SPICE Pin Order

In order to run a simulation in LTspice, you need to map the symbol pins to the SPICE model nodes. For details, see the SPICE Pin Order page.

Remarks

You can enter comments for pins.

 

Options/Controls
Item Description

Add

Adds a pin on the pin list.

Delete

Deletes selected pin(s) on the pin list.

Copy All

Copies the contents of the Pin List to the clipboard. The contents can be confirmed and edited by pasting to a text editor or Excel, etc.

Paste All

Pin List Information that was edited using a text editor or Excel, etc., can be pasted.

* Pasting is done on the top item. Keep in mind that if sorting is done between copying and pasting, it may be offset.
* In order to paste values into the pin list, you need not only the values but also the header information. When you copy values from Excel or a text editor, please copy the header line as well.
* The value of SPICE pin order cannot be pasted to prevent invalid values from being entered.

 


Changing Pin Settings
The following will explain how to change pin settings.
(1) Select the "Pin" tab
(2) Configure each setting.