Schematics (understanding and drawing them)

thank you guys !
(more carracters)

3 Likes

another noob question, the bypass cap on ic, it’s good for all ic or just with opamp ?

3 Likes

For all ICs. They are small reservoirs of energy for when the IC needs it fast.
Unless the datasheet says otherwise, use one 100nF between gnd and each power rail used by the IC.
That means that cmos logic ICs for example just need one between +12V and gnd as they don’t use -12V (usually… I’m sure somebody comes up with cases where they are powered between +12V and -12V and not +12V and gnd…).
They are a cent or two each and can’t hurt anyway…
Power regulators need their own combination of decoupling caps…

7 Likes

and they short circuit HF signals on the power rail to GND which may have a positive effect on the stability of the IC’s workings.

7 Likes

cool . thanks for posting these explanations , learning stuff today !

3 Likes

Regarding potentiometer pin numberings:

In the KiCad footprints library, I believe all the horizontal board mount pots (ones with the shaft parallel to the PCB) have pin 1 counterclockwise and pin 3 clockwise:

image

image

However, inexplicably, most of the vertical pots (shaft perpendicular to PCB) in the same library have pin 1 CW and pin 3 CCW. There are only a few exceptions including Potentiometer_Alpha_RD901F-40-00D_Single_Vertical:

This is really bizarre especially since if you look at for instance the Bourns PTV09A datasheet it shows the pin numbering the other way around:

image

Maybe there’s some datasheet out there for some pot that has pin numbering with 1 clockwise but I don’t know of one. So I think this is almost universally the accepted numbering, but it does not agree with a significant number of KiCad footprints.

To make my intentions clearer I use a custom pot symbol that has an arrow indicating clockwise rotation:

image

and then for vertical pots I always use footprints similar to Potentiometer_Alpha_RD901F-40-00D_Single_Vertical.

3 Likes