Newbie on Kicad

Author	Message
SunBakedWA Newbie Joined: 22/12/2023 Location: Australia Posts: 5	Posted: 02:12am 25 Dec 2023         Quote   The other item of interest was that Kicad draws a rather complex pad if that pad is in the middle of the gnd fill. These take a long time to route. That's the thermal relief. Its added to make soldering easier. The idea is main pad takes the solder and the little links to the surrounding copper plane limit the heat flow from the pad to the bulk mass of the plane when you solder the pin. They help to prevent you ending up with a dry joint or cooking the copper off the board. They also increase the electrical resistance between the component pin and the plane which can be significant at high frequencies when you have low voltage logic supplies...(oops wandered off topic again!) So long as you have a reasonably wattie soldering iron there absence shouldn't be a problem. I've always wanted to fabricate boards myself as it allows me to find out the circuit doesn't work much faster! Interesting you get good detail for surface mount by routing. That's good to know. I keep looking at the resin 3D printer in the garage and think its a hi DPI LCD panel with a UV light under it. Now just add software, UV sensitive Copper Clad, ferric chloride and the cats litter tray.....