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Up until now I have been using Fritzing for all my electronic designs on this weblog. However Fritzing is moving away from a free version to a paid version. And although I realise that not all things in life are free, I hate it when free software suddenly turns into a paid version.
So I started looking for an alternative.
I have discussed Wokwi before on this web-log. You can read that story here: http://lucstechblog.blogspot.com/2022/04/simulate-your-controllers-with-wokwi.html
Wokwi is certainly usefull but has a limited parts library.
Then I stumbled upon Cirkit.
Cirkit is free, has an already large parts library and is easy to use. And just like Fritzing is Cirkit used off-line. Just download the program and start working. Cirkit has next to all that one great feature: it is very easy to create your own parts!!
Check it out, you might actually like it. Here is the link to the website: https://www.cirkitstudio.com/
After downloading and examining the parts-library I instantly missed the Wemos Mini D1 board. As I was doing a project in which In needed a schematic with the Wemos D1 mini board I was put off in first instance. Then I remembered that it was advertised that you can easily add your own parts in Cirkit Designer. So I took that for a test.
Fisrt step is to search for a good high resolution picture of your desired component. High resolution is not per-se needed but the better the picture the better the end-result. So I found a usable picture with Google. The reolution of this one was 800*750. As said bigger is better.
For graphics editing I always use the Gimp. You can find the Gimp here: https://www.gimp.org/ I loaded the picture into The Gimp and made a cutout.
When done I saved the picture as a .PNG picture.
At the left side of the screen in the middle there is a small arrow like symbol. Clicking that will bring out the fold-out menu with all components. At the bottom in Green it says "Create custom Component" click on that.
First step is to give your component an name. I chose Wemos D1 mini
The next step is to define your components pins. Start with loading your components picture by clicking on Select component Picture and import your .PNG image.
Using the + and - at the right side on the botoom of the screen you can enlarge the picture till you get a workable version.
Now click on the leftmost icon (looks like a pushpin).
Count how many pins you will need. The Wemos Mini D1 has eight pins on each side. By pressing the pushpin icon each time a new dot is placed on the screen. Place the 16 pins and line them up.
Click the second icon from the left (Snap to grid) and move the dots a bit. They will automatically be placed at the right distance from eachother.
Click anew on the picture of the Wemos D1 mini. Small squares will appear at the corner of your picture with which you can scale the image.
Enlarge the picture as much as is needed so that the blue dots are lined up with the pinholes in the image. Try to do this as accurate as possible.
In the menu on the left side on the screen scroll down till you see point 4 : Define Component Pins. Click on a blue dot and give it it's pin name.
In the menu scroll upwards and save the new component.
And there it is. In the menu on the left side the new component is shown in the User Defined section. It is now ready to be used on the breadboard.
And as you can see when the component is placed on the breadboard it fits nicely. Clicking on a blue dot directly gives it it's pin name.
If it does not fit just go back to the component on the left side in the User Defined menu. Click on it and choose edit and you can resize it or alter the name or the pin names. Don't forget to save again.
And here is a first breadboard drawing I made with my new component.
It is indeed very easy to design new components in Cirkit designer and this is not the last time on wthis web-log that I will use this program.
Till next time
Have fun
Luc Volders
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