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Comment by jwr | Hacker News Reader

This is great. I am so glad this is getting done! I've spent way too much time clicking around the horrible distributor search engines, trying to determine which parts are cheap, readily available and will remain so (these three things usually go in hand). It is incredibly difficult and time-consuming if you are looking for something like a 12MHz SMD crystal: good luck sifting through thousands of options.

The current selection is very limited, but still useful for many projects, I will certainly make use of it.

The logical next step would be a KiCAD (and possibly Eagle?) library containing all the footprints. Not just thrown in there, or auto-converted, but actually verified by a human.

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@jwr - Chris from WAi here (contributor).

I couldn't agree more about having trouble finding the parts you want on disty search engines. The best thing to do is use the filters but even then it can be overwhelming. That's exactly why having a common parts library is useful. It just helps narrow your scope a bit. If all you need is a simple indictor LED then you're search is over. 1K resistor, done. It should take 80% of the effort out of building a BOM. The rest is obviously up to your specific design.

I agree, I would love an EDA extension. I think Octopart is thinking/working on this.

Thanks. Yes, footprints and symbols are on the roadmap. Since it's a limited number of parts, we'll be able to have well defined, reliable data there.

Please, please, PLEASE support KiCad with this! I use octopart pretty extensively and have loved it so far. I would be fanatical if you guys had KiCad footprints and symbols as it is the only decent EDA tool that is on all three major OSes.

Well, it's not really on Mac. (not unless you count running the Windows version in VirtualBox of course)

This is the most promising installer at this point but it's still not very usable: http://discuss.wayneandlayne.com/t/new-os-x-builder/73/18

I have installed it on OS X before. The dev branch had problems installing on OS X, but as of today actually someone put up a dmg that supposedly works (I follow the KiCad dev list).

Are you talking about this thread? https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg14842.html Have you tried it?

Gotta say, there are lots of Kicad dmgs out there, but I have yet to see one actually work well. I'm not sure I've even seen one described as working well by the person posting it.

That is the thread I am talking about! Everyone on OS X seemed excited, but I'm not sure that means it is working well yet. I will reply here soon if it is a good installer.

Thanks! Waiting with bated breath. It's gonna be awesome once it happens but it's taken a long time...

@reportsingsjr - Chris here from WAi (contributor)

As Sam mentioned about, this is definitely something they'll be working on. If you use some of these parts and have a known working footprint, I'm sure they'd appreciate your help.

I'll second the motion for KiCAD footprints and symbols!

There is not a good central repository for KiCAD parts, and on the client side the process for managing components or creating new ones is very convoluted. KiCAD is tremendously useful, but its creators need to take a serious look at usability. A cloud-based parts library would be a killer feature, along with drop-in public domain circuit "modules" (comprised of several to many connected components).

The development version of KiCad actually pulls the footprint library from github. It is significantly updated and quite a lot better than it used to be. Still has a long way to go, but it really is so much better than it was even a year ago.

@tomkinstinch - Chris here from WAi (contributor)

As Sam mentioned about, this is definitely something they'll be working on. If you use some of these parts and have a known working footprint, I'm sure they'd appreciate your help.

Totally awesome! Please also include additional things like camera sensors, displays, etc.

Can you explain more about the troubles you have in the distributor search tools? I assume you're speaking of distributors like Digi-Key and Mouser, right?

What kind of projects do you work on that finding things at Digi-Key and Mouser is not easy? What kinds of components are difficult for you to source?

If you're looking for specific types of components within a broader range (such as you want a < 10 ppm SMD crystal at a strange frequency), sure, I can see finding something like a suitable crystal being less than easy. But for normal components (everything Digi-Key sells is "normal" to me) I have a hard time understanding how changing Digi-Key's search tool would make it better.

Example: I needed to make a circuit with a logarithmic response to voltage that ran off single rail +5vDC. I needed about 200 copies of this configuration. I chose a low VCC rail-to-rail single-source op-amp from Digi-key. Twice. Both got EOL'd and impossible to get between the time I got my prototype done and the time I was ready to order in quantity.

Many ICs are produced for specific purposes for a short time and are never made again. As a "pro-am", its hard to navigate this part of the supply chain. Ostensibly a common part library would have smart people looking to make sure that a part remained source-able in the long term. If the idea became big enough, the CPL would cause these chosen parts to be so.

We hear stories like that all the time. That's exactly the trap we trying to help designers avoid.

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