Help finding rotary switch

[Anonymous]

I have a ALPHA 12 POS 30 Degree Indexing Rotary Switch but I'm unable to find it in the libraries.  I found one that was similar (CK101X12) but the numbering is clockwise and the Alpha is counter clockwise.  The pin arrangement and distance between the pins seem to be the same but when I start assigning the ratlines they go to the wrong pins on the board.  I can make it work but I would really like to find the right rotary switch.

Jerry

[one-of-the-robs]

This sounds like an ideal opportunity to learn about making your own library parts. After all, rule one of eCAD is never trust anyone else's library!

In this case, you have a part that is almost right. Open the library editor on a new, empty library in your user libs folder. Then go to the nearly-right part on the control panel and right click, choose "copy to library". Back in the library editor, open the footprint. Select only the pads (the selection filter is good for this!) and form a group. Now activate the "mirror" tool and ctrl-right-click in the middle of the footprint. Hey presto, one mirror image pin-out!

There are other ways to do this, too, and some may be better. The above is just a quick and dirty idea.

[Anonymous]

After much struggling I managed to get the right pin-out and get things numbered right but the schematic symbol apparently is mismatched because when i make new ratlines they go to the wrong pins. I get really confused with all this library stuff and I'm always loosing components or copying them to the wrong libraries. I forget where I am and have to start over.

Jerry

[one-of-the-robs]

Are you sure the CK101X12 is the wrong way round? Now that I'm at a machine with Eagle I've looked at it in the default libraries. The pins appear to be numbered in increasing order clockwise, from the top of the board. Your photo appears (although slightly blurred) to show the pins numbered anti-clockwise, but viewed from the bottom of the switch. It seems to me those are the same way. I can't really tell whether the orientation of the common pin matches - you'd have to print out your design and place the switch on the paper to check that.

[Anonymous]

I can't find the Library Editor.  Is that the same thing as the Library Manager?  The rotary switch was the right one but now I need a 6x6 lighted tactile switch which I can't find so I'm trying to use a B3F-10XX (Version 1) tactile switch and add 2 pads for the led.  It says to Create a new Library Device "Click the Edit Footprint icon and edit a new footprint by typing its name in the New field of the dialog box".  I can't find the Edit Footprint icon, Edit Symbol icon, or Edit Device icon.  I guess I'm in the wrong Window but I don't know where I should be.

Jerry

[one-of-the-robs]

OK, so let's get you to the right editor first. Don't use the library manager for now, we'll go old-school.

In the Eagle control panel, on the left pane navigator, expand the "Libraries" to find the part that's nearly what you want. Now, from the menu, select "File->New->Library". This will open the library editor. Back on the control panel, right-click the nearly-right part and select "Copy to library". The empty library editor will now be showing a copy of that part, probably the schematic symbol. You want to edit the footprint, so switch to the footprint editor with the icon that looks a bit like a SOT23-6 IC.

For the details of how to do your edits, there are plenty of tutorials out there, some very good. I can never remember the URL for @rachaelATWH4's one but hopefully now I've tagged her she'll pop by and point to it.

Once you've done the edits, save your library in your preferred user location - not where Eagle itself lives as that's likely to be replaced on upgrade. On Windows, many people use "Documents\Eagle\lbr".

What switch are you using? I've used the 10-xx quite a lot, but for illuminated ones I've tended to use a slightly larger one (3FTL6x0) which I think wasn't in the standard libraries.

[rachaelATWH4]

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@one-of-the-robs wrote:

I can never remember the URL for @rachaelATWH4's one but hopefully now I've tagged her she'll pop by and point to it.

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Here you go: https://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-88188/l/eagle-tutorial-series 

Best Regards,

Rachael