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I have a few sensors (potoresistor, temp sensor...) that connect to the board indirectly. The PCB will have a connector such as the molex 4pin fan connector that will in turn connect to the sensor/device via a short cable.
How do I show this in the schematic and the PCB layout? If I select sensor schematic I would have to manually add the pcb footprint to the component. If I select schematic for the connector then adding a resistor to a random pin of a connector doesn't seem right either.
I normally choose one of these two options:
An example of a schematic symbol for a connector can be:
Good luck designing your circuit!
In general, place the connector symbol to schematic and connect it to appropriate nets - it does not have to be in the correct order, because later you can adjust it from layout editor with pinswap command.
For clarity, 'dummy' symbol with no footprint can be placed to schematic, to indicate what will be connected to the wires.
(For me.)
On the pcb there's the connector footprint and label.
If there are some important pins I might add text. (+V, GND, sig) to help with testing/ trouble shooting.
The schematic tells the story and I'll add in what's on the other end of the connector. (maybe it's a thermistor that is one leg of a Wheatsone bridge.) I figure I want anyone else who looks at the schematic to be able to understand out what's going on.
In Altium, there are different types of components defined:
"Graphical" parts are included on the schematic but it isn't checked by DRC and isn't added to the BOM or netlist, so it doesnt' appear in the layout.
"Mechanical" parts are included on the BOM, but not the netlist.
You can make your part either Graphical or Mechanical depending whether you want it included on the PCBA BOM or not.
