kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Thiadmer Riemersma <thiadmer.riemersma@xxxxxxxxx>]

>
> I did notice that with many taped components the manufacturers don't
> really care to comply with EIA-481 and in some cases the part is even
> available in different orientations on tape.


There are four versions of EIA-481 and they are incompatible. The situation
of the same component packaged in two different orientations, is the result
of the standard changing and the manufacturer wanting to both follow the
latest standard and not cause trouble on existing manufacturing lines.

While manufacturers may not fully comply to EIA-481, I do see consensus.
For example, so far every SOT223 that I have seen was oriented in the same
way, regardless of the manufacturer. So what I did was make my own table of
common packages and how they are in tape (typically). Then, in our database
we have a field in which we can note an exception. We easily have 400 reels
here, but just a single exception in our database (an RGB LED).