I’ve finally decided to embark on the journey of learning Kicad. Turns out, using old fashions TI regs isn’t the cleanest. With the wires, resistors and the caps, my project may become a ticking time bomb. So far, I’ve drawn the schematic for my board, and sorted out the placement of everything.
The problem is, I’m super confused about trace width. I’ve learned about Digikey's trace width calculator, but I’m stuck with current, and seeking clarification with temperature stuff.
Just to confirm, ambient temperature is basically room temperature and T(rise) is how far the temperature of the module deviates from the ambient temperature. Is that overgeneralization correct?
Next, trace width. The PTR reg can output a max of 6 amps, but the ps2’s 1.25V line only draws 3.1 amps of current. Should I calculate the trace width with the regs maximum capacity, or the PS2’s current draw?
I’m also wondering about the trace width from the input terminals to the input and ground of the regs. Not accounting for inefficiency, the regs all together draw 4.475 watts when connected to the PS2’s regs (excluding 5 and 1.75 volts). I intend to either use a 5V or 8.5V power supply for testing, so would it be correct to calculate the trace width with 1 amp?
edit: I got an answer from discord. Power planes/polygons baby!!!
edit 2: If you have Kicad 6.0, you gotta press B to actually create the plane.