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Would You Be Interested in Roadtesting KiCad EDA?

rscasny

KiCad has a following on the element14 Community, so we figured it would be a good thing to roadtest. It's a little different than what we usually roadtest, so we have a few questions. KiCad is free, so we were wondering what the potential roadtesters would like to see in the roadtest kit. There was a suggestion for the roadtesters to design a Raspberry Pi HAT. But we could also use a Pi/Ardunio library or even someone's own design. 

I have some polls below. I'd appreciate you voting. Thanks.


  • This sounds interesting but I'm not sure that the roadtest format is the best for this, maybe a design challenge could be more appropriate.

  • Interesting topic. I like projects that include a PCB. KiCad is on my list of things check out. The last time I tried it was many versions ago.

  • Maybe a bit off the wall, but wouldnt a nice part of a road test include actually get a 5 pack of their fabs made for participants ? 

  • My KiCad project folder says the oldest project is somewhere in 2012. Must have been V3 or so. I guess this makes me a bad road tester...

    For this RT, a voucher for a high quality PCB service would be cool (in Germany I have used so far Aisler and Wuerth, both did a really good job)

  • The roadtest kit could include the fabrication of the PCB. Eventually the whole process of designing and fabricating and testing the PCB  could be part of the roadtest. Maybe it could be a design challenge. To include the whole process I believe it would probably take longer than 2 months though, maybe it could be separated into different phases.

  • in reply to hlipka

    Wuerth has participated in several events here on the community. Maybe they are interested to offer a pcb make budget for the selected testers...

  • KiCad is certainly on my "To Do" list.  I really like the hat/shield/cape idea.  Another thought was a bit like the cooking shows.  Make what you want but you have to use these three ingredients (components).

  • in reply to dougw

    I was using it today.
    image

    Creating an analog board for a LEM current sensor. Running release 7

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    My latest design (currently in the process of being built) spans 5 schematic sheets and fill a 20x5cm 4-layer PCB. And of course it still has bodge wires since I'm stupid :( Still using release 6, though

  • I've used KiCad for 18 months now, and enjoy it. For sure some bits of it are clunky compared to EAGLE which I used for many years, but I have no intention to go back to EAGLE, since the positives of KiCad now outweigh (for me) the positives of EAGLE). KiCad is also miles better than CircuitStudio, which looks exactly like a cut-down version Protel DXP, which was quite a stinky product.

    Just throwing out some more ideas, in case any of these sound interesting:

    * RoadTest with an enclosure, with each RoadTester getting a different enclosure.
    It could be handy for the output to include PCB layouts that fit the enclosures, since that saves others from having to do that if they wish to use the same enclosure for a different project. Bonus points if the project includes a PCB front panel layout too.

    * Build an add-on, or Build a dev-board
    This is just extending the Raspberry Pi HAT idea, perhaps to allow the RoadTesters to choose Pi or Pico. The add-on could be a HAT, or perhaps build an add-on or dev-board for the Pi Pico. This might also help in case Raspberry Pi availability is low at the time of the RoadTest.

    * Build-from-a-Book
    RoadTesters could receive either "The Art of Electronics" or "ARRL Handbook 100" (the Roadtester's choice, since some may already have AoE) and the challenge would be to design a PCB for a circuit either directly from the book, or inspired by the book.