Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • Replies 77 replies
  • Subscribers 2747 subscribers
  • Views 11304 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

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.


Parents

  • 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.

Reply

  • 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.

Children
  • in reply to shabaz
    shabaz said:
    * 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.

    RP2040 breakout board is also something I'd find interesting, or "<microcontroller> breakout board" a lot of 'dev kits' certainly don't give you access to everything.