Totally agree about Elektor magazine. I have all my dads old collection (from Issue 1 onwards) until he stopped in the 90's too. It's when they started moving away from electronic designs to reviewing Vellerman kits and then, later on, started to just look at off the shelf kits/modules and programming of them, that the roots of the magazine faded away. I have every issue from #1 through to the end of 2015. The latter 10 years in digital format. I still use the early magazines as a reference for many analogue designs.
I use KiCad 8, love it, mostly. My workflow is way different to what you did with your little RF project but there is no wrong way if you get good results. And, yes I did learn a lot of things from the video series, some of which I plan to use in future projects. Thank you for what you do.
It's amazing how you can design a pcb and then get it made in China including solder mask, printing and everything. I remember making a pcb back in the 70s as part of a school project and it was a very complicated and messy affair involving UV sensitive resist and FeCl enchant. However we soldered the through hole components to the surface to avoid drilling all the holes. And we were told that this is how it would be done in the future.
I agree about KiCad 8. I tried to get off Eagle before onto KiCad 7, but it was too painful. I'm working in KiCad 8 now. I'm still not as comfortable as I am in Eagle (but that will come), and I generally dislike two-handed GUIs, but it's worth it to be able to do bigger boards with more than 2 layers.
Morning: I use KCAD often. Also PCBWAY. I just had an issue for the first time. After designing a PCB, and running the design rule check, I pressed the PCBWAY button and ordered PCBs. Having received the board I learned there was a short. Comparing the Gerbers to the PCB file I see that the gerber has the short while the pcb file does not,... So I wanted to report the issue,... what a tangled mess to try and report an error. So I hope someone with KiCAD reads this: MAKE THE ERROR REPORTING easy not requiring registering for some GitLab, or using a GD blog. Just an email account would be great to send in the files and make a report. Make it difficult and it won't happen, the Application will suffer. Sorry - ticks me off.
The only problem with books is that KiCad changes quite a bit between versions, and so makes them obsolete. It could be annoying trying to find where they moved an option that is shown in the book. I learned KiCad from TH-cam videos from DigiKey. Of course, those are obsolete now also. 🫤
I'm honestly extremely surprised that a book about kicad exists. Who on earth would need or want one in 2024? And about a borderline trivial topic like a simple ecad program.
Totally agree about Elektor magazine. I have all my dads old collection (from Issue 1 onwards) until he stopped in the 90's too. It's when they started moving away from electronic designs to reviewing Vellerman kits and then, later on, started to just look at off the shelf kits/modules and programming of them, that the roots of the magazine faded away. I have every issue from #1 through to the end of 2015. The latter 10 years in digital format. I still use the early magazines as a reference for many analogue designs.
Thanks. I've been looking for a good book to learn KiCad. You're channel is fun and helpful.
I use KiCad 8, love it, mostly. My workflow is way different to what you did with your little RF project but there is no wrong way if you get good results. And, yes I did learn a lot of things from the video series, some of which I plan to use in future projects. Thank you for what you do.
It's amazing how you can design a pcb and then get it made in China including solder mask, printing and everything. I remember making a pcb back in the 70s as part of a school project and it was a very complicated and messy affair involving UV sensitive resist and FeCl enchant. However we soldered the through hole components to the surface to avoid drilling all the holes. And we were told that this is how it would be done in the future.
Thanks for sharing. Bought this before I got 3 mins into your video!
Interesting, I've been wanting a paper copy. It's strange the author doesn't sell hard copies even on his website.
I agree about KiCad 8. I tried to get off Eagle before onto KiCad 7, but it was too painful. I'm working in KiCad 8 now. I'm still not as comfortable as I am in Eagle (but that will come), and I generally dislike two-handed GUIs, but it's worth it to be able to do bigger boards with more than 2 layers.
I think I have the online course as well as the PDF
Morning: I use KCAD often. Also PCBWAY. I just had an issue for the first time.
After designing a PCB, and running the design rule check, I pressed the PCBWAY button and ordered PCBs. Having received the board I learned there was a short. Comparing the Gerbers to the PCB file I see that the gerber has the short while the pcb file does not,...
So I wanted to report the issue,... what a tangled mess to try and report an error.
So I hope someone with KiCAD reads this: MAKE THE ERROR REPORTING easy not requiring registering for some GitLab, or using a GD blog. Just an email account would be great to send in the files and make a report. Make it difficult and it won't happen, the Application will suffer.
Sorry - ticks me off.
The only problem with books is that KiCad changes quite a bit between versions, and so makes them obsolete. It could be annoying trying to find where they moved an option that is shown in the book. I learned KiCad from TH-cam videos from DigiKey. Of course, those are obsolete now also. 🫤
Thanks for that imsai guy, could be a way into a complex subject.
I'm honestly extremely surprised that a book about kicad exists. Who on earth would need or want one in 2024? And about a borderline trivial topic like a simple ecad program.
Ah yes, the trivial topics of CAD and Electrical Engineering.