Author Topic: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad  (Read 20944 times)

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Offline c4757p

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #25 on: August 10, 2015, 04:36:32 pm »
Is there any target date for the release?

Alexander.

I think the reply will be:
When it's done(tm)

But they're finally near finishing bugfixing phase mmlhñbnn GitHub ñnnjñ nu n7i it is j in this ujk no join in nibijjmand the bugtracker list is getting reduced, they said there's few to be done before a Release Candidate is done.

But wait for a proper reply by a KiCad developer, I'm just a lurker!

No, that's pretty accurate. Especially the "mmlhñbnn GitHub ñnnjñ nu n7i it is j in this ujk no join in nibijjmand" part ;)
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Offline timofonic

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #26 on: August 10, 2015, 04:44:57 pm »
Is there any target date for the release?

Alexander.

I think the reply will be:
When it's done(tm)

But they're finally near finishing bugfixing phase mmlhñbnn GitHub ñnnjñ nu n7i it is j in this ujk no join in nibijjmand the bugtracker list is getting reduced, they said there's few to be done before a Release Candidate is done.

But wait for a proper reply by a KiCad developer, I'm just a lurker!

No, that's pretty accurate. Especially the "mmlhñbnn GitHub ñnnjñ nu n7i it is j in this ujk no join in nibijjmand" part ;)

I was replying with my cellphone and had to stop writing, but I didn't lock it. Mysteriously it wrote weird characters  except GitHub and got sent :lol:
 

Offline c4757p

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #27 on: August 10, 2015, 04:49:53 pm »
Haha ;D

Anyway, yes. Unfortunately the release keeps getting delayed. Some of that is by finding bugs that need to be fixed, which is good - I'd rather have a late release than a buggy one. Sadly though, a select few developers (for definitions of "few" approximately equal to one >:() keep insisting on making changes, like this one, that are unnecessary and risk introducing instability, and then we end up having to fix them.

So sadly, I can't really give a good estimate on the release date. It's been "release candidate in a couple days now!" for a couple months. :( |O

Hopefully, Wayne just says screw-it and pulls the trigger on the release candidate in the next few days, which is actually starting to look likely.
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Offline timofonic

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #28 on: August 18, 2015, 10:03:23 pm »
I hope so! KiCad needs a new stable release plus a proper website.
 

Offline djsb

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #29 on: August 21, 2015, 02:13:28 pm »
New website under development in Github and here is a test site

http://test.kicad-pcb.org/

Hope you find it interesting.
David
Hertfordshire,UK
University Electronics Technician, London PIC,CCS C,Arduino,Kicad, Altium Designer,LPKF S103,S62 Operator, Electronics instructor. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Credited Kicad French to English translator.
 

Offline Miles Teg

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #30 on: August 24, 2015, 11:13:41 am »
Ho yes! This test site seems much better appealing.

Sure Kicad need some help on the "marketing" side.
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Offline EEVblog

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #31 on: August 24, 2015, 11:31:42 am »
New website under development in Github and here is a test site
http://test.kicad-pcb.org/
Hope you find it interesting.

Download still points to the guys personal website  |O
But otherwise very nice.
 

Offline firewalker

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #32 on: August 26, 2015, 07:33:15 pm »
New website under development in Github and here is a test site
http://test.kicad-pcb.org/
Hope you find it interesting.

Download still points to the guys personal website  |O
But otherwise very nice.

Now that is officially up, the binaries are hosted locally.

http://kicad-pcb.org/download/

Alexander.
Become a realist, stay a dreamer.

 

Offline Miles Teg

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #33 on: August 27, 2015, 06:36:07 am »
Ho yes much better!

but...

Quote
Old Stable

The build of the 2013 stable release is available from http://downloads.kicad-pcb.org/archive/KiCad_stable-2013.07.07-BZR4022_Win_full_version.exe (It is not recommended for new designs).

Stable is NRND?  :wtf:

Sorry I'm new to Kicad and not very used to opensource way of doing.
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Offline con-f-use

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #34 on: August 27, 2015, 07:12:22 am »
Well the old "stable" release is so far begind everything. Many things have been improved and many bugs fixed, but there is no official new stable release. That will come in a few month. All they're saying is "we have improved much, but are not yet 100% confident. The newer versions are better by modern standards than the old stable". It's not the open source way of doing things, it's just that the developers and therefore the standards have changed partly and you can't un-call the release stable.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #35 on: August 27, 2015, 07:21:33 am »
The last "stable" version is from 2013  :o and is "not recommended for new designs.
Again, the problem with KiCAD is one of public image.
Forget the word stable, that's a horrible word. Just say "Here is the latest version", and chose a version and stick with it.
Then have "If you want to live life on the edge, here is the latest non-public build" or something like that.
Even if the latest public version has bugs in it, it doesn't matter, at least it's the same version the majority are using.
 

Offline Miles Teg

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #36 on: August 27, 2015, 09:44:19 am »
Quote
Many things have been improved and many bugs fixed, but there is no official new stable release. That will come in a few month.

Seems fair to me. Maybe just need some communication things on website to warn like you do the "non advised public"  :-/O


Anyway for the website the overall impression is good. I really want to spend more time on Kicad, its community and try to give some help.  :-+


And we should continue on the new kicad website topic in the good forum: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/open-source-kicad-geda/kicad-new-site/


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Offline con-f-use

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #37 on: August 27, 2015, 11:05:50 am »
That one got derailed a bit by font-guy.

I agree that "stable" is a bad choice of words and unneeded. I like "public" and "experimental" or "public" and "development". IMHO Ubuntu does well, too, with its LTS versions (long term support).

If you break backwards compatibility or introduce a killer new complex feature, you might call that a milestone release.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2015, 11:08:25 am by con-f-use »
 

Offline stmdude

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Re: AmpHour #261: Daves switch to KiCad
« Reply #38 on: December 12, 2015, 02:03:45 pm »
I'm one of the few (lucky?) ones that uses both KiCad (offical 4.0 released, yey!), as well as Altium 15 (at work).

Although I'm actually a SW guy, I can tell you that they both have their ups and downs, which isn't surprising when you're comparing products from the same segment. However, I can tell you that for prototyping work (just making a few one-off boards), I'm _much_ quicker in KiCad than any of our HW guys are at Altium, including the rented gray-beard that's been living and breathing Altium since dinosaurs ruled the earth.
And that's the entire chain, from building custom components+footprints to the finished PCB layout.

For cases like these (small production runs, single sourcing, etc), you'd be insane to pay for Altium. The time to learn KiCad is easily offset by the price of Altium licenses.

HOWEVER..  Where KiCad falls completely flat on its face is when you're planning for high-volume production. The BOM management is near non-existent, and good luck integrating into anything resembling a PLM system.
I guess this is kind of expected, as KiCad comes from hobbyists, tinkerers and academia (Go CERN!), none of which have probably been exposed to the added complexity of manufacturing (for example) 10K units a months for two years, and having to have the final unit produced behave identically to the first one.

And to show what level I'm roughly at, this is the latest design I did:


It's the latest take in my never-ending quest for the ultimate development-"buddy" when doing embedded software.
It contains:
* Dual JTAG, with a CPLD to do pin-routing and level-shifting. I.e, works with systems running anything between 1.0V and 3.6V
* Serial->USB converter
* Dual LM317 power-supplies (yes, I could do better with DC-DC bucks, but when I'm developing, 20mA is considered "high-current")
* Integrated current-monitoring/logging over USB (10bit ADC, 1KHz sample rate. Good enough to tell if I made things better or worse, power-wise)
* A small USB hub to tie everything together to one micro-USB port

From idea to second revision of the PCB layout (wasn't happy with the first one. Size and neatness of routing), this took about 10 hours. This includes building the custom components for a few minor chips, the 64-pin FT2232HL, as well as the 100-pin CPLD.
 


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