Getting to Blinky 5.0

• Getting to Blinky 5.0
  Posted by bson on 25 Sep, 2019 18:42
• Chris Gammel just started a new series, Getting to Blinky for KiCad v5.  A much needed introduction for new users!  If new to KiCad I'd strongly recommend going through this, pausing as needed and following along yourself, doing exactly what Chris is doing.
  
  First introductory episode:
  
  
• #1 Reply
  Posted by Peabody on 25 Sep, 2019 21:40
• I have a big problem with this, the same problem I run into with some of Dave's videos.  I'm sure it looks fine on Chris' 32-inch monitor, but by the time it gets to my 15-inch 1080p laptop on a 720p video, all of the text is just too small to be readable.  And it's very difficulr to follow what's going on when you can't see it.  I just wish he would set DPI or font size or whatever so that everything is much bigger and readable on small displays.
  
  
• #2 Reply
  Posted by thinkfat on 27 Sep, 2019 11:15
• Also, the audio is too low.
• #3 Reply
  Posted by bson on 28 Sep, 2019 16:59
• I noticed the first two episodes were re-uploaded, so maybe the audio was redone.  I do agree 720p isn't enough to reproduce text.  1080p or 4K should be trivial to get from a screen capture and any 720p footage resized.  720p is fine for talking faces.
  
• #4 Reply
  Posted by thinkfat on 06 Oct, 2019 07:52
• My conclusion after watching all current episodes: rush job. I understand Chris has a commercial interest in selling his pay-for courses, but this is no good advertising, either.
  
• #5 Reply
  Posted by koreamaniac101 on 23 Oct, 2019 17:00
• As someone who is learning PCB Design from this video series, I'm a little confused as to the video where he creates the traces on the board.
  
  He creates a copper pour on the front to connect all the VCC traces. He also creates a copper pour on the back to connect all the GND Traces.
  
  However, to connect the VCC on the front to the pads on the back, he creates a via that connects the front pour to the pads.
  
  In the pictures below from 3D viewer, it looks like this shorts the GND and VCC pours. Is this just an incorrect representation from the 3D viewer, or did I miss a step?

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• #6 Reply
  Posted by ebastler on 23 Oct, 2019 18:43
• Quote from: koreamaniac101 on 23 Oct, 2019 17:00

  In the pictures below from 3D viewer, it looks like this shorts the GND and VCC pours. Is this just an incorrect representation from the 3D viewer, or did I miss a step?
  

  
  No, the views are rendered correctly. In the picture of the top side of the PCB, note the dark rings around each of the vias. In that area, the copper layer on the top is removed by etching (before the whole PCB is coated with green solder mask).
  
  So the vias are not connected to the pour on the front, only to the traces which go straight to the vias (and connect them with the component pads).
• #7 Reply
  Posted by koreamaniac101 on 23 Oct, 2019 18:48
• I see what you mean for the other vias, but on the front, the vias near the upper corners are the ones that connect the front (VCC) pour to the back (GND) pour.
  
  I would've thought that on the back, there needs to be dark green around those vias to prevent the top pour from just shorting to the back pour.
  
  EDIT: I should note that the outer grey pads on the back side are the VCC pads.
• #8 Reply
  Posted by ebastler on 23 Oct, 2019 19:18
• Ah, right; I overlooked those. That does indeed seem like an error, either in the 3D rendering or in the PCB layout itself. One can the the last stub of the traces which go to the pads, but I agree that the pour needs to stay clear of the traces and the vias.
• #9 Reply
  Posted by Macbeth on 23 Oct, 2019 20:11
• You can see that Chris goes to some effort to delete an extraneous trace, but did doing that fix the copper pour / via short problem, or has he cut that bit out? It looks that way from the continuity of the vid... 
• #10 Reply
  Posted by thinkfat on 23 Oct, 2019 21:16
• I recommend watching the digikey series about kicad 5.
• #11 Reply
  Posted by HKJ on 24 Oct, 2019 17:04
• That error is probably because it has not redone the planes. KiCad will not automatic refresh/recalculate the planes when you place via's or parts, you have to press a key for that.
  
• #12 Reply
  Posted by bson on 24 Oct, 2019 20:18
• Indeed.  Hit the B key to refill.
  
• #13 Reply
  Posted by koreamaniac101 on 25 Oct, 2019 20:50
• Thank you guys so much! As soon as pressed B, the 3D model was correct. Just for future reference, when would I need to fill all the zones (press B)?
• #14 Reply
  Posted by HKJ on 26 Oct, 2019 06:28
• When you want the areas to show correctly and before generating gerbers.
• #15 Reply
  Posted by SiliconWizard on 27 Oct, 2019 15:43
• As a tip, there's an option in the DRC dialog to rebuild the zones upon DRC. I have grown an habit of running DRC before generating Gerbers, or 3D viewing, so I get both the zone updating and the DRC at the same time.
  
• #16 Reply
  Posted by Docara on 29 Oct, 2019 14:36
• Don't know Chris Gammel but check out 'KiCad 5 Tutorial' on Johns Basement on YouTube I found them fantastic.
  
  I learnt to be reasonably competent on KiCad on the back of them. We're up to number 32(ish) now and he's running out of topics to talk about LOL.
  I strongly suggest you check them out if you're new to KiCad