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Kicad is the best free EDA I've used and I know many others that use it. The active development and large community make it a no-brainer. I use Altium profess

by mmac_ 3y ago

Kicad is the best free EDA I've used and I know many others that use it. The active development and large community make it a no-brainer. I use Altium professionally ($$$) and I feel like Kicad could cover most of the boards I work on. FYI I've seen a few advanced PCB's done in Kicad successfully - just not sure how much manual calculations/work they had to do. Kicad + the cheap online PCB vendors are a killer combination.

533474 3y ago
Do you have any example(s) of an advanced KiCAD board?
- cushychicken 3y ago
  Kicad has a bunch of examples of boards made with Kicad on their homepage. Tons of stuff on par with a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black, with DRAM, eMMC, and PCIe routing, plus all the fine pitch placements for supporting circuitry. PMICs get dense in these applications.
- mntmn 3y ago
  I've made 2 laptops in KiCAD: https://source.mnt.re/reform/reform https://source.mnt.re/reform/reform https://source.mnt.re/reform/pocket-reform https://source.mnt.re/reform/pocket-reform
  - lovelearning 3y ago
    This is the most awesome thing I've come across on HN in recent months if not years!
  - ruslan 3y ago
    > Made With > KiCAD EDA > OpenSCAD > LUFA > Autodesk Fusion (Case parts) This is really awesome. Kudos for KiCAD and OpenSCAD.
  - mr337 3y ago
    That is impressive!
- junon 3y ago
  https://github.com/oro-os/link/tree/master/pcb/link-x86-obt https://github.com/oro-os/link/tree/master/pcb/link-x86-obt Not the best laid out PCB or the best project structure. But it works, and it's fairly complex.
- MegaDeKay 3y ago
  Another example: the HackRF SDR board was done in KiCAD https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf
- ruslan 3y ago
  Here's my OSHW FPGA board made in KiCAD: https://github.com/Fabmicro-LLC/Karnix_ASB-254 https://github.com/Fabmicro-LLC/Karnix_ASB-254 Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr0pdGuJbXQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr0pdGuJbXQ

by mmac_ 3y ago

533474 3y ago

Do you have any example(s) of an advanced KiCAD board?

cushychicken 3y ago
Kicad has a bunch of examples of boards made with Kicad on their homepage. Tons of stuff on par with a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black, with DRAM, eMMC, and PCIe routing, plus all the fine pitch placements for supporting circuitry. PMICs get dense in these applications.
mntmn 3y ago
I've made 2 laptops in KiCAD: https://source.mnt.re/reform/reform https://source.mnt.re/reform/reform https://source.mnt.re/reform/pocket-reform https://source.mnt.re/reform/pocket-reform
- lovelearning 3y ago
  This is the most awesome thing I've come across on HN in recent months if not years!
- ruslan 3y ago
  > Made With > KiCAD EDA > OpenSCAD > LUFA > Autodesk Fusion (Case parts) This is really awesome. Kudos for KiCAD and OpenSCAD.
- mr337 3y ago
  That is impressive!
junon 3y ago
https://github.com/oro-os/link/tree/master/pcb/link-x86-obt https://github.com/oro-os/link/tree/master/pcb/link-x86-obt Not the best laid out PCB or the best project structure. But it works, and it's fairly complex.
MegaDeKay 3y ago
Another example: the HackRF SDR board was done in KiCAD https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf
ruslan 3y ago
Here's my OSHW FPGA board made in KiCAD: https://github.com/Fabmicro-LLC/Karnix_ASB-254 https://github.com/Fabmicro-LLC/Karnix_ASB-254 Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr0pdGuJbXQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr0pdGuJbXQ