Thanks to Hemal Chevli and Anool Mahidharia for showing how to make a 2D projection from a STEP model using the KiCad StepUp workbench in FreeCAD and then verify it against the footprint in KiCad!
Here is the record live stream:
Jump to around 48:00 to see this technique demonstrated:
From Anool:
KiCad and FreeCAD virtual meetup tomorrow, Saturday, March 28th
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=migkWNRE384
The Open Hardware Summit is next week, March 13th!
Here’s a sneak peak at one of the items that everyone will receive in their conference goodie bags:
Thanks so much to Kevin Walseth at Digi-Key for making it happen! ⚡️
And thanks to our Dan (@tekdemo) for the beautiful “After Dark” PCB art 🦋
Beautiful project from Frank Milburn on element14:
I decided to give PCB art a try and will be basing my attempt on methods described by Andrew Sowa. Andrew uses Adobe Illustrator for the art work and KiCad for the PCB design. I will also use KiCad but will use my trusty pre-subscription version of Photoshop for the artwork. Inkscape is another possibility. Andrew’s process is described in this video from which my work is derived. The detail behind many of the steps won’t be described in this post – watch the video for that.
The goal is to take a photograph, painting, etc. and place it on a PCB using the FR4, copper layer, solder mask, and silk screen to make the palette. My PCB will feature the famous work by Edvard Munch, The Scream which has always fascinated me. So, how to turn a masterpiece into a PCB facsimile?
Palette
The limited palette is a challenge. For this exercise the focus will be on the central figure in order to reduce board size (and thus cost) of the experiment. The OSHPark purple solder mask will hopefully give the dark colors desired. Andrew also used OSHPark in his example, and helpfully provided a palette which has been modified here to help describe how the layers translate to color and are stacked for conversion in KiCad.
There is a shared project for the board:
And watch it on YouTube:
Chris Gammell shares many tips and tricks on Contextual Electronics including:
It’s useful to have a reference item right next to the schematic you’re working on. This tip shows how to add that in and make sure it doesn’t print with the rest of your schematic.
FOSDEM 2020 is a free event on Februrary 1st and 2nd for software developers to meet, share ideas and collaborate. Every year, thousands of developers of free and open source software from all over the world gather at the event in Brussels:
The Friday before FOSDEM, January 31st, will be an event for those that want to learn about KiCad development from project leaders like Wayne Stambaugh and Seth Hillbrand:
Are you looking to write code that improves KiCad?
On Friday, Jan 31 (the day before FOSDEM), we’ll be hosting a Learn to Code KiCad session in Brussels, BE. I will be there as will Wayne and possibly a few other of the lead development team. We’ll help you understand how the various KiCad components fit together and work with you to get your favorite feature from idea to committed code.
What you need:
1) An identified bug report (or multiple) that you’d like to address. This can be either a legitimate bug or a wishlist feature that is triaged in our system.
2) A laptop with your development environment
3) A launchpad account
4) A compiling version of KiCad
5) A working knowledge of C++ codingWhat we’ll provide:
1) Space, power outlet, wifi
2) Coffee
3) A short introduction to the structure of KiCad and how the parts work together
4) Up to 8 hours of development time with others who share your interests
5) Clarifying insights to your KiCad coding questionsAt the end of the day, you should be able to get at least 1 and possibly multiple bug report fixes under your belt and into the code base!
If you’re coming to FOSDEM 2020 and would like to participate, please e-mail me directly (off-list to preserve people’s inboxes). Send me your name/contact info and the list of 1 or more launchpad bugs you’d like to work on during the day. I’ll add you to our shared sheet (to deconflict bugs people are addressing) and get you all of the relevant information for the meeting
Here is a talk that Seth gave at KiCon 2019 which talks about their development community:
and also the KiCad developer panel:
Want to learn to design circuit boards in KiCad?
Chris Gammell of Contextual Electronics has updated the wonderful Getting to Blinky tutorial series for KiCad 5:
Thanks to Anool posting on Hackaday about KiCad plugins. I decided to try out the Teardrop plugin by NilujePerchut:
This action plugin adds and deletes teardrops to a PCB.
This implementation uses zones instead of arcs. This allows to comply with DRC rules by simply rebuild all zones. You can also modify their shape by simply modifying the zone outline (like any other zone). Teardrops created with this script use a specific priority (0x4242) to be recognized as teardrops.
Here is the result of my first experiment to use the Teardrop plugin on a flexible PCB to reduce the mechanical stress of flexing the trace:
The board is available as an OSH Park shared project and the KiCad design files are on GitHub.
The author of the plugin was very responsive to GitHub issues and I was able to get better results on my next flex design which is currently being manufactured:
My flex “business card” will fold over a coin cell battery to light a 0603 LED.
Curious how the plugin works? It creates zones next to the vias and pads. Here are the two teardrop zones that connect traces to a via:
Warning: you need create a schematic and generate a netlist before starting the PCB layout. Otherwise the the zones the plugin creates won’t be filled:
You also need to be careful that there is not copper on the same layer too close to the zone. For example, the text was too close to the teardrop zone on this via, so I moved the text down and the zone now fills correctly:
An open GitHub issue is that the teardrop zone does not align perfectly for SMD pads that are not circles (like rectangles, squares, rounded rectangles). The work around I used was to move the zone after it is filled to align with my SMD pad:
I hope you have fun with this plugin and leave a comment if you use it your own design!
UPDATE: I joined Adafruit Show-n-Tell to talk about flex PCBs and the teardrop plugin at 10 min 51 sec mark
The last two years has been a particularly exciting time for KiCad, for users, casual contributors, and for the core developers too. Even so, there are many cool new features that are still in process. One bottleneck with open-source development of complex tools like KiCad is the limited amount of time that developers can devote for the project. Action plugins stand to both reduce developer load and increase the pace of development by making it easier to add your own functionality to the already extensible tool.
Sometime around version 4.0.7 (correct us if we’re wrong), it was decided to introduce “action plugins” for KiCad, with the intention that the larger community of contributors can add features that were not on the immediate road map or the core developers were not working on. The plugin system is a framework for extending the capabilities of KiCad using shared libraries. If you’re interested in creating action plugins, check out documentation at KiCad Plugin System and Python Plugin Development for Pcbnew. Then head over to this forum post for a roundup of Tutorials on python scripting in pcbnew, and figure out how to Register a python plugin inside pcbnew Tools menu.
Since version 5.0, we’ve seen an explosion of extremely useful action plugins for KiCad that have added some very useful bells and whistles. The KiCad website lists a couple of external tools, but there’s a lot of action happening out there, so we decided to round up some of the more useful ones.
via KiCad Action Plugins — Hackaday
Also, the Teardrop plugin could be useful for those using our 2 layer Flex service:
In the early days, PCB fabs often had yield issues due to offset drill holes, particularly on vias and micro-vias. One trick that PCB designers used to mitigate this problem was to use “teardrops”. The area around the pad or via that connected to the track was made into a teardrop shape, ostensibly in the hope that it would improve matters. Fabs nowadays do a pretty good job due to improved processes and accurate machines, so the jury is still out on the use of teardrops, but KiCad does have a Teardrop plugin, in case anyone wants to use it. Combined with smooth, rounded tracks, we’re guessing teardrops would be pretty helpful in the artistic PCBs department.
Exciting times for people in Chicago that like hardware!
Tonight, Thursday, April 25th is Hardware Happy Hour (3H) Chicago at Ballast Point! It’s an informal hardware show ‘n tell that is a lot of fun:
https://www.meetup.com/Hardware-Happy-Hour-3H-Chicago/events/260730042/
And KiCon 2019 begins tomorrow! Come learn more about designing circuit boards with KiCad.
There is also a party at Chicago hackerspace Pumping Station: One on Friday night and then a Bring-A-Hack party with Hackaday on Saturday night.
Look for our Drew Fustini (@pdp7) in purple at all the above events!
OSH Park 