Kicad Like a Pro. Learn the World’s Favourite Open Source PCB Electronic Design

380 Pages·2016·39.76 MB·English

by  Peter Dalmaris

CONTENTS
About this book
Video course companion
Discussion forum and email list
Dedication
Copyright
Part One - About this course
Chapter 1 - What is Kicad?
Chapter 2 - The structure of this course
Part Two - Kicad basics
Chapter 3 - What is this part
Chapter 4 - Installation on Windows
Chapter 5 - Installation on Mac OS X
Chapter 6 - Kicad main components
Chapter 7 - Finding documentation
Chapter 8 - What is a Printed Circuit Board?
Chapter 9 - The Kicad design process
Chapter 10 - Fabrication
Part Three - Project 1: create an nRF24 breakout board
Chapter 11 - What is this part
Chapter 12 - Creating a new project
Chapter 13 - Starting the schematic for the nRF24
Chapter 14 - How to create a schematic component
Chapter 15 - Wiring
Chapter 16 - Annotating the schematic
Chapter 17 - Electrical Rules Check
Chapter 18 - Associate components to footprints
Chapter 19 - Create a custom footprint
Chapter 20 - Saving the new footprint
Chapter 21 - Associate the new footprint and component
Chapter 22 - Create a netlist
Chapter 23 - Footprints placement
Chapter 24 - Edge cuts
Chapter 25 - Wiring
Chapter 26 - Add text labels
Part Four - Project 1: Enhancing the design
Chapter 27 - What is this part
Chapter 28 - Add a capacitor to the schematic using Eeschema
Chapter 29 - Add a capacitor to the layout in Pcbnew
Chapter 30 - Controlling the track width
Chapter 31 - Calculate the appropriate track width
Chapter 32 - Adding copper fills
Part Five - Project 1: Fabrication
Chapter 33 - What is this part
Chapter 34 - Creating the Gerber files and uploading to fabricator
Chapter 35 - Adding a decorative graphic
Part Six - Project 2: a 7-segment display board
Chapter 36 - What is this part
Chapter 37 - Create the schematic with Eeschema
Chapter 38 - Create nets and labels
Chapter 39 - Hidden pins and the power flag
Chapter 40 - The data bus
Chapter 41 - The unconnected component
Chapter 42 - Component - footprint associations
Chapter 43 - Create a 2 layer PCB in Pcbnew
Chapter 44 - Control track widths with nets
Chapter 45 - Add GND and Vcc copper fills
Chapter 46 - Add text labels
Chapter 47 - Add a decorative graphic
Chapter 48 - Exporting Gerber files
Part Seven - Project 3: a full-SMD 16-LED board
Chapter 49 - What is this part
Chapter 50 - The circuit
Chapter 51 - Create the schematic in Eeschema
Chapter 52 - Schematic wiring, Part 1
Chapter 53 - Schematic wiring, Part 2
Chapter 54 - Associate components with footprints
Chapter 55 - Create the PCB in Pcbnew
Chapter 56 - Wiring in Pcbnew
Chapter 57 - Adding copper fills
Chapter 58 - Adding text labels and decorative graphics
Chapter 59 - Export the Gerber files
Part Eight - Conclusion
Chapter 60 - What’s next?
About this book
I wrote this book to help makers learn how to make their own printed circuit boards. No
prior experience is assumed or needed. I only expect that you have an interest in
electronics and you are at a stage in your learning journey where you wish to go beyond
the breadboard.
The software that I use to demonstrate the various PCB design concepts and techniques
is Kicad. Why Kicad? In short, because it is awesome! It is a PCB design software that is
used by thousands of professional and hobbyist makers around the world. It does
everything that a hobbyist would ever want to do with PCBs. It is open source, supported
by an active dedicated community of programmers, and is sponsored by some of the
world’s most respected science and engineering institutions. It is also free!
Its technical features, its price, and the benefits of open source are the reasons that I
believe that Kicad is the perfect PCB design software choice for any hobbyist maker.
Why write this book? I am glad you asked!
Kicad is also easy to learn, despite a reputation for the opposite. However, even though
Kicad’s own documentation is rich, it can be hard to follow and learn from, especially for
beginners. By writing this book, I wanted to give people a resource that makes learning
Kicad as easy as it is to actually use it. Based on three projects, you will progress through
concepts and techniques of increasing complexity, but without the stress.
The progress is gradual and gentle, and designed to minimise the frustration often
associated with learning complicated software. If you also enrol to the Kicad Like a Pro
video course (more information about this is available further down), you will also have
access to a discussion forum. You can use this forum to communicate with me and with
other students of the course, and ask questions. Learning in a community is so much
better!
Wishing you learning success!
Peter

Video course companion
This book is also available as a video course. The video course contains everything you
see in this book, in 72 lectures and over 8 hours of high-definition video.
Watch me design the PCB of the 3 projects from the start to completion, including the
PCB ordering process. Don’t miss any details, replay, fast forward and reverse.
Learn Kicad Like a Pro with my detailed video course.
By enrolling to the video course, you also gain access to the discussion forum so that
you can interact with me and other students. Discuss Kicad topics, ask questions, offer
ideas. Access to the video course and its discussion forum is permanent.
As a reader of this book, you can enrol to the video course on txplore.com for the
special price of just $20 by using coupon code ebook. This represents a 20% discount over
the regular price. Or, simply click on this link to preview and purchase.
Discussion forum and email list
If you have enrolled to the video course, you also receive access to the course discussion
forum. The discussion forum is a great resource to have when you are getting started. You
can use the discussion forum to ask question, or exchange ideas with other students.
Here’s a couple of examples of conversations from the Kicad Pro discussion forum:

Student asked a question in Lecture 29
Problem with redrawing board around capacitor
I have re-drawn the board several times and I get the following error with different
endpoint values depending on the accuracy of my drawing in the 3D view:
IO_ERROR: Unable to find the next boundary segment with an endpoint of (160.02
mm, 127 mm).
Edit Edge.Cuts perimeter graphics, making them contiguous polygons each.
from /build/kicad-TRMME0/kicad-4.0.1/kicad/pcbnew/specctra.cpp : ThrowIOError()
: line 144
Unable to calculate the board outlines.
Therefore use the board boundary box.
Can I ignore the error and proceed?
Thanks in advance
Answer by Peter Dalmaris

Hi Jeff, yes, you can ignore this, and confirm that your design is valid with
gerblook.org.
I know that you have tried to redraw the boundary a few times, so I’ll just say that I
also have this issue often when I try to make a change to an existing boundary. In most
cases, I have to completely remove the old boundary, zoom in to make the lines thick, then
redraw. It is annoying, but apart from the warning message in the 3-d view, it doesn’t
cause problems in making the board.
Student asked a question
What to do when i don’t have all devices library like a microcontrollers, capacitors and
so on.
Hi peter,
what could i do when i don’t have some libraries like a specific capacitor,
microcontroller 8051 and so on. How can i download or to load new libraries devices to
used.
regards.
RT
7 replies · Like · Following (3 followers) ·

Answer by Peter Dalmaris

Hi RT, there are two basic options:
1. Make your own library parts, schematic or footprints
2. Google for parts that other people have made and import them to your library. This
is easy to do, but I will be adding a lecture on how to do this ASAP. I will try to do that
this week.
Student reply
Thank you peter.
Peter Dalmaris
Hi, just an update, I’m uploading the lectures on third party libraries now to help you
with option #2.
Student reply
Thank you so much !!! peter…..
is a great section.
regards.
RT
Student reply
Hi, I saw your post. Try this: http://www.snapeda.com/parts/
Peter Dalmaris

Hi, wow! Got to spend some time browsing snapeda!
Student reply
Excellent!!!! thank you.