gEDA the GNU EDA tools have bern around a lot longer and I use that. It is worth checking out.
KiCad: A commitment to freedom
31–40 of 89 posts
Re: KiCad: A commitment to freedom
#32I visited the donation page and it costs about $500 for 1 developer to work on KiCad for 1 day. I do appreciate the transparency, but honestly I think my —small— donation would be used better in other free software projects unless I had some kind of vested interest in KiCad.
$500 a day is quite inexpensive for a competent developer. Perhaps you overestimate how far your donation will go.
10k/month is inexpensive? That's a SV engineer salary. With open source software you can have extremely competent developers from anywhere in the world. Someone in Brazil for example would be thrilled to be paid US$50-100/day, or even less, to work on OSS.
Re: KiCad: A commitment to freedom
#33If you live in Brazil (or is willing to come), and want to contribute to Kicad, São Paulo will host a Kicad hackaton as part of an Open Hardware Summit:
http://www.e-hal.org.br/ (english version: http://www.e-hal.org.br/en)
Javier Serrano, the author of this post, will be there, as will Thomas and Maciej, two Kicad developers from CERN. The Kicad Hackaton will not be the only activity, there are lots of open hardware activities through the three days of summit. And lots of fun!
Re: KiCad: A commitment to freedom
#34> Today, KiCad is considered a mature tool for the design of Printed Circuit Boards, featuring some capabilities that match or exceed those of costly proprietary alternatives. Two weeks ago, we evaluated whether we ditch our current proprietary EDA tools in favor of KiCad (my company designs and builds satellite electronics). We liked the user interface (it's not good, but better than the "professional" alternatives)…
> Our conclusion was that for hobby projects and very simple professional PCBs, KiCad is a great tool, but it's just not enough for even slightly demanding projects (and I'm not even talking about high-frequency design, EMI analysis, and multi-person projects).
You are entitled to your opinion, and surely there are more advanced tools, but lots of people do high-frequency design using Kicad. HackRF, from Michael Ossman, is a SDR board entirely built in Kicad [1].
Heck, I've done nice, complex high-density, high-speed FPGA-based boards in Kicad. It's still not at the high leagues, but I wouldn't dismiss it as only an option for hobbyists and simple PCBs. I, personally, find it much better than Eagle, and I'm not the only one.
Re: KiCad: A commitment to freedom
#35> Today, KiCad is considered a mature tool for the design of Printed Circuit Boards, featuring some capabilities that match or exceed those of costly proprietary alternatives. Two weeks ago, we evaluated whether we ditch our current proprietary EDA tools in favor of KiCad (my company designs and builds satellite electronics). We liked the user interface (it's not good, but better than the "professional" alternatives)…
Most of your post is Greek: tracks, vias, copper zones. I'm not sure how anyone can make an abstract design for an entire circuit board from scratch, it how to put one together.
Well, I do know a Greek guy who has done some PCB design...
Re: KiCad: A commitment to freedom
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
$500 a day is quite inexpensive for a competent developer. Perhaps you overestimate how far your donation will go.
10k/month is inexpensive? That's a SV engineer salary. With open source software you can have extremely competent developers from anywhere in the world. Someone in Brazil for example would be thrilled to be paid US$50-100/day, or even less, to work on OSS.
[deleted]
Re: KiCad: A commitment to freedom
#37> Today, KiCad is considered a mature tool for the design of Printed Circuit Boards, featuring some capabilities that match or exceed those of costly proprietary alternatives. Two weeks ago, we evaluated whether we ditch our current proprietary EDA tools in favor of KiCad (my company designs and builds satellite electronics). We liked the user interface (it's not good, but better than the "professional" alternatives)…
> Our conclusion was that for hobby projects and very simple professional PCBs, KiCad is a great tool, but it's just not enough for even slightly demanding projects (and I'm not even talking about high-frequency design, EMI analysis, and multi-person projects). You are entitled to your opinion, and surely there are more advanced tools, but lots of people do high-frequency design using Kicad. HackRF, from Michael Ossm…
I'm not sure I'd hold up Eagle high as a bar to beat.
Re: KiCad: A commitment to freedom
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
$500 a day is quite inexpensive for a competent developer. Perhaps you overestimate how far your donation will go.
10k/month is inexpensive? That's a SV engineer salary. With open source software you can have extremely competent developers from anywhere in the world. Someone in Brazil for example would be thrilled to be paid US$50-100/day, or even less, to work on OSS.
> [500/day] is inexpensive?
It is, especially for someone who doesn't work every day, and has to cover their own health insurance. If you're willing to pay someone by the month or by the year and put them on the company insurance plan, I'd imagine you'd get a better rate.
Re: KiCad: A commitment to freedom
#39> Today, KiCad is considered a mature tool for the design of Printed Circuit Boards, featuring some capabilities that match or exceed those of costly proprietary alternatives. Two weeks ago, we evaluated whether we ditch our current proprietary EDA tools in favor of KiCad (my company designs and builds satellite electronics). We liked the user interface (it's not good, but better than the "professional" alternatives)…
> Our conclusion was that for hobby projects and very simple professional PCBs, KiCad is a great tool, but it's just not enough for even slightly demanding projects (and I'm not even talking about high-frequency design, EMI analysis, and multi-person projects). You are entitled to your opinion, and surely there are more advanced tools, but lots of people do high-frequency design using Kicad. HackRF, from Michael Ossm…
Can you respond to the specific criticisms of OP then?
Re: KiCad: A commitment to freedom
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
$500 a day is quite inexpensive for a competent developer. Perhaps you overestimate how far your donation will go.
10k/month is inexpensive? That's a SV engineer salary. With open source software you can have extremely competent developers from anywhere in the world. Someone in Brazil for example would be thrilled to be paid US$50-100/day, or even less, to work on OSS.
It's an SV engineers salary, but it's probably not an SV contractors salary. Contractors have overheads and inconsistent work, 500USD a day is reasonable.
I would also assume their contractors are fully up to speed with the project, it's not reasonable to compare them to an unknown developer in Brazil.