Welcome to our maker news where we wrap up some fun and interesting stories in the maker world from the last few weeks. The video will come out on Fridays, but we are posting a topic here on Wednesdays to post the video’s sources and to collect any news from the community to potentially include in next week’s as well as just open up general discussion.
This week we looked at:
The 3d Benchy model has entered the public domain. If you haven’t been following along, there was a bit of controversy surrounding variations of benchys being taken down. We don’t know why this occurred but it turns out the model was originally published under a non-derivative license - meaning you could upload the model again, but only in its original form. The community quickly sharpened their pitchforks and pointed them at NTI group which acquired the rights to the model during a merger, but NTI group claimed they had no idea about it. This week they have officially released the model into the public domain which has hopefully put an end to this situation.
Kicad 9 is set to launch anytime now - probably just after this post goes live. The new version brings lots of just little nice things here and there, some quality-of-life features, more options, under tools, new settings, more constraints, and just a mountain of little things to make the experience better. One big thing is that it looks like it is now easier to template a layout, where you design it once and then stamp it on all your future designs. If you haven’t used Kicad in a few years, give it a go, the last few updates have made it pretty solid and it’s no longer a buggy mess.
And if you are still rocking a Nokia 3310, but just wish you could be like the cool kids and charge your phone with USB C, well have we got a story for you. Someone by the name of Salveo has released a USB-C conversion kit that needs no modifications or cutting required. Disassemble the 3310, drop in the kit, and put it back together. It’s just a funny story for this week, it’s really well-engineered and if only he had released it a year ago we joke about the 3310 beating the iPhone to USB C.
If you have any news from the maker world, feel free to post it below and we may include it in next week’s video, until then we will see you next week!
CE if you guys made a tutorial like “from Kicad 9 to PCB” I would eat that up.
I like Kicad but I only use it for schematics.
I have not found a well edited/written tutorial online that I was able to follow and understand. (open to a recommendation if anyone knows of one).
no pressure, just casting my vote.
P.s.
I’ve watched this one.
It was a rapid fire example.
What I took away from it was the vibes of what it was like to PCB from zero.
That whole series is good for introducing yourself to new tools you can research more later.
I think what I would enjoy now is something a little slower and with more of the “why” of each tool and idea. They “why” helps people like me transfer the ideas example to my own projects which will have different needs.
Agree big time, I have a feeling that a series that goes through the full KiCAD - schematic, part selection and layout experience would take hours though
All of my PCB skills are self taught from YouTube, and lot of trial and error (and from the help of some amazing mentors).
I’m much in the same boat as @Liam120347 in that I’m entirely self taught, I would say the biggest thing that helped me was understanding planes, rather than trying to hook up all your power and ground pins to each other.
So a plane on a PCB is where you set a polygon, within the polygon everything will be filled with the net that you choose. In KiCAD by default it appears as a solid colour that corresponds with the layer that it is attached to with a hatched pattern on the edges (see the below picture). In the picture you will see the top red layer has two separate planes, the larger one at the bottom of the board is 3.3v for the pico, the smaller top one is 12v, while the blue plane is ground and is attached to the rear of the board.
Having these means that I haven’t had to run individual traces for power or ground so its both easier and keeps thing tidier.
Ah thanks Dan I think I understand better now.
That’s a smart way to look at PCBs
I guess that means we’re really remove material from a conductive plane to isolate a path for current to flow? Is that right?
That is correct, in the top right of that board where there is no traces or planes the PCB manufacturer would remove all of the copper in that area as I’ve said there isn’t anything there. You can also see in the larger plane that I have some signal traces that cut through the plane and there is a gap between the trace and the plane so that they are isolated from each other.
vibes 
