[hpsdr] Kicad and Open Source Tools

[Eric Ellison]

Phil!

I was hoping you wouldn't get distracted by the Kicad comment. YOU ARE TOO
BUSY! 

Folks - Lurkers!

I know that it is most or all of our feeling that we should use open source
tools as much as possible while generating the IP on the HPSDR projects. A
good example is Quartus Web edition mentioned recently.

Kicad looks like a great Open Source tool, we can use, which is close, as
Phil mentions but "No Cigar" and slows down the momentum of creating the
project boards.

Since we have many folks including Lurkers, perhaps some of you could 'team
up' to 'watch' Kicad (and other potential tools). Perhaps repair the auto
router (stay outten this Phil). Interact with LIS, monitor their user group.
Generate HPSDR parts which are not in current libraries. etc.

Perhaps we could/should put a list of approved open source tools together,
as an 'official starting point' for attempting to put together a project.

WATSA?
Eric




-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Covington [mailto:p.covington at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 8:52 AM
To: Eric Ellison
Cc: H. Gruchow; hpsdr at hpsdr.org
Subject: Re: [hpsdr] [ATLAS] New Document uploaded

Hi Eric, Horst,

On 6/10/06, Eric Ellison <ecellison at comcast.net> wrote:
> ***** High Performance Software Defined Radio Discussion List *****
>
> Horst
>
> I printed this out on a high quality Color printer yesterday and it is
truly
> an impressive document!

A really great job!

> A couple of notes.
>
> On the last page you mention Kicad which is not a problem. I hope we go
back
> and put all the designs in Kicad when we have the time. At the moment we
> aren't using Kicad on any design.

I started the design in Kicad very early on, but because of some
problems with PCBNew, I abandoned it for Mentor Graphics PADS
Logic/Layout/Router since I have a full license for that system.

In the meantime Kicad was updated so I tried to use it for OZY - no
problem with the schematic entry and the PCBNew layout actually
worked.   The problem is that Kicad's autorouter sucks really (really)
bad!  Being pressed for time I could not see hand routing the OZY
board so I switched over to PADS again.

The stuff in Kicad can be fixed, but I am kind of short on time ;-)
For simpler boards (or if you have a lot of time to hand route) the
latest Kicad would work fine.

> Also FlexRadio Systems is mentioned, which is again, not a problem, but in
> light of recent events probably should be replaced with TAPR.

Yes, *please* replace the reference to FR$ with TAPR.

> I was wondering if you could have one single Cover page which would be a
> cover for a binder where all the different project documentation would go.
>
> Thanks
> Eric

73 de Phil N8VB


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