C'mon now boys and girls!

First of all, where is KiCad 6 or 7? Then, don’t we all need a lot of more fresh, new short, fresh and educational videos of KiCad on youtube? Most seem to be 11 to 1200 months old…

v6 will be a pretty large step forward with many improvements and features. Dev team is targeting annual release schedule after that with likely less changes.
But hey, it’s open source with pretty welcoming people in charge. Help out and bring next release sooner!

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Well that’s not how it works with open source. There are a wide variety of models depending on the project, ranging from a one person show (even Linux was such once) to a large organised effort that has support from even commercial parties. KiCad is in the middle. Only a small number of developers get paid, the rest is contributed by expert and keen users. Documentation is usually a weak spot for OSS, one can never have too much of it. In fact less would be good if obsolete videos, especially those of v4, could drop off the Internet.

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It would already be a plus if each tutorial / video clearly states for which KiCad version it’s made. Preferably both in the title and in the first frame of the video.

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Maybe to start with we could have a “dob in a dud video campaign” where users can send in links to outdated videos for an “ignore these” list. :thinking:

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Yes, agreed from here!

I’d rather have a moderated list with links to quality tutorials / videos in

A short list to quality video’s is both more useful and simpler to maintain than a long “ignore these” list.

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I did start a list in the FAQ section but nobody has added anything new to it.

@TheSwede must have looked at quite a few more recent ones - perhaps a list of a few links and brief comments is something that they would like to contribute?

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I was just checking daily in case the V6 has been released but you now made the tide with a big bang! It is open source as others mentioned so people do not tend to be 100% dedicated to this project.

I can’t wait for V6 as it will bring so many great features but rather wait until bugs fixed rather than face issues while using it!

Training videos would be useful, might do some myself - I use KiCAD on a daily basis and already trained someone else to use it.

It would be cool with a “KiCad Official Youtube Home” where only “Pro” videos is released. How that could/would be managed I have no clue about though…

If one searches on youtube for videos and only want more recent videos, there is a way to do that. Under filters, selecting ‘this year’ should eliminate some really out of date videos. It’s not perfect but it should remove a lot of really old videos that are no longer relevant. I wish youtube had a better way of organizing things but even if it did, a lot of it would depend on the people uploading the videos to put it in the right place. Most would likely do it the right way but someone just wanting to generate money would obviously put things in the wrong places.

I hope that helps even if it isn’t a perfect solution to the problem.

Video tutorials are very expensive to make in terms of time investment. They tend to either be passion projects or supported financially somehow. I know @peter-dalmaris is working on an update to his KiCad course/book/video lecture series that is based on V6, but this will be paid content (which seems very reasonable to me given the amount of time required to make it).

I suspect other content creators are thinking about or planning new videos around KiCad 6, but I’m not aware of the details.

Thanks for your good ideas in this, rdalek.

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Sounds interesting, crafryjon, and yea for sure good, interesting, educational videos is not an easy task!

Hi all, and thank you @craftyjon for the mention.

We have been working on a complete re-write and re-recording of KiCad Like a Pro 2nd edition since May.

We are very close to finishing.

The video course (over 250 videos!) is 90% complete, and the book (> 800 pages and >1500 images!) around 75%.

Yes, it is a huge job.

I am providing the information below for anyone interested in KiCad Like a Pro 3rd edition. I hope I am not breaking any Forum rules (I have checked).

As with KiCad Like a Pro 2e, the new edition will also have a Special Fundraising Edition. Half of any profits from this edition go to the KiCad Project.

We have already done a “soft-launch” for the eBook and video course to members of our Makers Club.

You can find information about the KiCad Like a Pro 3e here.

If you would like to purchase the Fundraising edition, please give me a bit of time. I need to setup a special page for it (so we can track sales and calculate the KiCad project share), and also provide a discount for the early adopters (i.e. anyone that wants to purchase the book/course before it is completed).

I can update this thread when the Fundraising edition page is ready, if there is interest. I think I can do this by early next week.

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I am very interested in this book. I think it might help colleagues in my company migrate to KiCad. Yes please keep us informed.

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A way to check out how videos can be made, check out Lynda.com (nowadays linkedin.com/learning) and for example “Autodesk Inventor 2021”, where we can view short and clear/educational videos about how things work out in that software. A wish is to find something similar, without too much extras, about KiCad. Very easy to follow and try out by ourselves what is shown that way. Why not?

@peter-dalmaris I’d really like to support your work but gah the website for buying the products is absolutely infuriating. I use an ad blocker and even if I allow everything on the page itself I get a “you need to enable javascript to continue” in the payment popup window after the paypal flow even though I allow scripts on the order page itself. Please help?

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@kliment,

I’m sorry for the trouble. I am testing the site on Firefox, Safari and Chrome, and haven’t noticed this issue.

I just tested with Firefox + DuckDuckGo privacy protection, and the Javascript still worked.

I need to do some more testing to figure this out.

Can you please let me know your OS, browser, privacy plugin and location (city is enough)?

If you prefer and don’t want to post all this info publicly, please raise a support ticket.

Thank you and sorry for the trouble.

Count me in. Your 2e version was my learning material for KiCad 5 and I’d love to support your support for the new version.