How up to date is this forum?

meta
1

I have just signed up but as a newbie to kicad I am not sure where I should be posting. How do I start? I have kicad 8 installed and working through online tutorials.

2

We are up to date, just waiting to allow our fingers to run amok.:smiley:

As a brand new user, there are some links here that may help you navigate the intricacies of this place.

PS. At the top RH side of this page, and every other forum page, is a link to the FAQs which may answer many questions for you.
Also, many online tutorials about Kicad are quite dated. There have been many, many changes over the last few years; so another recommendation is to read the up-to-date tutorials available on the Kicad site: https://docs.kicad.org/

3

Beware of ancient tutorials as the windows will look different and there may be better ways to do things. Make sure they are about at least v7.

The official documentation is at https://docs.kicad.org

And always keep your version updated to the latest patch level, currently 8.0.7.

4

Thanks. I have v8.0.7 installed.

Is there a tutorial also for ngspice? I find the information from the simulation sometimes confusing and sometimes the results don’t look realistic.

5

Ngspice has its own website: https://ngspice.sourceforge.io/ KiCad is used to input schematics for it.

You can also post questions in the Schematics > Simulation category.

6

I didn’t realise sourceforge was still going. I just checked the webpage you posted and it certainly looks worth checking out. Thanks for that. I found out about KiCad through https://pcbway.com. At least I think that was the site.

8

Impossible!!! I cannot imagine!!! :crazy_face:

Seriously, I have not tried NGSpice but if that were not true (sometimes or maybe often) it would be head and shoulders better than every other simulator. I guess that a dose of skepticism is required whenever using simulators. “Does this make sense”?

Recently in LTSpice I tried out a model for a TL431 “programmable zener”. In my simulation, it was connected through a few resistors to +12V. That model produced about -525 Volts DC!! This was complete and utter baloney.

Bad models yield bad simulations.

Other things such as lack of noise.