Should I buy this book KiCad Like a Pro 4e Special edition - Tech Explorations or should I wait for kicad 9 to come out? I am a newbie with kicad and pcb design. I am interested in the E-Book because I can download that and possibly use my text to speech software for some of it. Also interested in video series. Should I wait for the updated version?
I have a previous edition of the book and Peter Dalmaris is a good teacher. I would not expect an edition for v9 until at least a few months into 2025. If you wait a while he might offer a v8 edition with upgrade to v9 when it’s ready. You could always ask him.
If you are eager to learn I wouldn’t put off the purchase. Most of v9 will be the same as v8. Peter is a supporter of KiCad so he’s worth supporting.
Yes an upgrade option, for the book, would be nice.
Are the highlights of version 9 posted anywhere yet?
Hello @Glenn_Reed and everyone. I can offer some details about my plans for the KiCad book, and maybe this can help you decide.
I ran a survey a few months ago to get insights of what people interested in KiCad and the book might want next. The question was (a) an 5th edition to cover KiCad 9, or (b) a more advanced project to teach PCB design topics beyond what the book current teaches.
Option “b” won.
This means that once KiCad 9 arrives, I will probably only do a light update of the current 4th edition to cover the most important changes and new features. I will probably write a detailed blog article as I have done in the past. I don’t have a firm plan yet because KiCad 9 is still a couple of months away.
The topic of the project is almost finalised, and will involve the design and manufacture of a 4-layer PCB that contains a variety of integrated circuits, sensors, power supply (including charging circuit), I/O, and powered by an ESP32 C3. The project will give me the opportunity to cover not only KiCad topics, but also design best practices and techniques that should be useful to anyone interested in designing intermediate-complexity PCBs.
To your question, if you are new to KiCad and PCB design and you want to start learning now, getting the current 4th edition is a safe move. If, as I expect, nothing major changes in KiCad 9, I will only do a light update of the current edition which will be available to you free of charge. In the very unlikely chance that I have to do a major update, current owners of the 4th edition will get a generous discount. Major updates take me many months of full time work to complete so this is something I am seriously trying to avoid!
If you have further questions, please ask.
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Is it possible to use a more complex board for example 6-8 layers on fpga? It would be interesting to know what methods can be used thanks to new tools
I will be working on more advanced KiCad projects, as I’m planing a series from simple (already in the book) to advanced (such as small computers). Computers are complex enough to require 6 layers.
I have not considered an FPGA project, but I will look into it. Having said that, once you know how to design a PCB around a modern CPU, you will be able to use many of the same skills for anything similar, including FPGA projects. Of course, the FPGA application has a lot of variability and tends to be more “open-ended” compared to a typical computer, but I’ll be considering a general-purpose FPGA design.
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