The KiCAD project template just got even easier to use! The docs have had a new addition made for the template explaining how to configure and get designing quickly. It also documents several of the new features added that will increase the quality of life when developing KiCAD projects. To summarize - the template is pre-configured with the smallest possible tolerances while staying in the PCBWay standard stackup, allowing the most versatility while designing without costing too much money. A util/ folder has been added with a few python scripts making it easier to generate useful BOMs from a somewhat finicky system that KiCAD currently uses. Lastly a Github workflow has been added to automate the release process outputing your schematic, .step file of the board, Gerbers and your BOM. All of these artifacts are automatically uploaded to a Github release which has been tagged with the revision found in your PCB design files.

• 📚 Documentation
• 🏗️ Template

These features and workflows have been tested and documented but please reach out and create an issue if you have any trouble.

Happy tinkering!

During the holdiays we submitted the breadboard-io and atmega32u4 breakout boards for certification and we've just heard back - we've been certified! This will definitely be the first of many as we continue to create more projects and share them with everyone.

Well written and easy to follow documentation is a big part of creating and shipping a good product. Not only in the sense of documenting your design and code but the user instructions and usage as well. It can sometimes be difficult to instruct a user on how to interact with a product just through textual documentation and an image can go a long way in helping a user understand what you intend for them to do. An even better option is a quick and easy to follow animation that clearly shows the steps a user should take, leaving no room for a user to misconstrue instructions.

In this guide I'll show you how to go about making a quick 5 frame .gif (seen below) that illustrates how to jump the atmega32u4_breakout board into the USB DFU bootloader via a sequence of button presses. You can of course follow these steps and create an animation for any other user interaction you want to document.

It often occurs in a developers day that they need to install a new application and be able to access it from the command line. In most cases a nicely packaged installer (.msi, .exe or .AppImage) is there to handle this process for you along with setting up directories and default config, all with a few clicks through a GUI. Same goes for installing packages via a package manger like apt for Ubuntu or choco for Windows. A single command and the process is done.

Although this is incredibly convenient, not all applications ship with an installer.

I'm happy to finally be sharing several new projects with others! The templates will always be "under development" as I continue to add new suggestions and tweaks that make them more useful but the PCBs are pretty much "produciton" intent as most of the bugs have already been worked out.

Hi there 👋 my name is Stephen and I'm the creator and maintainer of Great Lakes Dev - A collection of projects and products all containing FOSS and OSHW. The goal is to provide cool and useful tools, gadgets and software to you for free to build on your own.