CoSin

Abstract

DevOps for hardware: Automate your PCB production process with KiCad CLI, Forgejo and Git

Description

Are you using KiCad to design printed circuit boards? Do you want to simplify your production process and keep your project’s web site updated on the side? Then this presentation might be for you.

I’m using self-hosted open source tools exclusively in this presentation, but the process is easily adaptable to other source code hosting services. In fact, there’s also a (sort of) official way to do this, but building a processing pipeline yourself is more fun, and it’s surprisingly easy if you’re already familiar with the tools.

I will present a small KiCad project of mine and show how I built a workflow with Forgejo actions that produces PCB production files and 3D renderings (this feature is available since KiCad 9.0) from the board files. It also runs ERC and DRC verifications, which can be helpful for catching last-minute mistakes. The 3D renderings are displayed in the project’s readme file.

Info

Day: 3
Start time: 16:00
Duration: 00:45
End time: 16:45
Room: Lecture Room
Track: Hardware
Language: en