Hardware Podcasts

#440.1 - An Interview with the core KiCad development team

The Amp Hour · 29 Apr 2019 · 42m

What this episode covers

Chris and the core KiCad development team—Wayne Stambaugh, Maciej 'Orson' Suminski, Tomasz Wlostowski, Jon Evans, and Seth Hillbrand—discuss the evolution of the open-source PCB design software KiCad. They cover the project's roadmap toward version 6, the balance between hobbyist usability and professional feature sets, and the recent hiring of Wayne Stambaugh as a full-time developer funded by Witt. The conversation also explores community dynamics, the importance of inclusive culture, and KiCad's growing role in manufacturing workflows and industry standardization.

Most relevant to

companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Altium, Cadence, Zuken, CERN, Witt
Products
KiCad
Also
GCC, Gerber

Related episodes from other shows

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 15m

    353: Red for the Ones That Might Blow Up

    Seth Hillbrand, lead developer for KiCAD and founder of KiCAD Services Corporation, discusses the evolution of the open-source EDA tool from a physics experiment necessity to a professional-grade design suite. He details how commercial licensing restrictions at Zuken and SolidWorks forced his team to adopt KiCAD for the EBEX balloon experiment, leading to his contributions and eventual leadership role. Hillbrand explains how KiCAD Services provides paid support to professional engineers, creating a sustainable funding model that allows the core team to focus on development while maintaining a welcoming, inclusive community culture that actively moderates against toxic behavior.

    EDA & CAD toolsStarting a product company
    8 chapters

  • The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast · 50m

    Git for Hardware Engineers with Valentina Ratner and Kyle Dumont

    Valentina Ratner (CEO) and Kyle Dumont (CTO) of Allspice explain how they adapted Git version control for hardware engineers, addressing the challenges of binary and graphical file formats. They discuss Allspice's platform-agnostic approach supporting Altium, KiCad, and OrCAD, and their strategy for migrating hardware teams from legacy systems like SVN to Git-based workflows. The conversation covers specific pain points such as supply chain volatility, the need for visual diffs, and the importance of traceability in design decisions.

    EDA & CAD toolsDebugging & failure analysis
    6 chapters

  • Moore's Lobby · 56m

    VC-Backed Hardware Design Collaboration is the (All) Spice of Life

    Valentina Ratner and Kyle Dumont, co-founders of Allspice, explain their mission to bring Git-style version control and collaboration workflows to hardware engineering, addressing the industry's reliance on outdated methods like printed schematics and PDFs. Chrissy Meyer, a general partner at Root Ventures, discusses her transition from electrical engineering at Apple to VC, explaining how she recognized the visceral pain of inefficient design reviews and invested in Allspice to solve these collaboration gaps. The team details how Allspice Hub enables asynchronous design reviews and connects disparate tools, aiming to bridge the gap between electrical engineering and software development practices.

    EDA & CAD toolsStarting a product company
    10 chapters

  • Product Startup · 23m

    165: Iterative Design Processes & Tools for Hardware Development

    Kyle Dumont, founder of AllSpice and former hardware developer at iRobot, explains how hardware startups can adopt software-style iterative design processes between manufacturing runs. He details the importance of involving diverse stakeholders—including customers, engineers, and contract manufacturers—and using revision control tools like AllSpice Hub to organize feedback. Dumont emphasizes that integrating version tracking with collaboration features allows teams to prioritize changes and avoid the silos common in legacy waterfall models.

    PCB design & layoutDesign for manufacturing & NPI
    8 chapters

  • TRADEOFFS · 1h 01m

    T-25-010 : Ioannis Papamanoglou and Narayan Powderly - Engineers transforming how we design, test, and build hardware with atopile

    Narayan Powderly and Ioannis Papamanoglou, co-CEOs of atopile, discuss their command-line circuit design tool that brings software development practices to hardware engineering. They explain how their frustration with slow board development cycles at Tesla and smart bike lock projects led them to create a domain-specific language that captures design intent rather than just schematics. The guests detail how atopile integrates with KiCad for layout, leverages LLMs for rapid iteration, and aims to empower full-stack engineers by automating the drudgery of component selection and validation.

    EDA & CAD toolsAI & machine learning
    9 chapters

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by The Amp Hour. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.