I’m rewriting KiCad Like a Pro from the ground up for KiCad 10 and beyond, and I’m opening an early adopters program while I do it. If you’ve been thinking about learning PCB design properly, or you already own an earlier edition and want the current one — this is the moment to get involved, at the lowest price the course will ever be.
Here’s what’s coming, how it’s structured, and how the early adopters pricing works.
What is KLP 5e?
The 5th edition (KLP 5e) is not a patch on the old book. It’s a ground-up rewrite built on KiCad 10, restructured as a competency-based series. Instead of one large reference you dip into, each part takes you from a clearly defined starting point to a specific, demonstrable skill. You finish a section able to do something, not just having read about it.
It’s a book series with a companion video course for each volume. The course follows the book, so the two stay in step. Whether you learn better by reading or by watching someone do the work, you get both, covering the same ground in the same order.
The rewrite also folds in everything that used to be bolted on as “new in KiCad 8” or “new in KiCad 9.” Features like Jobsets, Design Blocks, the Zone Manager, and Component Classes are now part of the main workflow rather than appendix material, because that’s how you actually use them.
The four volumes
I have planned KLP 5e as four volumes, each with a coherent outcome so you can stop at the level that suits you or keep climbing:
- Volume 1: First PCBs. From “what is a PCB?” to your first manufactured board. The complete schematic-to-manufacture arc, the two repeatable KiCad workflows the whole series leans on, and enough terminology to stand on your own.
- Volume 2: Real boards and design for manufacturing. Designing boards that actually manufacture cleanly, with DFM woven in rather than tacked on. The capstone is a DRV8833 motor driver breakout, a real, useful board you take all the way to fabrication.
- Volume 3: Advanced design. Multi-sheet schematics, 4-layer boards, Git for version control, and extending KiCad itself. This is where you move from single-board projects to the kind of work that needs structure and repeatability.
- Volume 4: High-speed PCB design. Adapted from my existing High-Speed PCB Design course: controlled impedance, differential pairs, length tuning, and the constraints that only matter once your signals get fast.
The early adopters program
The volumes are released incrementally. Volume 1 comes first, and the rest follow as I write and record them. The early adopters program lets you buy in now, at the current price, and receive every volume and its companion course as they’re published, at no extra cost.
That’s the whole idea: one purchase, everything that follows. The price rises each time I release a new volume, but only for new buyers. If you join early, you keep the price you paid and simply receive the new material as it lands.
- Starting price: €20.
- Right now: €20. Volume 1 phase. This is the cheapest it will ever be.
- Final price: €50 once the full series is complete.
Once you buy, your price is locked. I will never ask you for the difference.
Founding members also get permanent, grandfathered access to the KiCad Like a Pro community space, so you can ask questions and follow the work as it develops.
I want to be straight about the trade-off: because you’re buying in early, you’re buying into a work in progress. Volume 1 is what you get on day one; Volumes 2 through 4 arrive over the coming months as they’re finished. If you’d rather wait for the complete series, that’s a reasonable choice, and you’ll just pay more for it. The early price is the reward for coming along while it’s still being built.
Where to find out more
I’ll be posting progress, sample chapters, and the detailed volume outlines as they firm up. You’ll find everything on one page: the full plan, the current state of each volume, and the link to join as an early adopter:
If you’ve followed my KiCad work before, you know the approach: learn by doing, real projects end to end, no theory dumps before you’ve touched the tool. KLP 5e is that approach rebuilt for the current version of KiCad, and built to stay current as KiCad keeps moving.