Impressive open-source hardware designed in KiCad

Ask whether KiCad is "real" enough for serious hardware and the fastest answer is a list of products you can buy today — laptops, keyboards, single-board computers, wearables and security devices — all designed in KiCad, and all shipping with their KiCad source files in the open.

Short answer: KiCad ships real, serious hardware. Below are standout open-source projects whose design files are native KiCad — verifiable proof that the tool is production-grade, not a hobbyist compromise.

MNT Reform — an open laptop, motherboard and all#

The MNT Reform (and its newer RK3588-powered Reform Next) is a modular, repairable Linux laptop with a genuinely open design: motherboard, mechanical keyboard, trackball and more are published as open hardware. MNT Research releases the schematics and full KiCad project files under CERN-OHL-S 2.0, so you can open the motherboard in KiCad and follow every net. It is one of the most complete demonstrations that a whole computer can be designed — and maintained in the open — in KiCad.

Olimex — a decade of complex boards in KiCad#

Bulgarian manufacturer Olimex builds its open-hardware catalog in KiCad, from the TERES-I DIY laptop to a wide range of single-board computers like the A64-OLinuXino. Their most striking proof point is the iMX8 Quad Max "Tukhla," an octa-core industrial board they routed entirely in KiCad and describe as one of the most advanced open-source boards in existence. Olimex has publicly committed to FOSS design tools, and their KiCad sources live on GitHub for anyone to inspect or fork.

Framework — an open expansion-card ecosystem#

Framework built its repairable laptops around swappable Expansion Cards, and it publishes reference designs and KiCad templates so anyone can build their own. The FrameworkComputer/ExpansionCards repository ships KiCad schematic and PCB templates, and the community has run with them — an RP2350 GPIO card and ESP32 add-ons among them, several OSHWA-certified as open hardware. It is a rare example of a company deliberately using KiCad to seed a third-party hardware platform.

System76 Launch — an open keyboard, end to end#

The System76 Launch Configurable Keyboard is registered open source hardware (OSHWA UID US001062) with open mechanical design, open firmware (QMK) and an open PCB. The board is designed in KiCad and licensed GPLv3: the system76/launch repository organizes each variant as its own .kicad_sch/.kicad_pcb set sharing a common symbol, footprint and 3D-model library. It is a clean, well-structured KiCad project you can learn from directly — as is the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard, whose UHK 60 electronics are also published as KiCad files.

USB armory Mk II — a computer the size of a flash drive#

The USB armory Mk II is a full i.MX6-class computer built into a USB stick form factor, aimed at security research and trusted-computing applications. It is open hardware under the CERN license, and the design is a dense 6-layer ENIG board authored in KiCad — the .kicad_sch and .kicad_pcb files sit right in the usbarmory repository. It is a great counter to the myth that KiCad can't do serious, high-density work.

PineTime — an open smartwatch on a 38 mm board#

PINE64's PineTime is a genuinely open smartwatch built around an nRF52832, a 240x240 display and a heart-rate sensor, with community firmware (InfiniTime) running on it. The PCB is a 4-layer, 38 mm-diameter design done in KiCad, with schematics published for the community. Fitting a complete wearable onto a coin-sized board is exactly the kind of constraint that shows KiCad is comfortable at small, dense scales.

Open Smartwatch — a fully DIY wearable platform#

The Open-Smartwatch project goes even further into DIY territory: an ESP32-based watch with GPS, MEMS sensors, USB serial and microSD, offered in "light" and "GPS" hardware variants. Both variants publish their hardware design files as KiCad projects on GitHub, so makers can fabricate the exact board or remix it. It is a good example of KiCad enabling a small community to maintain multiple hardware revisions in the open.

ANAVI — certified open-hardware HATs and IoT boards#

Leon Anavi's ANAVI boards — the Light Controller, Flex, Infrared pHAT and others — are a prolific line of OSHWA-certified open-source hardware for Raspberry Pi and IoT prototyping. Each is designed in KiCad with sources on GitHub, and several have shipped as successful crowdfunding campaigns. They show KiCad working at the other end of the spectrum from a laptop: small, affordable, certified boards produced steadily and openly.

At a glance#

What these projects teach#

Two things stand out. First, KiCad is production-grade across the whole difficulty range — from a coin-sized wearable to a multi-layer octa-core computer — which quietly settles the question of whether KiCad is professional enough. Second, the projects people trust most are the ones that publish clean, complete, reproducible design files. Openness isn't just ideology here; it's how a distributed community reviews, forks and improves real hardware, and it's a big part of what makes these teams credible. If you're building your own reputation, a well-documented open board is one of the strongest entries in a hardware engineer's portfolio.

The catch is that "publish clean outputs" is easier said than done. Gerbers, BOM, pick-and-place and PDFs drift out of sync with the schematic the moment you make a change by hand, and a Git history full of stale ZIP files isn't reproducible at all — which is exactly why version control matters for KiCad. That's the gap GoForFab closes for KiCad projects: connect a repo and every push regenerates the full manufacturing package automatically — Gerbers, BOM, CPL, DRC/ERC reports and 3D renders — so your published outputs always match your latest design. It's free forever for open projects, and it turns "here are my design files" into a proper, repeatable manufacturing handoff.

Sources: MNT Reform on kicad.org · system76/launch (GitHub) · Framework Expansion Cards (GitHub) · USB armory Mk II hardware (GitHub)