EasyEDA Hack Chat with Dillon He

Dillon He5:00 PM
Hi

OK, 5:00 PM here, so let's get started. I want to welcome Dillon He from EasyEDA to the Hack Chat today, and thank him very much for accommodating us by switching his schedule around. We'll have to work around his slow internet, but I think it'll be fine.

Welcome Dillon! Can you get us started by telling us a little about yourself?

Dillon He5:01 PM
I am dillon, 9 years ago, I am a college teacher, Just want to help EE to make things easier. I have spent more than 9 years on EasyEDA. My English is not good, hope I can follower your guys.

Dillon He5:02 PM
At prsent, EasyEDA has more than 700K+ users.

That's a pretty solid user base. Do you see it growing a lot recently?

Dillon He5:05 PM
EasyEDA want to help EE to save time, we have lots of libs, in EasyEDA platform , we provide EDA tools, JLCPCB order, and LCSC components order. Maybe the only platform for EE to make thing in one-stop.

Dillon He5:05 PM
Yes, EasyEDA growns very quickly.

Dillon He5:06 PM
I don't know if there are some users in the chat room, If have , Your guys can let me know what you want a EDA tool, we can provide the fucntion what you want.

sfrias15:08 PM
:-)

Alan Green5:09 PM
I'd love to hear more about your upcoming paid plans

duff20135:10 PM
Hi Dillon, I've been using EasyEDA desktop lately and like it but one thing is the drop down menu's at the top need to be activated only when I click on them I think, not when a roll my mouse over them, it tends to get in the way.

Dillon He5:11 PM
Alan, Thanks, the paid plans will be provided at end of this year. Why we want to provide, because too many companies and EE don't trust a free Tool . the price should be affortabel.

Dillon He5:13 PM
Desktop will be a supper new function, at next month. we will realse a new version, this version will allow users to save the designs on their computer. Not on our server.

Dillon He5:14 PM
So EasyEDA desktop version can allow users to choose save data on EasyEDA server, or their disk .

That sounds good. Do you see a lot of people starting to turn away from cloud services? There seems to be a negative pattern developing regarding storing your stuff on someone else's system.

Tim Trzepacz5:16 PM
I looked up your desktop program, but it says "Client Download", so I'm guessing it doesn't work off-line?

Dillon He5:18 PM
Client can't work off-line. Yes. But we will provide a off-line version soon. EasyEDA has 1M libs in the cloud . and can work as a team.

Dillon He5:19 PM
For company, EasyEDA CAN BE installed on their server too.

Tim Trzepacz5:19 PM
I always worry, with cloud software, that the company could disappear or change their terms at any time, taking all of my work with them. I can't afford to risk my products on the stability of another company...

kglasnapp5:19 PM
Thanks so much for creating EasyEDA. I hope that when you do paid plans you do not price out the hobbyist .

Alan Green5:20 PM
Can you talk a little bit about the challenges of developing such a large Javascript program? How many lines is it? Which frameworks do you use? Is it difficult to find developers with the right skills?

Dillon He5:21 PM
Tim, you are right, some users have the same. we can list EasyEDA be free for even, you can see the term . If we change, we will kill ourself.

Dillon He5:22 PM
The price should be very good. We change the money just let the users to trust us. they paid, we must server . we can make money from PCB and components .

Dillon He5:24 PM
The EDA team is a 25 person big team. the lines should be 500K+. yes It is hard to find the skills IT guys.

Alan Green5:25 PM
Dillon: that is huge! There can't be too many JS apps of that size around

Dillon He5:26 PM
JS is very good. Every software is can be Js will be JS. Google, MS will let it happen.

Aren't all of Google's APIs in JavaScript? I thought I read that somewhere once.

Dillon He5:27 PM
Js can team with C++ too. There is a secret version of EasyEDA, maybe in 2 years later. we will use C++ for the key functions with JS. the spread will be supper fast.

Dillon He5:28 PM
Google's chrome will let JS powerful. We don't use Google API, just login .

Alan Green5:31 PM
The EasyEDA API looks like it could be very useful for automating tasks such as laying out keyboard PCBs. Do you have plans to make it better documented and easier to program against?

Dillon He5:35 PM
EASYEDA API , we will think about it. 1, we are not good at English, write English is terrible thing in the team. 2, too many TODO list in the version. :)

Alan Green5:37 PM
I understand about product prioritization, and I also understand how hard it is to write good documentation in a second language. When you're ready, I know an excellent Mandarin-English translator with technical experience.

Dillon He5:38 PM
Thanks, we are sure we will make it better.

Alan Green5:43 PM
btw, I love how easy it is to get started with EasyEDA. Nothing to install, easy to start entering schematics, easy to design your first PCB and easy to order it, too!

Alan Green5:44 PM
Four years later, I'm design much more complex circuits and PCBs. I think I should maybe learn Kicad or another tool, but EasyEDA is still working fine for me, so I don't bother :)

Alan Green5:44 PM
I'm also really impressed with the helpful support on the forums. Thank you!

Dillon He5:45 PM
Thanks. I read every thread in the forums, too many ideas com from there.

datacurve5:47 PM
i still use eagleCAD lol

datacurve5:48 PM
simple not so simple to use though

Dillon He5:49 PM
Eagle is a good tool. EasyEDA just want to provide an easier way. let users to focus on design and create, not on the tool. EasyEDA just need 2 hours to be professional

Eduardo Zola5:57 PM
I love easyEda

Eduardo Zola5:59 PM
I have made a lot of PCBs on JLCPCB

Looks like we're about out of time, and Dillon probably has a busy workday ahead. I want to thank him for stopping by and answering all these great EasyEDA questions, and for taking the time to reach out to the user community. Dillon, feel free to stay on to answer questions if you can.

And thanks to everyone for coming to this off-schedule Hack Chat. Next week we return to our regular slot at noon Pacific, with Dag Spicer. He's Senior Curator at the wonderful Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. https://hackaday.io/event/165331-preserving-computer-history-hack-chat