YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Or do you need to get an API key first?

Claude helped me cut my BOM costs on JLCPCB/LCSC significantly by suggesting cheaper versions of the parts I was already using.

It also designed a new board for me for KiCad 10 (a brand new project), including all parts selection from JLCPCB.

I ended up not using JLCPCB for the PCBA, I only ordered blank PCBs from JLCPCB because cost of PCBA was too high for this project, so I had Claude redesign the schematic to use through-hole parts that I will assemble myself. I was able to source all the parts from Mouser and Amazon.

Enter what you are searching for at the top of the page, the results are at the bottom of the page. In between are categories that can be turned on and off.

They are using the latest JLC API.

https://yaqwsx.github.io/jlcparts/

Why don't you make it a part of the system prompt then?

I did this months before that OpenAI demo, and produced a product that many people are using without knowing it was an AI designed PCB.

It ran using kicad completely headlessly from a terminal with a bit of python and DRC'd it in a loop until it passed. I sent it to PCBWay and it worked the first go. It did take a bit, but if you just set a goal and let 'er rip the LLM gets there in the end.

Would a real EE vomit if they looked at it? Maybe. Does it work? Absolutely.

I use Backplane more for overall "acceleration" of hardware vs. proompt -> product stuff (this is still mostly slop imo)

Which models did you use and what was your rough process? I had better luck with Astra for this...

I recently asked Claude (Opus 5.5) to design a wifi fan speed controller based on the ESP32 microcontroller. I told it to design a circuit for KiCad 10. I told it to write the software based on the ESP-IDF framework (for ESP32). I told it I would design the PCB based on the schematic it created.

It went to work. About 15 or 20 minutes later, it was done.

Everything looked good. Parts selection was reasonable. The first schematic was kind of weird, every part was placed on its own without any interconnected lines, so I had it re-do the schematic to show the part interconnections. It did a pretty good job.

Then I went to work designing the PCB. I had to find a project case and gave Claude some JPG images from the amazon page of the case dimensions, and it created a perfect PCB outline complete with mounting holes for the PCB.

I designed the PCB, but it's been a while since I did anything with mains voltage (120v here in the US). I asked Claude to analyze my PCB design, and it pointed out some issues with my trace routing, like not putting low-voltage traces crossing high-voltage traces, etc.

I then directed Claude to design its own PCB based on the project case constraints, and it did a fantastic job - way better than I did, honestly. It separated all the high voltage areas of the circuit from the low voltage areas, and clearly marked them with warnings on the silk screen.

I had it do all the part selection, and I purchased the parts - I'm not giving it my credit card to order parts, I can still do something useful towards this project.

I did not have to install anything for Claude to do any of this, it installed whatever tool it needed, and it generated the KiCad files.

So, this seems like PCB design is "solved".

Claude also wrote all the software for the ESP32 in another folder, including a web-based interface to control fan speed.

The PCBs and parts are on their way to me now. I guess I'll find out in about a week how "solved" this really is, but looking at the PCB design, it's looking really good.

Now it probably helps that I have 40 years experience doing exactly these tasks, so I can tell when something is going to work or not, and I know how to tell Claude what I want. Someone new to circuit/PCB design might have a more difficult time because you don't know what you don't know. I was very specific about the kind of circuit and parts I wanted - an ESP32 controlling a Triac controlling mains voltage with an optocoupler, etc - this is something I've built myself decades ago, so I already knew what "solved" looks like.

I have some friends who work on designing wafers and they told me compared to autorouting, hand layout is always better, with quality asymptotically approaching a certain ideal with hours invested.

Based on how many engineer-hours you can put in, you can get a single or even double digit increase in silicon density, it's just that nobody actually has the manpower to actually get close to that ideal, but the difference is very noticeable between 'tier 1' and 'tier 2' manufacturers, the former of which can afford an army of highly educated engineers who will slog through this task, with the latter having to decide where to spend the effort.

This is one of the reasons why second or third generations of CPU architectures perform better even on the same or very similar process node, because this logic optimization builds up.