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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Do we only need to be Imagineers now?
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| PhenixRising Guru  Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1761 |
Starting to look like it with AI PCB design |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4274 |
I wonder what sort of power supply design it would use for a Pico. And then audio for a Pico. John |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8635 |
There's not enough fun in that for me. I don't care about efficiency, time or cost. I like to manually lay out the components and traces - it's like doing a jigsaw in many ways. I think that's why I don't bother with proper PCB design software, it does a lot of the work that I enjoy doing for fun. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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Martin H. Guru Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1388 |
Actually, AI is there to support us and take care of tedious tasks. At the moment, however, we are still doing the tedious work and AI is taking more and more care of the creative processes. I think we should think about that. 'no comment |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1761 |
Sure but the tedious bit is the BOM and checking to see if JLCPCB/LCSC has the parts. This approach takes care of all that. For those who want JLCPCB assembly. |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3652 |
I spent a day with Claude asking it to do this. Promising, but other efforts have taken priority. I'm surprised the EasyEDA people haven't come up with an AI PCB designer agent. I suspect they will soon (if this isn't already tied into JLC/EasyEDA). I'll be all in when they do. "Get started for free" implies that it won't be free for real work. I suspect the EasyEDA people (or open software people) are going to break their business model. ~ Edited 2026-03-03 23:36 by lizby PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1761 |
In fact, they've already changed their tune. A couple of years ago they had a "free forever" version. Now, we must sign-up for the $20/month version but with two weeks free (cancel anytime). If it saves me time, twenty bucks is a no-brainer. You only get five private projects but unlimited public projects. I don't care if my projects are public and that means that there will be lots of other shared projects....sounds alright to me. I agree that EasyEDA should soon be offering something similar....I half expected a response that someone had heard it was coming. |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4274 |
I think Lance's (lizby's) PicoDB and Peter's recent work show pretty much the opposite. I sounds like it was a bit tedious hassling the AI to do what was wanted but it saved much more tedious work for the amount of working code. John |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1761 |
According to ChatGPT  |
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| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3652 |
Absolutely, cf: "We spent three years asking, 'Is it intelligent?' when a better threshold was simply 'Is it cheaper than me?'" Five private projects a month for $20? I should dream. PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8635 |
That's $20 a month that I don't spend out of my pension and I get more fun. :) Time isn't an issue. It doesn't matter if I complete a board same day, in a month or even never at all. The BOM is generated by SL6. I never check it against what's available from JLCPCB either as all of my designs are intended for hand soldering by hobbyists. AliExpress, maybe. :) Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| PhenixRising Guru Joined: 07/11/2023 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1761 |
Well this is where you come out of retirement and help me conquer the controls industry with MMBasic  Seriously though, matherp's RP2350 DIL was perfectly fine but then someone else "bluntly" critiqued it and he made minor mods. This is the sort of thing that I hope I can rely on AI for. I know what's possible but I'm not a PCB designer. |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8635 |
Nah... I have a carved wooden sign that I found in a charity shop just after I retired: RETIRED DON'T WANT TO DON'T NEED TO CAN'T MAKE ME :) When I was a lot younger I used to dream of getting a Heathkit project to build. They were way too expensive though. I loved the idea of talking someone through building the kits. That's what I like to do now that I have the time. Kits are often too expensive to put together and send through the post now though, but the components are usually available all over the world. I'd much rather someone solder the bits to a PCB then switch it on and see it work than watch them buy a pre-assembled board. Unfortunately many of the components are too small for that so the answer is to use modules. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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PeteCotton Guru Joined: 13/08/2020 Location: CanadaPosts: 613 |
I think it comes down to - am I doing this to earn money or am I doing it for fun? If you're doing it to make a living, then sure, AI is a huge help. If you're doing it for fun, then how much you let AI help out (if at all) can be very variable. I can order in an amazing meal anytime I want. But I usually prefer to crack open a bottle of wine, put some music on and potter around the kitchen, throwing random ingredients into a pot, in the hope that they will be somewhat edible at the end. It's often not about the end result, but how we get there, that counts. So absolutely use AI for work, but I'll be keeping it away from my hobbies. Edited 2026-03-04 10:33 by PeteCotton |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8635 |
That's a fair summary IMHO. Yes, it would be nice to make money out of my hobby, but that's not the aim and it would be purely incidental. In fact, if people wanted me to do my hobby stuff to a timetable or in a way that I don't normally work then it would be a job and I'd probably rapidly lose interest. Working with AI can be a hobby in itself, and there's nothing wrong in that. It's just that it has no appeal to me. I struggle enough trying to program in MMBasic sometimes! Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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